PLEASE  HANDLE 
WITH  CARE 

University  of 
Connecticut  Libraries 


3  =1153  DimDM71   H 


§ 

H 

I 

4-- 


PLEASE  NOTE 


It  has  been  necessary  to  replace  some  of  the  original  pages  in 
this  book  with  photocopy  reproductions  because  of  damage  or 
mistreatment  by  a  previous  user. 

Replacement  of  damaged  materials  is  both  expensive  and  time- 
consuming.  Please  handle  this  volume  with  care  so  that 
information  will  not  be  lost  to  future  readers. 

Thank  you  for  helping  to  preserve  the  University's  research 
collections. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

LYRASIS  members  and  Sloan  Foundation 


http://www.archive.org/details/historyofdecline004gibb 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

OF  THE 

ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

VOL.  IT. 


CICERO  DENOUNCING    CATALINE 


EDITION  DE  LUXE 


The  History  of  the 
Decline  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire 

By  Edward  Gibbon 

Volume  IV. 


With   Notes  by 

DEAN  MUM  AN,  M.  GUIZOT 

and 

DR.  WILLIAM  SMITH 


THE   NOTTINGHAM  SOCIETY 

New  York  Philadelphia  Chicago 


s 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


3  It  3  6 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 


REIGN  AND  CONVERSION  OF  CLOVIS.— HIS  VICTORIES  OVER  THE  ALEMANNI, 
BURGUNDIANS,  AND  VISIGOTHS. — ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  FRENCH  MON- 
ARCHY IN  GAUL. — LAWS  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.— STATE  OF  THE  ROMANS. 
THE   VISIGOTHS  OF   SPAIN. — CONQUEST  OF   BRITAIN   BY  THE  SAXONS. 


A.D.  Page 

The  Revolution  of  Gaul 13 

476-485.  Euric,  King  of  the  Visi- 
goths   15 

481-511.  Clovis  King  of  the  Franks  16 

486.   His  Victory  over  Syagrius 18 

496.  Defeat  and  Submission  of  the 

Alemanni 20 

496.  Conversion  of  Clovis 21 

497,  etc.  Submission  of  the  Armo- 

ricans     and     the     Roman 

Troops 24 

499.  The  Burgundian  War 26 

500.  Victory  of  Clovis 27 

532.  Final  Conquest  of  Burgundy 

by  the  Franks 29 

507.  The  Gothic  War 30 

Victory  of  Clovis 32 

508.  Conquest  of  Aquitaine  by  the 

Franks 34 

510.  Consulship  of  Clovis 36 

636.  Final   Establishment   of   the 

French  Monarchy  in  Gaul.  37 

Political  Controversy 39 

Laws  of  the  Barbarians 40 

Pecuniary  Fines  for  Homicide  43 

Judgments  of  God 45 

Judicial  Combats 47 

Division  of  Lands  by  the  Bar- 
barians   48 


A.D.  Pagb 

Domain  and  Benefices  of  the 

Merovingians 50 

Private  Usurpations 52 

Personal  Servitude 53 

Example  of  Auvergne 55 

Story  of  Attalus 57 

Privileges  of  the  Romans  of 

Gaul 60 

Anarchy  of  the  Franks 62 

The  Visigoths  of  Spain 64 

Legislative  Assemblies  of  Spain  64 

Code  of  the  Visigoths 66 

Revolution  of  Britain 67 

449.  Descent  of  the  Saxons 68 

455-582.  Establishment  of  the  Sax- 
on Heptarchy 70 

State  of  the  Britons 72 

Their  Resistance 73 

Their  Flight 74 

The  Fame  of  Arthur 75 

Desolation  of  Britain 78 

Servitude  of  the  Britons 80 

Manners  of  the  Britons 82 

Obscure  or  Fabulous  State  of 

Britain 84 

Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in 

the  West 86 

General  Observations  on  the  Fall  of 

the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West...  88 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 


ZENO  AND  ANASTASIUS,  EMPERORS  OF  THE  EAST.— BIRTH,  EDUCATION,  AND 
FIRST   EXPLOITS    OF   THEODORIC    THE    OSTROGOTH. — HIS    INVASION   AND 

CONQUEST  OF  ITALY. THE   GOTHIC   KINGDOM  OF  ITALY. — STATE   OF  THE 

WEST. — MILITARY   AND   CIVIL   GOVERNMENT. — THE   SENATOR  BOETHIUS. 
— LAST  ACTS  AND  DEATH  OF  THEODORIC. 

455-475.  Birth  and  Education  of  |474-491.  The  Reign  ofZeno 103 

Theodoric 1001491-518.  The  Reign  of  Anastasius.  104 


HUH    3333 


0 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


A.D.  Page 

475-488.  Service   and  Revolt   of 

Theodoiic 105 

489.  He  undertakes  the  Conquest 

of  Italy 107 

His  March 108 

489, 490.  The   Three    Defeats   of 

Odoacer 109 

493.  His  Capitulation  and  Death...  Ill 
494-526.  Reign  of  Theodoiic,  King 

ofltaly 112 

Partition  ofLands 113 

Separation  of  the  Goths  and 

Italians 114 

Foreign  Policy  of  Theodoric.  115 

His  Defensive  Wars 118 

609.  His  Naval  Armament 119 

Civil  Government  of  Italy  ac- 
cording to  the  Roman  Laws  120 


A.D.  PA0* 

Prosperity  of  Rome 123 

500.  Visit  of  Theodoiic 1?4 

Flourishing  State  ofltaly 126 

Theodoiic  an  Arian 128 

His  Toleration  of  the  Catho- 
lics   129 

Vices  of  his  Government 130 

He  is  provoked  to  persecute 

the  Catholics 132 

Character,  Studies,  and  Hon- 
ors of  Boethius 134 

His  Patriotism 136 

He  is  accused  of  Treason 137 

524.  His  Imprisonment  and  Death.  1 38 

525.  Death  of  Symmachus 140 

526.  Remorse  and  Death  of  The- 

odora,.,,,,,,,,,   141 


CHAPTER  XL 


ELEVATION  OP  JUSTIN  THE  ELDER. — REIGN  OP  JUSTINIAN  i — I.  THE  EM- 
PRESS THEODORA. — II.  FACTIONS  OP  THE  CIRCUS,  AND  SEDITION  OF  CON- 
STANTINOPLE.— UI.  TRADE  AND  MANUFACTURE  OF  SILK. — IV.  FINANCES 
AND  TAXES.  —  V.  EDIFICES  OF  JUSTINIAN.  —  CHURCH  OF  ST.  SOPHIA. — 
FORTIFICATIONS  AND  FRONTIERS  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE. — VI.  ABOLI- 
TION OF  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  ATHENS  AND  THE  CONSULSHIP  OF  ROME. 

Agriculture  and  Manufactures 

of  the  Eastern  Empire 169 

The  Use  of  Silk  by  the  Ro- 
mans    171 

Importation   from   China   by 

Land  and  Sea 173 

Introduction    of    Silk-worms 

into  Greece 176 

State  of  the  Revenue 179 

Avarice  and  Profusion  of  Jus- 
tinian   180 

Pernicious  Savings 182 

Remittances 182 

Taxes 183 

Monopolies 184 

Venality 185 

Testaments 185 

The  Ministers  of  Justinian....  186 

John  of  Cappadocia 187 

His  Edifices  and  Architects...  189 
Foundation  of  the  Church  of 

St.  Sophia 192 

Description 193 

Marbles 195 

Riches 196 

Churches  and  Palaces 196 

Fortifications  of  Europe 198 


482,  or  483.  Birth  of  the  Emperor 

Justinian 144 

518-527.  Elevation  and  Reign  of 

his  Uncle  Justin  1 145 

620-527.  Adoption  and  Succession 

of  Justinian 145 

527-565.  The  Reign  of  Justinian..   149 
Character   and   Histories   of 

Procopius 149 

Division  of  the  Reign  of  Jus- 
tinian   151 

Birth  and  Vices  of  the  Em- 
press Theodora 152 

Her  Marriage  with  Justinian.  154 

Her  Tyranny 156 

Her  Virtues 158 

548.  And  Death 159 

The  Factions  of  the  Circus....  160 

At  Rome 161 

They  distract  Constantinople 

and  the  East 161 

Justinian  favors  the  Blues....  162 
682.  Sedition    of    Constantinople, 

surnamed  Nika 164 

The  Distress  of  Justinian 166 

Firmness  of  Theodora 167 

The  Sedition  is  suppressed..,,  168 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


AJX  Page 
Security  ot  Asia  after  the  Con- 
quest of  Isauria 202 

Fortifications  of  the  Empire, 
from    the    Euxine    to    the 

Persian  Frontier 204 

488.  Death  of  Perozes,  King  of 

Persia 207 

502-505.  The  Persian  War. 208 

Fortifications  of  Dara 209 


A.D.  Paoi 

The  Caspian  or  Iberian  Gates.  211 

The  Schools  of  Athens 212 

They  are  suppressed  by  Jus- 
tinian   216 

Proclus 217 

485-529.   His  Successors 217 

The  Last  of  the  Philosophers.  218 

641.  The   Roman   Consulship   ex- 
tinguished by  Justinian 219 


CHAPTER  XIX 

CONQUESTS  OP  JUSTINIAN  IN  THE  WEST.  —  CHARACTER  AND  FIRST  CAM- 
PAIGNS OF  BELISAR1US. — HE  INVADES  AND  SUBDUES  THE  VANDAL  KING- 
DOM OF  AFRICA. — HIS  TRIUMPH.  —  THE  GOTHIC  WAR.  —  HE  RECOVERS 
SICILY,  NAPLES,  AND  ROME.  —  SIEGE  OF  ROME  BV  THE  GOTHS. — THEIR 
RETREAT  AND  LOSSES. — SURRENDER  OF  RAVENNA. — GLORY  OF  BELISA- 
RIUS.— HIS  DOMESTIC  SHAME  AND  MISFORTUNES. 


533.  Justinian  resolves  to  invade 

Africa 222 

623-530.  State    of   the    Vandals. 

Hilderic 223 

630-534.  Gelimer 224 

Debates  on  the  African  War.  225 
Character  and  Choice  of  Beli- 
sarius 227 

529-532.  His  Services  in  the  Per- 
sian War 227 

633.  Preparations  for  the  African 

War 229 

Departure  of  the  Fleet 231 

Belisarius  lands  on  the  Coast 

of  Africa 234 

Defeats  the  Vandals  in  a  first 

Battle 236 

Reduction  of  Carthage 239 

Final  Defeat  of  Gelimer  and 

the  Vandals 241 

634.  Conquest  of  Africa  by  Beli- 

sarius   245 

Distress  and  Captivity  of  Ge- 
limer   247 

Return  and  Triumph  of  Beli- 
sarius   250 

635.  His  sole  Consulship 252 

End  of  Gelimer  and  the  Van- 
dals   252 

Manners  and  Defeat  of  the 

Moors 254 

Neutrality  of  the  Visigoths....  257 
550-620.  Conquests  of  the  Romans 

in  Spain 258 

634.  Belisarius  threatens  the  Ostro- 
goths of  Italy 258 


522-534.    Government  of  Amala- 

sontha,  Queen  of  Italy 260 

635.  Her  Exile  and  Death 263 

Belisarius  invades  and  subdues 

Sicily. 263 

534-536.  Reign  and  Weakness  of 
Theodatus,  the  Gothic  King 

of  Italy 266 

537.  Belisarius  invades  Italy,  and 

reduces  Naples 268 

536-540.  Vitiges,  King  of  Italy....  271 

536.  Belisarius  enters  Rome 273 

537.  Siege  of  Rome  by  the  Goths. .  273 

Valor  of  Belisarius 275 

His  Defence  of  Rome 275 

Repulses  a  General  Assault  of 

the  Goths 279 

His  Sallies 280 

Distress  of  the  City 281 

Exile  of  Pope  Sylverius 283 

Deliverance  of  the  City 284 

Belisarius  recovers  many  Cities 

of  Italy 287 

538.  The  Goths  raise  the  Siege  of 

Rome 287 

Lose  Rimini 289 

Retire  to  Ravenna 289 

Jealousy  of  the  Roman  Gen- 
erals   289 

Death  of  Constantine 290 

The  Eunuch  Narses 290 

Firmness   and  Authority   of 

Belisarius 291 

538,  539.  Invasion  of  Italy  by  the 

Franks 291 

Destruction  of  Milan 292 


8 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


A.D.  Page 

Belisarius  besieges  Ravenna...  294 

539.  Subdues  the  Gothic  Kingdom 

of  Italy 297 

Captivity  of  Vitiges 297 

540.  Return  and  Glory  of  Belisarius  298 
Secret    History   of  his   Wife 

Antonina 300 


Paob 

Her  Lover  Theodosius 301 

Resentment  of  Belisarius  and 

her  Son  Photius 303 

Persecution  of  her  Son 304 

Disgrace  and  Submission  of 

Belisarius 305 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

STATE  OF  THE  BARBARIC  WORLD. — ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  LOMBARDS  OX 
THE  DANUBE. — TRIBES  AND  INROADS  OF  THE  SCLAVONIANS. — ORIGIN, 
EMPIRE,  AND  EMBASSIES  OF  THE  TURKS. — THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  AVARS. 
—  CHOSROES  I.,  OR  NUSHIRVAN,  KING  OF  PERSIA.  —  HIS  PROSPEROUS 
REIGN,  AND  WARS  WITH  THE  ROMANS. —  THE  COLCHIAN  OR  LAZIC  WAR. 
THE  ETHIOPIANS. 


527-565.  Weakness  of  the  Empire 

of  Justinian 307 

State  of  the  Barbarians 309 

The  Gepidae 310 

The  Lombards 310 

The  Sclavonians 314 

Their  Inroads 316 

645.  Origin  and  Monarchy  of  the 

Turks  in  Asia 319 

The    Avars    fly    before    the 
Turks,    and    approach    the 

Empire 324 

558.  Their  Embassy  to  Constanti- 
nople  ." 325 

569-582.  Embassies  of  the  Turks 

and  Romans 326 

500-530.  State  of  Persia 330 

531-579.   Reign  of  Nushirvan,  or 

Chosroes 332 

His  Love  of  Learning 335 

533-539.  Peace  and  War  with  the 

Komans 338 

640.  He  invades  Syria 340 

And  ruins  Antioch 341 


541.  Defence  of  the  East  by  Beli- 
sarius   344 

Description  of  Colchis,  Lazi- 

ca,  or  Mingrelia 346 

Manners  of  the  Natives 349 

Revolutions  of  Colchis 351 

Under    the    Persians,    before 

Christ  500 351 

Under    the    Romans,    before 

Christ  60 351 

130.  Visit  of  Arrian 352 

522.  Conversion  of  the  Lazi 353 

542-549.   Revolt  and   Repentance 

of  the  Colchians 354 

549-551.  Siege  of  Petra 356 

549-556.   The  Colchian  or  Lazic 

War 357 

540-561.  Negotiations  and  Treaties 
between      Justinian      and 

Chosroes 360 

522.  Conquests    of   the    Abyssini- 

ans 362 

533.  Their  Alliance  with   Justin- 
ian   364 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

REBELLIONS  OF  AFRICA. — RESTORATION  OF  THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  BY  TO- 
TILA. — LOSS  AND  RECOVERY  OF  ROME. — FINAL  CONQUEST  OF  ITALY  BY 
NARSES.  —  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  OSTROGOTHS.  —  DEFEAT  OF  THE  FRANKS 
AND  ALEMANNI. — LAST  VICTORY,  DISGRACE,  AND  DEATH  OF  BELISARIUS. 
—  DEATH  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JUSTINIAN. — COMETS,  EARTHQUAKES,  AND 
PLAGUE. 

535-545.  The  Troubles  of  Africa. .  367 
543-558.  Rebellion  of  the  Moors...  371 

640.  Revolt  of  the  Goths 373 

641-544.  Victories  of  Totila,  King 

of  Italy 374 


Contrast  of  Greek  Vice  and 

Gothic  Virtue 376 

644-548.  Second  Command  of  Bel- 
isarius in  Italy 378 

546.  Borne  besieged  by  the  Goths.  878 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


9 


A.D.  Paoi- 

Attempt  of  Belisarius 381 

Rome  taken  by  the  Goths. ....  382 

547.  Recovered  by  Belisarius ,3_85 

548.  Final  Recall  of*  Belisarius 387 

549.  Rome    again    taken    by    the 

Goths 389 

549-551.  Preparations  of  Justinian 

for  the  Gothic  War 391 

662.  Character  and  Expedition  of 

the  Eunuch  Narses 393 

Defeat  and  Death  of  Totila...  396 
Conquest  of  Rome  by  Nar- 
ses   398 

553.  Defeat  and  Death  of  Teias, 

the  last  King  of  the  Goths.  400 


A.D.                                                      F±si 
Invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Franks 
and  Alemanni 402 

554.  Defeat  of  the  Franks  and  Ale- 
manni by  Narses 404 

554-568.  Settlement  of  Italy 407 

559.   Invasion  of  the  Bulgarians. ...  409 
Last  Victory  of  Belisarius 410 

561.   His  Disgrace  and  Death 412 

565.  Death  and  Character  of  Jus- 
tinian   415 

531-539.  Comets 418 

Earthquakes 420 

542.  Plague — its  Origin  and  Nat- 
ure   423 

542-594.  Extent  and  Duration....  425 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 


IDEA  OF  THE  ROMAN  JURISPRUDENCE.  —  THE  LAWS   OP    THE  KINGS.  —  TTTTfl 

TWELVE    TABLES   OF   THE    DECEMVIRS. — THE   LAWS    OF   THE    PEOPLE. 

THE  DECREES  OF  THE  SENATE. — THE  EDICTS  OF  THE  MAGISTRATES  AND 
EMPERORS. — AUTHORITY  OF  THE  CIVILIANS. — CODE,  PANDECTS,  NOVELS, 
AND  INSTITUTES  OF  JUSTINIAN  : — I.  RIGHTS  OF  PERSONS. — II.  RIGHTS  OF 
THINGS.  —  III.  PRIVATE  INJURIES  AND  ACTIONS.  —  IV.  CRIMES  AND  PUN- 
ISHMENTS. 


The  Civil  or  Roman  Law....  427 
Laws  of  the  Kings  of  Rome. .  429 
The   Twelve   Tables    of  the 

Decemvirs 432 

Their  Character  and  Influence  434 

Laws  of  the  People 436 

Decrees  of  the  Senate 437 

Edicts  of  the  Praetors 438 

The  Perpetual  Edict 440 

Constitutions  of  \ he  Emperors  441 

Their  Legislative  Power 443 

Their  Rescripts 444 

Forms  of  the  Roman  Law —  445 
Succession  of  the  Civil  Law- 
yers   448 

303-648.  The  First  Period 448 

648-988.  Second  Period 449 

988-1230.  Third  Period 449 

Their  Philosophy 450 

Authority 452 

Sects 453 

627.  Reformation   of  the    Roman 

Law  bv  Justinian 456 

527-546.  Tribonian 457 

528,529.  The  Code  of  Justinian...  459 

630-533.  The  Pandects  or  Digest.  460 

Praise  and  Censure  of  the  Code 

and  Pandects 461 

Loss  of  the  Ancient  Jurispru- 
dence   463 


Legal  Inconstancy  of  Justinian  465 
534.  Second  Edition  of  the  Code. .  466 

534-565.  The  Novels 466 

533.  The  Institutes 467 

I.  Of  Persons.    Freemen  and 
Slaves 468 

Fathers  and  Children 470 

Limitations   of  the   Paternal 

Authority 472 

Husbands  and  Wives 474 

The  religious  Rites  of  Mar- 
riage   475 

Freedom  of  the  Matrimonial 

Contract 476 

Liberty  and  Abuse  of  Divorce  477 
Limitations  of  the  Liberty  of 

Divorce 479 

Incest,  Concubines,  and  Bas- 
tards   481 

Guardians  and  Wards 483 

II.  Of  Things.     Right   of 
Property 485 

Of  Inheritance  and  Succession  490 

Civil  Degrees  of  Kindred 491 

Introduction   and  Liberty  of 

Testaments 493 

Legacies 494 

Codicils  and  Trusts 495 

III.  Of  Actions 496 

Promises 497 


10 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


A.D.  Page 

Benefits 498 

Interest  of  Money 500 

Injuries 501 

IV.  Of  Crimes  and  Punish- 
ments   502 

Severity  of  the  Twelve  Tables  502 

Abolition  of  Penal  Laws 505 

Revival    of   Capital    Punish- 
ments   507 


Pagb 

Measure  of  Guilt 509 

Unnatural  Vice 509 

Rigor  of  the  Christian  Em- 
perors   511 

Judgments  of  the  People 512 

Select  Judges 514 

Assessors 515 

Voluntary  Exile  and  Death. .  515 
Abuses  of  Civil  Jurisprudence  516 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

MCIGN   OF  THK  YOUNGER  JUSTIN. — EMBASSY  OF  THE  AVARS. — THEIR  SET- 
TLEMENT ON  THE  DANUBE. — CONQUEST  OF  ITALY  BY  THE   LOMBARDS. 

ADOPTION  AND  REIGN  OF  TIBERIUS. — OF  MAURICE. — STATE  OF  ITALY 
UNDER  THE  LOMBARDS  AND  THE  EXARCHS. — OF  RAVENNA. — DISTRESS  Off 
ROME. — CHARACTER  AND  PONTIFICATE   OF  GREGORY  THE  FIRST. 


565.  Death  of  Justinian 519 

565-574.  Reign   of  Justin  II.,  or 

the  Younger 520 

566.  His  Consulship 521 

Embassy  of  the  Avars 521 

Alboin,  King  of  the  Lombards 

— his  Valor,  Love,  and  Re- 
venge   523 

The  Lombards  and  Avars 
destroy  the  King  and  King- 
dom of  the  Gepidaj 525 

567.  Alboin   undertakes  the  Con- 

quest of  Italy 526 

Disaffection    and    Death    of 

Narses 528 

568-570.   Conquest  of  a  great  Part 

of  Italy  by  the  Lombards. .   529 
673.  Alboin    is    murdered    by   his 

Wife  Rosamond 531 

Her  Flight  and  Death 533 

Clepho,  King  of  the  Lom- 
bards   534 

Weakness  of  Emperor  Justin.  534 

574.  Association  of  Tiberius 536 

578.  Death  of  Justin  II 537 


578-582.  Reign  of  Tiberius  II 537 

His  Virtues 638 

582-602.  The  Reign  of  Maurice...  540 
Distress  of  Italy 541 

584-590.  Autharis,    King    of   the 

Lombards 542 

The  Exarchate  of  Ravenna...  543 
Kingdom  of  the  Lombards....  545 
Language  and  Manners  of  the 

Lombards 545 

Dress  and  Marriage 5+9 

Government 551 

643.  Laws 551 

Misery  of  Rome 553 

The  Tombs  and  Relics  of  the 

Apostles 555 

Birth  and  Profession  of  Greg- 
ory the  Roman 556 

590-604.  Pontificate    of    Gregory 

the  Great 558 

His  Spiritual  Office 558 

And  Temporal  Government. .  560 

His  Estates 560 

And  Alms 561 

The  Saviour  of  Rome 562 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

REVOLUTIONS  OF  PERSIA  AFTER  THE  DEATH  OF  CHOSROES  OR  NUSHIRVAN. 
— HIS  SON  HORMOUZ,  A  TYRANT,  IS  DEPOSED. — USURPATION  OF  BAHRAM. 

FLIGHT  AND  RESTORATION  OF  CHOSROES  II. — HIS   GRATITUDE  TO  THE 

ROMANS. — THE  CHAGAN  OF  THE  AVARS. — REVOLT  OF  THE  ARMY  AGAINST 
MAURICE. — HIS  DEATH. — TYRANNY  OF    PHOCAS. — ELEVATION  OF  HERA- 

CLIUS.  —  THE    PERSIAN    WAR. CHOSROES    SUBDUES    SYRIA,   EGYPT,  AND 

ASIA  MINOR. — SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE  BY  THE  PERSIANS  AND  AVARS. 
—PERSIAN  EXPEDITIONS. — VICTORIES  AND  TRIUMPH  OF  HERACLIUS. 

Contest   of  Rome   and  Per-         I  570.  Conquest  of  Yemen  by  Nush- 
sia ,. 563|  irvan 564 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


11 


A.D.  Page 
672.  His  last  War  with   the  Ro- 
mans   566 

579.  His  Death 567 

579-590.  Tyranny  and  Vices  of  his 

Son  Hormouz 568 

690.  Exploits  of  Bahram 570 

His  Rebellion 572 

Hormouz  is  deposed  and  im- 
prisoned   578 

Elevation  of  his  Son  Chosroes  574 

Death  of  Hormouz 575 

Chosroes  flies  to  the  Romans.  575 

His  Return 577 

And  Final  Victory 577 

Death  of  Bahram 577 

691-603.  Restoration    and    Policy 

of  Chosroes 578 

670-600.  Pride,  Policy,  and  Pow- 
er of  the   Chagan   of  the 

Avars 580 

695-602.   Wars  of  Maurice  against 

the  Avars 585 

State  of  the  Roman  Armies. .  587 

Their  Discontent 588 

And  Rebellion 589 

602.  Election  of  Phocas 589 

Revolt  of  Constantinople 590 

Death    of  Maurice    and   his 

Children 592 

602-610.  Phocas  Emperor 693 


A.D.  Pao« 

His  Character 593 

And  Tyranny 594 

610.  His  Fall  and  Death 595 

610-642.  Reign  of  Heraclius 697 

603.   Chosroes  invades  the  Roman 

Empire 598 

611.  His  Conquest  of  iSyria 600 

614.  Of  Palestine 600 

616.  Of  Egypt 601 

Of  Asia  Minor 602 

His  Reign  and  Magnificence.   602 

610-622.  Distress  of  Heraclius 605 

He  solicits  Peace 607 

621.  His  Preparations  for  War....  608 

622.  First  Expedition  of  Heraclius 

against  the  Persians 610 

623.  624,  625.   His  Second  Expedi- 

tion.   612 

626.  Deliverance  of  Constantinople 

from  the  Persians  and  Avars  617 
Alliances   and   Conquests   of 
Heraclius 619 

627.  His  Third  Expedition 621 

And  Victories 622 

Flight  of  Chosroes 624 

628.  He  is  deposed 626 

And    murdered   by   his   Son 

Shoes 626 

Treaty  of  Peace  between  the 
two  Empires 627 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 


THEOLOGICAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  INCARNATION. — THE  HU- 
MAN AND  DIVINE  NATURE  OF  CHRIST. — ENMITY  OF  THE  PATRIARCHS  OF 
ALEXANDRIA  AND  CONSTANTINOPLE. — ST.  CYRIL  AND  NESTORIUS. — THIRD 
GENERAL  COUNCIL  OF  EPHESUS. — HERESY  OF  EUTYCHES. — FOURTH  GEN- 
ERAL COUNCIL  OF  CHALCEDON. — CIVIL  AND  ECCLESIASTICAL  DISCORD. — 
INTOLERANCE  OF  JUSTINIAN. — THE  THREE  CHAPTERS. — THE  MONOTHELITE 

CONTROVERSY. — STATE  OF  THE  ORIENTAL  SECTS  :— I.   THE  NESTORIANS. 

H.  THE  JACOBITES. — III.  THE  MARONITES. — IV.  THE  ARMENIANS. — V.  THE 
COPTS  AND   ABYSSINIANS. 


The  Incarnation  of  Christ....  630 
I.  A  Pure  Man  to  the  Ebion- 

ites 631 

His  Birth  and  Elevation 633 

II.  A  Pure  God  to  the  Do- 
cetas 635 

His  Incorruptible  Body 636 

III.  Double  Nature  of  Cerin- 
thus 638 

IV.  Divine    Incarnation     of 
Apollinaris 639 

V.  Orthodox    Consent    and 
Verbal  Disputes 642 


412-444.  Cyril,  Patriarch  of  Alex- 
andria   643 

413,414,415.   His  Tyranny 644 

428.  Nestorius,  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople   647 

429-431.   His  Heresy 649 

431.  First  Council  of  Ephesus 652 

Condemnation  of  Nestorius...  653 
Opposition  of  the  Orientals....  654 

431-435.  Victory  of  Cyril 656 

435.  Exile  of  Nestorius 658 

448.  Heresy  of  Eutyches 660 

449.  Second  Council  of  Ephesus...  661 


12 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  IV. 


A.D.  Page 

451.  Council  of  Chalcedon 662 

Faith  of  Chalcedon 665 

451-482.  Discord  of  the  East 667 

482.  The  Henoticon  of  Zeno 669 

508-518.  The  Trisagion,  and  Relig- 
ious War  till  the  Death  of 

Anastasius 671 

514.  First  Religious  War 673 

519-565.  Theological  Character 
and  Government  of  Justin- 
ian   673 

His  Persecution  of  Heretics...  675 

Of  Pagans 676 

Of  Jews 676 

Of  Samaritans 677 

His  Orthodoxy 678 

532-698.  The  Three  Chapters 678 

553.  Fifth  General  Council :  Sec- 
ond of  Constantinople 680 

564.  Heresy  of  Justinian 681 

629.  The  Monothelite  Controversy.  682 
639.  TheEcthesis  of  Heraclius....  683 

648.   TheTypeofConstans 683 

680,  681.  Sixth  General  Council : 

Third  of  Constantinople....  684 
Union  of  the  Greek  and  Lat- 
in Churches 686 

Perpetual   Separation  of  the 
Oriental  Sects 687 


A.D.  Pag* 

I.  The  Nestorians 688 

500.  Sole  Masters  of  Persia 690 

500-1200.  Their  Missions  in  Tar- 

tary,  India,  China,  etc 691 

883.  The  Christians  of  St.  Thomas 

in  India 695 

II.  The  Jacobites 697 

III.  The  Makonites 701 

IV.  The  Armenians 703 

V.  The    Copts    or   Egyp- 
tians   705 

537-568.  The   Patriarch    Theodo- 

sius 705 

538.  Paul 706 

551.  Apollinaris 706 

580.  Eulogius 707 

009.  John 707 

Their  Separation  and  Decay.   708 
625-661.  Benjamin,  the    Jacobite 

Patriarch 709 

VI.  The   Abyssinians  and 
Nubians 710 

530.  Church  of  Abyssinia 711 

1525-1550.  The  Portuguese  in  Ab- 
yssinia   712 

1557.  Mission  of  the  Jesuits 713 

1626.  Conversion  of  the  Emperor.  714 
1632.  Final  Expulsion  of  the  Jes- 
uits   , 715 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOLUME    IV. 


Theodora,  Empress  of  the  East        .         .         .        Frontispiece 
"  He  seated  her  on  the  throne  as  an  equal  and  Independent 
colleague  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  empire." 

Painting  by  Benjamin  Constant 

PAGE 

Clovis,  king  of  the  Franks,  baptized  by  Remegius,  Bishop 
of  Rheims,  on  Christmas  day,  496  A.D.        .         .         .22 

Drawing  by  A.  Zick 

Interior  of  the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia        .        .         .        .192 

"  Erected  by  the  piety  of  the  Emperor  Justinian  and  dedicated 
to  the  '  Eternal  Wisdom.'  " 

"  Glory  be  to  God,  who  has  thought  me  worthy  to  accomplish 
so  great  a  work ;  I  have  vanquished  thee,  O  Solomon  !  " 
Justinian's  exclamation  at  the  dedication  of  the  cathedral. 

From  a  Photograph 

An  Athenian  Philosopher  teaching  in  the  groves  of  the 
Academy 216 

Painting  by  Theodore  Grosse 

The  Invasion  of  the  Barbarians 318 

"  Whatever  praise  the  boldness  of  the  Sclavonians  may 
deserve,  it  is  sullied  by  the  wanton  and  deliberate  cruelty 
which  they  are  accused  of  exercising  on  their  prisoners." 

Painting  by  O.  D.  V.  Guillonnet 

The  Last  of  the  Goths,  after  their  defeat  by  Narses  at 
Mount  Vesuvius,  departing  north,  carrying  the  dead 
body  of  their  beloved  King  Teias  with  them        .         .     400 

Painting  by  Fr.  Roeber 

The  Emperor  Justinian  orders  Tribonian  and  his  associates 
to  compile  the  Pandects 46o 

Painting  by  Benjamin  Constant 

Alboin,  the  Lombard  king,  compels  Rosamond  to  drink  to 
his  health  from  the  skull  of  her  murdered  father 
Cunimund 532 

Drawing  by  A.  Zick 


THE  HISTORY 

OF 

THE  DECLINE  AND  FALL 

OF   THE 

ROMAN    EMPIRE. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

Reign  and  Conversion  of  Clovis. — His  Victories  over  the  Alemanni,  Burgundians, 
and  Visigoths. — Establishment  of  the  French  Monarchy  in  Gaul. — Laws  of  the 
Barbarians. — State  of  the  Romans. — The  Visigoths  of  Spain. — Conquest  of 
Britain  by  the  Saxons. 

The  Gauls,1  who  impatiently  supported  the  Roman  yoke, 
received  a  memorable  lesson  from  one  of  the  lieutenants  of 
The  revoiu-  "Vespasian,  whose  weighty  sense  has  been  refined 
Hon  of  Gaui.  and  expressed  by  the  genius  of  Tacitus:2  "The 
protection  of  the  republic  has  delivered  Gaul  from  internal 
discord  and  foreign  invasions.  By  the  loss  of  national  inde- 
pendence you  have  acquired  the  name  and  privileges  of  Ro- 
man citizens.      You  enjoy,  in  common  with  ourselves,  the 

1  In  this  chapter  T  shall  draw  my  quotations  from  the  Recueil  des  Historiens 
des  Gaules  et  de  la  France,  Paris,  1738-1767,  in  eleven  volumes  in  folio.  By  the 
labor  of  Dom  Bouquet  and  the  other  Benedictines,  all  the  original  testimonies,  as 
far  as  a.d.  1060,  are  disposed  in  chronological  order,  and  illustrated  with  learned 
notes.  Such  a  national  work,  which  will  be  continued  to  the  year  1500.  might 
provoke  our  emulation. 

2  Tacit.  Hist.  iv.  73,  74,  in  torn.  i.  p.  445.  To  abridge  Tacitus  would  indeed  be 
presumptuous ;  but  I  may  select  the  general  ideas  which  he  applies  to  the  present 
state  and  future  revolutions  of  Gaul, 


14  REVOLUTION  OF  GAUL.  [Ch.  XXXVIII 

permanent  benefits  of  civil  government ;  and  your  remote 
situation  is  less  exposed  to  the  accidental  mischiefs  of  tyr- 
anny. Instead  of  exercising  the  rights  of  conquest,  we  have 
been  contented  to  impose  such  tributes  as  are  requisite  for 
your  own  preservation.  Peace  cannot  be  secured  without 
armies,  and  armies  must  be  supported  at  the  expense  of  the 
people.  It  is  for  your  sake,  not  for  our  own,  that  we  guard 
the  barrier  of  the  Rhine  against  the  ferocious  Germans,  who 
have  so  often  attempted,  and  who  will  always  desire,  to  ex- 
change the  solitude  of  their  woods  and  morasses  for  the 
wealth  and  fertility  of  Gaul.  The  fall  of  Some  would  be 
fatal  to  the  provinces,  and  you  would  be  buried  in  the  ruins 
of  that  mighty  fabric  which  has  been  raised  by  the  valor  and 
wisdom  of  eight  hundred  years.  Your  imaginary  freedom 
would  be  insulted  and  oppressed  by  a  savage  master,  and  the 
expulsion  of  the  Romans  would  be  succeeded  by  the  eternal 
hostilities  of  the  barbarian  conquerors."3  This  salutary  ad- 
vice was  accepted,  and  this  strange  prediction  was  accomplish- 
ed. In  the  space  of  four  hundred  years  the  hardy  Gauls,  who 
iiad  encountered  the  arms  of  Csssar,  were  imperceptibly  melt- 
ed into  the  general  mass  of  citizens  and  subjects :  the  "West- 
ern empire  was  dissolved ;  and  the  Germans  who  had  passed 
the  Rhine  fiercely  contended  for  the  possession  of  Gaul,  and 
excited  the  contempt  or  abhorrence  of  its  peaceful  and  pol- 
ished inhabitants.  With  that  conscious  pride  which  the  pre- 
eminence of  knowledge  and  luxury  seldom  fails  to  inspire, 
they  derided  the  hairy  and  gigantic  savages  of  the  North ; 
their  rustic  manners,  dissonant  joy,  voracious  appetite,  and 
their  horrid  appearance,  equally  disgusting  to  the  sight  and 
to  the  smell.  The  liberal  studies  were  still  cultivated  in  the 
schools  of  Autun  and  Bordeaux,  and  the  language  of  Cicero 
and  Yirgil  was  familiar  to  the  Gallic  youth.  Their  ears  were 
astonished  by  the  harsh  and  unknown  sounds  of  the  German- 
ic dialect,  and  they  ingeniously  lamented  that  the  trembling 

8  Eadem  semper  causa  Germanis  transcendendi  in  Gallias,  libido  atque  avaritia, 
et  mutandse  sedis  amor ;  ut  relictis  paludibus  et  solitudinibus  suis,  fecundissimum 
hoc  solum  vosque  ipsos  possiderent.  *  *  *  Nam  pulsis  Eomania  quid  aliud  quam 
bella  omnium  inter  se  gentium  exsistent  ? 


A.D.  476-485.]       EURIC,  KING  OF  THE  VISIGOTHS.  15 

muses  fled  from  the  harmony  of  a  Burgundian  lyre.  The 
Gauls  were  endowed  with  all  the  advantages  of  art  and  nat- 
ure, but,  as  they  wanted  courage  to  defend  them,  they  were 
justly  condemned  to  obey,  and  even  to  flatter,  the  victorious 
barbarians  by  whose  clemency  they  held  their  precarious 
fortunes  and  their  lives.4 

As  soon  as  Odoacer  had  extinguished  the  Western  empire, 
lie  sought  the  friendship  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  bar- 
Euric,  king  barians.  The  new  sovereign  of  Italy  resigned  to 
igoths.Vls"  Euric,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  all  the  Roman  con- 
A.D.476-4S5.  quegts  beyond  the  Alps,  as  far  as  the  Ehine  and 
the  Ocean  ;5  and  the  senate  might  confirm  this  liberal  gift 
with  some  ostentation  of  power,  and  without  any  real  loss  of 
revenue  or  dominion.  The  lawful  pretensions  of  Euric  were 
justified  by  ambition  and  success,  and  the  Gothic  nation 
might  aspire,  under  his  command,  to  the  monarchy  of  Spain 
and  Gaul.  Aries  and  Marseilles  surrendered  to  his  arms :  he 
oppressed  the  freedom  of  Auvergne,  and  the  bishop  conde- 
scended to  purchase  his  recall  from  exile  by  a  tribute  of  just 
but  reluctant  praise.  Sidonius  waited  before  the  gates  of  the 
palace  among  a  crowd  of  ambassadors  and  suppliants,  and 
their  various  business  at  the  court  of  Bordeaux  attested  the 
power  and  renown  of  the  king  of  the  Visigoths.  The  Heruli 
of  the  distant  ocean,  who  painted  their  naked  bodies  with  its 
cerulean  color,  implored  his  protection ;  and  the  Saxons  re- 
spected the  maritime  provinces  of  a  prince  who  was  destitute 
of  any  naval  force.  The  tall  Burgundians  submitted  to  his 
authority ;  nor  did  he  restore  the  captive  Franks  till  he  had 
imposed  on  that  fierce  nation  the  terms  of  an  unequal  peace. 
The  Vandals  of  Africa  cultivated  his  useful  friendship,  and 
the  Ostrogoths  of  Pannonia  were  supported  by  his  powerful 
aid  against  the  oppression  of  the  neighboring  Huns.     The 

4  Sidonius  Apollinaris  ridicules,  with  affected  wit  and  pleasantry,  the  hardships 
of  his  situation  (Carra.  xii.  in  tom.  i.  p.  811). 

8  See  Procopius  de  Bell.  Gothico,  1.  i.  c.  12,  in  tom.  ii.  p.  31  [tom.  ii.  p.  64,  edit. 
Bonn].  The  character  of  Grotius  inclines  me  to  believe  that  he  has  not  substitu- 
ted the  Rhine  for  the  Rhone  (Hist.  Gothorum,  p.  175)  without  the  authority  of 
6ome  MS. 


16  CLOVIS,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS.      £Ch.  XXXVIII 

North  (sach  are  the  lofty  strains  of  the  poet)  was  agitated  or 
appeased  by  the  nod  of  Euric,  the  great  King  of  Persia  con- 
sulted the  oracle  of  the  "West,  and  the  aged  god  of  the  Tiber 
was  protected  by  the  swelling  genius  of  the  Garonne.8  The 
fortune  of  nations  has  often  depended  on  accidents;  and 
France  may  ascribe  her  greatness  to  the  premature  death  of 
the  Gothic  king  at  a  time  when  his  son  Alaric  was  a  helpless 
infant,  and  his  adversary  Clovis7  an  ambitious  and  valiant 
youth. 

While  Childeric,  the  father  of  Clovis,  lived  an  exile  in  Ger- 
many, he  was  hospitably  entertained  by  the  queen  as  well  as 
by  the  king  of  the  Thuringians.    After  his  restora- 

Clovle,  king         Jo  o 

of  the  Franks,  tion  Bafina  escaped  from  her  husband's  bed  to  the 
arms  of  her  lover,  freely  declaring  that,  if  she  had 
known  a  man  wiser,  stronger,  or  more  beautiful  than  Chil- 
deric, that  man  should  have  been  the  object  of  her  prefer- 
ence.8 Clovis  was  the  offspring  of  this  voluntary  union,  and 
when  he  was  no  more  than  fifteen  years  of  age  he  succeed- 
ed, by  his  father's  death,  to  the  command  of  the  Salian  tribe. 
The  narrow  limits  of  his  kingdom9  were  confined  to  the  isl- 
and of  the  Batavians,  with  the  ancient  dioceses  of  Tournay 
and  Arras  ;10  and  at  the  baptism  of  Clovis  the  number  of  his 
warriors  could  not  exceed  five  thousand.     The  kindred  tribes 


•  Sidonius,  1.  viii.  Epist.  3, 9,  in  torn.  i.  p.  800.  Jornandes  de  Rebus  Geticis 
(c.  47,  p.  680)  justifies  in  some  measure  this  portrait  of  the  Gothic  hero. 

1  I  use  the  familiar  appellation  of  Clovis,  from  the  Latin  Chlodovechus  or  Chlo- 
dovceus.  But  the  Ch  expresses  only  the  German  aspiration ;  and  the  true  name  is 
not  different  from  Luduin  or  Lewis  (Mem.  de  l'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  torn. 
xx.  p.  68). 

8  Greg.  Turon.  1.  ii.  c.  12,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  168.  Bafina  speaks  the  language  of  nat- 
ure :  the  Franks,  who  had  seen  her  in  their  youth,  might  converse  with  Gregory 
in  their  old  age ;  and  the  Bishop  of  Tours  could  not  wish  to  defame  the  mother  of 
the  first  Christian  king. 

9  The  Abbe"  Dubos  (Hist.  Critique  de  l'Etablissement  de  la  Monarchie  Fran- 
coise  dans  les  Gaules,  torn.  i.  p.  630-650)  has  the  merit  of  defining  the  primitive 
kingdom  of  Clovis,  and  of  ascertaining  the  genuine  number  of  his  subjects. 

10  Ecclesiam  incultam  ac  negligent^  civium  Paganorum  praetermissam,  vepri- 
um  densitate  oppletam,  etc.  Vit.  St.  Vedasti,  in  torn.  iii.  p.  372.  This  descrip- 
tion supposes  that  Alias  was  possessed  by  the  pagans  many  years  before  the  bap- 
tism of  Clovis, 


A.D.  481-511.]  CLOVIS,  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS.  17 

of  the  Franks  who  had  seated  themselves  along  the  Belgic 
rivers,  the  Scheldt,  the  Meuse,  the  Moselle,  and  the  Rhine, 
were  governed  by  their  independent  kings  of  the  Merovingi- 
an race — the  equals,  the  allies,  and  sometimes  the  enemies,  of 
the  Salic  prince.  But  the  Germans,  who  obeyed  in  peace  the 
hereditary  jurisdiction  of  their  chiefs,  were  free  to  follow  the 
standard  of  a  popular  and  victorious  general ;  and  the  supe- 
rior merit  of  Clovis  attracted  the  respect  and  allegiance  of 
the  national  confederacy.  When  he  first  took  the  field,  he 
had  neither  gold  and  silver  in  his  coffers,  nor  wine  and  corn 
in  his  magazines;11  but  he  imitated  the  example  of  Caesar, 
who  in  the  same  country  had  acquired  wealth  by  the  sword, 
and  purchased  soldiers  with  the  fruits  of  conquest.  After 
each  successful  battle  or  expedition  the  spoils  were  accumu- 
lated in  one  common  mass;  every  warrior  received  his  pro- 
portionable share,  and  the  royal  prerogative  submitted  to  the 
equal  regulations  of  military  law.  The  untamed  spirit  of 
the  barbarians  was  taught  to  acknowledge  the  advantages  of 
regular  discipline.13  At  the  annual  review  of  the  month  of 
March  their  arms  were  diligently  inspected,  and  when  they 
traversed  a  peaceful  territory  they  were  prohibited  from 
touching  a  blade  of  grass.  The  justice  of  Clovis  was  inexo- 
rable, and  his  careless  or  disobedient  soldiers  were  punished 
with  instant  death.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  praise  the 
valor  of  a  Frank,  but  the  valor  of  Clovis  was  directed  by 
cool  and  consummate  prudence.18  In  all  his  transactions  with 
mankind  he  calculated  the  weight  of  interest,  of  passion,  and 
of  opinion ;  and  his  measures  were  sometimes  adapted  to  the 
sanguinary  manners  of  the  Germans,  and  sometimes  moder- 

11  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  v.  ch.  i.  torn.  ii.  p.  232)  contrasts  the  poverty  of  Clovis 
with  the  wealth  of  his  grandsons.  Yet  Beroigius  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  52)  mentions  his 
paternas  opes  as  sufficient  for  the  redemption  of  captives. 

12  See  Gregory  (1.  ii.  ch.  27,  37,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  175, 181, 182).  The  famous  sto- 
ry of  the  vase  of  Soissons  explains  both  the  power  and  the  character  of  Clovis. 
As  a  point  of  controversy,  it  has  been  strangely  tortured  by  Boulainvilliers,  Du- 
bos,  and  the  other  political  antiquarians. 

13  The  Duke  of  Nivernois,  a  noble  statesman,  who  has  managed  weighty  and 
delicate  negotiations,  ingeniously  illustrates  (Mem.  de  l'Acad.  des  Inscriptions, 
torn.  xx.  p.  147-184)  the  political  system  of  Clovis. 

IY.— 2 


18  VICTORY  OF  CLOVIS  OVER  SYAGRIUS.    [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

ated  by  the  milder  genius  of  Rome  and  Christianity.  He 
was  intercepted  in  the  career  of  victory,  since  he  died  in  the 
forty-fifth  year  of  his  age :  but  he  had  already  accomplished, 
in  a  reign  of  thirty  years,  the  establishment  of  the  French 
monarchy  in  Gaul. 

The  first  exploit  of  Clovis  was  the  defeat  of  Syagrius,  the 
son  of  ^Egidius,  and  the  public  quarrel  might  on  this  occa- 
His  victory  si°n  De  inflamed  by  private  resentment.  The  glo- 
griusSya"  rJ  oi  the  father  still  insulted  the  Merovingian 
a.d.486.  race;  the  power  of  the  son  might  excite  the  jeal- 
ous ambition  of  the  king  of  the  Franks.  Syagrius  inherited, 
as  a  patrimonial  estate,  the  city  and  diocese  of  Soissons :  the 
desolate  remnant  of  the  second  Belgic,  Rheims  and  Troyes, 
Beauvais  and  Amiens,  would  naturally  submit  to  the  count  or 
patrician  ;u  and  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Western  empire 
he  might  reign  with  the  title,  or  at  least  with  the  authority, 
of  king  of  the  Romans.15  As  a  Roman,  he  had  been  educated 
in  the  liberal  studies  of  rhetoric  and  jurisprudence ;  but  he 
was  engaged  by  accident  and  policy  in  the  familiar  use  of 
the  Germanic  idiom.  The  independent  barbarians  resorted 
to  the  tribunal  of  a  stranger  who  possessed  the  singular  talent 
of  explaining,  in  their  native  tongue,  the  dictates  of  reason 
and  equity.  The  diligence  and  affability  of  their  judge  ren- 
dered him  popular,  the  impartial  wisdom  of  his  decrees  ob- 
tained their  voluntary  obedience,  and  the  reign  of  Syagrius 
over  the  Franks  and  Burgundians  seemed  to  revive  the  orig- 
inal institution  of  civil  society.16  In  the  midst  of  these  peace- 
ful occupations  Syagrius  received,  and  boldly  accepted,  the 


14  M.  Biet  (in  a  Dissertation  which  deserved  the  prize  of  the  Academy  of  Sois- 
sons, p.  178-226)  has  accurately  defined  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  kingdom  of 
Syagrius,  and  his  father ;  but  he  too  readily  allows  the  slight  evidence  of  Dubos 
(torn.  ii.  p.  54-57)  to  deprive  him  of  Beauvais  and  Amiens. 

15  I  may  observe  that  Fredegarius,  in  his  epitome  of  Gregory  of  Tours  (torn.  ii. 
p.  398  [ch.  15]),  has  prudently  substituted  the  name  of  Patricius  for  the  incredi- 
ble title  of  Rex  Romanorum. 

16  Sidonius  (1.  v.  Epist.  5,  in  torn.  i.  p.  794),  who  styles  him  the  Solon,  the  Am- 
phion,  of  the  barbarians,  addresses  this  imaginary  king  in  the  tone  of  friendship 
and  equality.  From  such  offices  of  arbitration,  the  crafty  Deioces  had  raised  him- 
self to  th«  throne  of  fhe  Medes  CHerodot.  1.  i.  c.  96-100). 


A.D.491.]  VICTORY  OF  CLOVIS  OVER  SYAGRIUS.  19 

hostile  defiance  of  Clevis,  who  challenged  his  rival  in  the 
spirit,  and  almost  in  the  language,  of  chivalry,  to  appoint  the 
day  and  the  field17  of  battle.  In  the  time  of  Csesar,  Soissons 
would  have  poured  forth  a  body  of  fifty  thousand  horse;  and 
such  an  army  might  have  been  plentifully  supplied  with 
shields,  cuirasses,  and  military  engines  from  the  three  arse- 
nals or  manufactures  of  the  city.18  But  the  courage  and  num- 
bers of  the  Gallic  youth  were  long  since  exhausted,  and  the 
loose  bands  of  volunteers  or  mercenaries  who  marched  under 
the  standard  of  Syagrius  were  incapable  of  contending  with 
the  national  valor  of  the  Franks.  It  would  be  ungenerous, 
without  some  more  accurate  knowledge  of  his  strength  and 
resources,  to  condemn  the  rapid  flight  of  Syagrius,  who  es- 
caped after  the  loss  of  a  battle  to  the  distant  court  of  Tou- 
louse. The  feeble  minority  of  Alaric  could  not  assist  or  pro- 
tect an  unfortunate  fugitive ;  the  pusillanimous19  Goths  were 
intimidated  by  the  menaces  of  Clovis ;  and  the  Koman  hmg, 
after  a  short  confinement,  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
executioner.  The  Belgic  cities  surrendered  to  the 
king  of  the  Franks,  and  his  dominions  were  en- 
larged towards  the  east  by  the  ample  diocese  of  Tongres,20 
which  Clovis  subdued  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign. 

The  name  of  the  Alemanni  has  been  absurdly  derived  from 
their  imaginary  settlement  on  the  banks  of  the  Leman  lake.31 

17  Campura  sibi  prseparari  jussit.  M.  Biet  (p.  226-251)  has  diligently  ascer- 
tained this  field  of  battle  at  Nogent,  a  Benedictine  abbey,  about  ten  miles  to  the 
north  of  Soissons.  The  ground  was  marked  by  a  circle  of  pagan  sepulchres ;  and 
Clovis  bestowed  the  adjacent  lands  of  Leuilly  and  Coucy  on  the  Church  of  Rheims. 

18  See  Csesar.  Comment,  de  Bell.  Gallic,  ii.  4,  in  torn.  i.  p.  220,  and  the  Notitise, 
torn.  i.  p.  126.  The  three  Fabricce  of  Soissons  were,  Scutaria,  Balistaria,  and 
Clinabaria.     The  last  supplied  the  complete  armor  of  the  heavy  cuirassiers. 

19  The  epithet  must  be  confined  to  the  circumstances ;  and  history  cannot  justi- 
fy the  French  prejudice  of  Gregory  (1.  ii.  ch.  27,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  175),  "  Ut  Gothorum 
pavere  mos  est." 

20  Dubos  has  satisfied  me  (torn.  i.  p.  277-286)  that  Gregory  of  Tours,  his  tran- 
scribers or  his  readers,  have  repeatedly  confounded  the  German  kingdom  of  Thu- 
ringia,  biyond  the  Rhine,  and  the  Gallic  city  of  Tongria,  on  the  Meuse,  which  was 
more  anciently  the  country  of  the  Eburones,  and  more  recently  the  diocese  of  Liege. 

21  Populi  habitantes  juxta  Lemannum  lacum,  Alemanni  dicuntur. — Servius,  ad 
Virgil.  Georgic.  iv.  278.  Dom  Bouquet  (torn.  i.  p.  817)  has  only  alleged  the  mora 
recent  and  corrupt  text  of  Isidore  of  Seville. 


20  SUBMISSION  OF  THE  ALEMANNI.     [Ch.  XXXVIH. 

That  fortunate  district,  from  the  lake  to  Avcnche  and  Mount 
Jura,  was  occupied  by  the  Burgundians.98    The 

Defeat  and  '  r.  ^     ^  . 6 

enbmission     northern  parts  ot  Helvetia  had  indeed  been  sub- 
manni.  dued  by  the  ferocious  Alemanni,  who  destroyed 

A  D  496w 

with  their  own  hands  the  fruits  of  their  conquest. 
A  province,  improved  and  adorned  by  the  arts  of  Rome,  was 
again  reduced  to  a  savage  wilderness,  and  some  vestige  of  the 
stately  Yindonissa  may  still  be  discovered  in  the  fertile  and 
populous  valley  of  the  Aar.93  From  the  source  of  the  Rhine 
to  its  conflux  with  the  Main  and  the  Moselle,  the  formidable 
swarms  of  the  Alemanni  commanded  either  side  of  the  river 
by  the  right  of  ancient  possession  or  recent  victory.  They 
had  spread  themselves  into  Gaul  over  the  modern  provinces 
of  Alsace  and  Lorraine;  and  their  bold  invasion  of  the  king- 
dom of  Cologne  summoned  the  Salic  prince  to  the  defence 
of  his  Ripuarian  allies.  Clovis  encountered  the  invaders  of 
Gaul  in  the  plain  of  Tolbiac,  about  twenty-four  miles  from 
Cologne,  and  the  two  fiercest  nations  of  Germany  were  mu- 
tually animated  by  the  memory  of  past  exploits  and  the  pros- 
pect of  future  greatness.  The  Franks,  after  an  obstinate 
struggle,  gave  way,  and  the  Alemanni,  raising  a  shout  of  vic- 
tory, impetuously  pressed  their  retreat.  But  the  battle  was 
restored  by  the  valor,  the  conduct,  and  perhaps  by  the  piety 
of  Clovis;  and  the  event  of  the  bloody  day  decided  forever 
the  alternative  of  empire  or  servitude.  The  last  king  of  the 
Alemanni  was  slain  in  the  field,  and  his  people  were  slaugh- 
tered and  pursued  till  they  threw  down  their  arms  and  yielded 

82  Gregory  of  Tours  sends  St.  Lupicinus  "inter  ilia  Jurensis  deserti  secreta, 
quce,  inter  Burgundiara  Alamanniamque  sita,  Aventicae  adjacent  civitati,"  in  torn. 
i.  p.  648.  M.  de  Watteville  (Hist,  de  la  Confe'de'ration  Helve'tique,  torn.  i.  p.  9,  10) 
has  accurately  defined  the  Helvetian  limits  of  the  duchy  of  Alemanni  and  the 
Transjurane  Burgundy.  They  were  commensurate  with  the  dioceses  of  Constance 
and  Avenche,  or  Lausanne,  and  are  still  discriminated  in  modern  Switzerland  by 
the  use  of  the  German  or  French  language. 

23  See  Guilliman  de  Kebus  Helveticis,  1.  i.  c.  3,  p.  11, 12.  Within  the  ancient 
walls  of  Vindonissa,  the  castle  of  Hapsburg,  the  abbey  of  Konigsfeld,  and  the  town 
of  Bruck  have  successively  arisen.  The  philosophic  traveller  may  compare  the 
monuments  of  Roman  conquest,  of  feudal  or  Austrian  tyranny,  of  monkish  super- 
stition, and  of  industrious  freedom.  If  he  be  truly  a  philosopher,  he  will  applaud 
the  merit  and  happiness  of  his  own  times. 


A.D.  496.]  CONVERSION  OF  CLOVIS.  21 

to  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror.  "Without  discipline  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  rally:  they  had  contemptuously  de- 
molished the  walls  and  fortifications  which  might  have  pro- 
tected their  distress ;  and  they  were  followed  into  the  heart 
of  their  forests  by  an  enemy  not  less  active  or  intrepid  than 
themselves.  The  great  Theodoric  congratulated  the  victory 
of  Clovis,  whose  sister  Albofleda  the  King  of  Italy  had  lately 
married ;  but  he  mildly  interceded  with  his  brother  in  favor 
of  the  suppliants  and  fugitives  who  had  implored  his  pro- 
tection. The  Gallic  territories  which  were  possessed  by  the 
Alemanni  became  the  prize  of  their  conqueror;  and  the 
haughty  nation,  invincible  or  rebellious  to  the  arms  of  Rome, 
acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  the  Merovingian  kings,  who 
graciously  permitted  them  to  enjoy  their  peculiar  manners 
and  institutions  under  the  government  of  official,  and  at 
length  of  hereditary  dukes.  After  the  conquest  of  the  West- 
ern provinces,  the  Franks  alone  maintained  their  ancient  habi- 
tations beyond  the  Rhine.  They  gradually  subdued  and  civ- 
ilized the  exhausted  countries  as  far  as  the  Elbe  and  the 
mountains  of  Bohemia,  and  the  peace  of  Europe  was  secured 
by  the  obedience  of  Germany.9* 

Till  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age  Clovis  continued  to  wor- 
ship the  gods  of  his  ancestors.35    His  disbelief,  or  rather  dis- 
regard, of  Christianity,  might  encourage  him  to  pil- 
of  ciovis.       lage  with  less  remorse  the  churches  of  a  hostile  ter- 
ritory :  but  his  subjects  of  Gaul  enjoyed  the  free 
exercise  of  religious  worship,  and  the  bishops  entertained 


84  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  »•  30,  37,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  176, 177, 182),  the  Gesta  Fran- 
corum  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  551),  and  the  epistle  of  Theodoric  (Cassiodor.Variar.l.  ii. 
Ep.  41,  in  torn.  iv.  p.  4)  represent  the  defeat  of  the  Alemanni.  Some  of  their 
tribes  settled  in  Rhsetia,  under  the  protection  of  Theodoric,  whose  successors 
ceded  the  colony  and  their  country  to  the  grandson  of  Clovis.  The  state  of  the 
Alemanni  under  the  Merovingian  kings  may  be  seen  in  Mascou  (Hist,  of  the  An- 
cient Germans,  xi.  8,  etc. ;  Annotation  xxxvi.)  and  Guilliman  (de  Reb.  Helvet. 
L  ii.  ch.  10-12,  p.  72-80). 

25  Clotilda,  or  rather  Gregory,  supposes  that  Clovis  worshipped  the  gods  of 
Greece  and  Some.  The  fact  is  incredible,  and  the  mistake  only  shows  how  com- 
pletely, in  less  than  a  century,  the  national  religior  of  the  Franks  had  been  abol- 
ished, and  even  forgotten. 


22  CONVERSION  OF  CLOVIS.  £Ch.  XXXVIII 

a  more  favorable  hope  of  the  idolater  than  of  the  heretics. 
The  Merovingian  prince  had  contracted  a  fortunate  alliance 
with  the  fair  Clotilda,  the  niece  of  the  King  of  Burgundy, 
who,  in  the  midst  of  an  Arian  court,  was  educated  in  the  pro- 
fession of  the  Catholic  faith.  It  was  her  interest  as  well  as 
her  duty  to  achieve  the  conversion28  of  a  pagan  husband; 
and  Clovis  insensibly  listened  to  the  voice  of  love  and  relig- 
ion. He  consented  (perhaps  such  terms  had  been  previously 
stipulated)  to  the  baptism  of  his  eldest  son ;  and  though  the 
sudden  death  of  the  infant  excited  some  superstitious  fears, 
he  was  persuaded  a  second  time  to  repeat  the  dangerous  ex- 
periment. In  the  distress  of  the  battle  of  Tolbiac,  Clovis 
loudly  invoked  the  God  of  Clotilda  and  the  Christians ;  and 
victory  disposed  him  to  hear  with  respectful  gratitude  the 
eloquent27  Remigius,28  Bishop  of  Eheims,  who  forcibly  dis- 
played the  temporal  and  spiritual  advantages  of  his  conver- 
sion. The  king  declared  himself  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  the 
Catholic  faith ;  and  the  political  reasons  which  might  have 
suspended  hi3  public  profession  were  removed  by  the  devout 
or  loyal  acclamations  of  the  Franks,  who  showed  themselves 
alike  prepared  to  follow  their  heroic  leader  to  the  field  of 
battle  or  to  the  baptismal  font.  The  important  ceremony 
was  performed  in  the  cathedral  of  Rheims,  with  every  circum- 
stance of  magnificence  and  solemnity  that  could  impress  an 


26  Gregory  of  Tours  relates  the  marriage  and  conversion  of  Clovis  (1.  ii.  ch. 
28-31,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  175-178).  Even  Fredegarius,  or  the  nameless  Epitomizer 
(in  torn.  ii.  p.  398-400),  the  author  of  the  Gesta  Francorum  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  548- 
552),  and  Aimoin  himself  (1.  i.  ch.  13-16,  in  torn.  iii.  p.  37-40),  may  be  heard 
without  disdain.  Tradition  might  long  preserve  some  curious  circumstances  of 
these  important  transactions. 

27  A  traveller,  who  returned  from  Eheims  to  Auvergne,  had  stolen  a  copy  of  his 
Declamations  from  the  secretary  or  bookseller  of  the  modest  archbishop  (Sidonius 
Apollinar.  1.  ix.  Epist.  7).  Four  epistles  of  Remigius,  which  are  still  extant  (in 
torn.  iv.  p.  51,  52,  53),  do  not  correspond  with  the  splendid  praise  of  Sidonius. 

28  Hincmar,  one  of  the  successors  of  Remigius  (a.d.  845-882),  has  composed 
his  Life  (in  torn.  iii.  p.  373-380).  The  authority  of  ancient  MSS.  of  the  Church 
of  Rheims  might  inspire  some  confidence,  which  is  destroyed,  however,  by  the  self- 
ish and  audacious  fictions  of  Hincmar.  It  is  remarkable  enough  that  Remigius, 
who  was  consecrated  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  (a.d.  457),  filled  the  episcopal  chaii 
seventy-four  years  (Pagi  Critica,  in  Baron,  torn.  ii.  p.  384, 672). 


a.d.  496.]  CONVERSION  OF  CLOVIS.  23 

awful  sense  of  religion  on  the  minds  of  its  rude  proselytes." 
The  new  Constantine  was  immediately  baptized  with  three 
thousand  of  his  warlike  subjects,  and  their  example  was  imi- 
tated by  the  remainder  of  the  gentle  barbarians,  who,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  victorious  prelate,  adored  the  cross  which  they 
had  burned,  and  burned  the  idols  which  they  had  formerly 
adored.30  The  mind  of  Clovis  was  susceptible  of  transient 
fervor :  he  was  exasperated  by  the  pathetic  tale  of  the  passion 
and  death  of  Christ ;  and  instead  of  weighing  the  salutary- 
consequences  of  that  mysterious  sacrifice,  he  exclaimed,  with 
indiscreet  fury,  "  Had  I  been  present  at  the  head  of  my  val- 
iant Franks,  I  would  have  revenged  his  injuries."31  But  the 
savage  conqueror  of  Gaul  was  incapable  of  examining  the 
proofs  of  a  religion  which  depends  on  the  laborious  investi- 
gation of  historic  evidence  and  speculative  theology.  He 
was  still  more  incapable  of  feeling  the  mild  influence  of  the 
Gospel,  which  persuades  and  purifies  the  heart  of  a  genuine 
-convert.  His  ambitious  reign  was  a  perpetual  violation  of 
moral  and  Christian  duties :  his  hands  were  stained  with 
blood  in  peace  as  well  as  in  war ;  and,  as  soon  as  Clovis  had 
dismissed  a  synod  of  the  Gallican  church,  he  calmly  assassi- 
nated all  the  princes  of  the  Merovingian  race.33  Yet  the  king 
of  the  Franks  might  sincerely  worship  the  Christian  God  as 
a  Being  more  excellent  and  powerful  than  his  national  dei- 


29  A  phial  (the  Sainte  Ampoulle)  of  holy  or  rather  celestial  oil  was  brought 
down  by  a  white  dove  for  the  baptism  of  Clovis;  and  it  is  still  used  and  renewed 
in  the  coronation  of  the  kings  of  France.  Hincmar  (he  aspired  to  the  primacy  of 
Gaul)  is  the  first  author  of  this  fable  (in  torn.  iii.  p.  377),  whose  slight  foundations 
the  Abbe  de  Vertot  (Memoires  de  l'Acade'mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  ii.  p.  619-633) 
has  undermined  with  profound  respect  and  consummate  dexterity. 

30  Mitis  depone  colla,  Sicamber  :  adora  quod  incendisti,  incende  quod  adorasti. 
— Greg.  Turon.  1.  ii.  c.  31,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  177. 

31  Si  ego  ibidem  cum  Francis  meis  fuissem,  injurias  ejus  vindicassem.  This 
rash  expression,  which  Gregory  has  prudently  concealed,  is  celebrated  by  Frede- 
garius  (Epitom.  c.  21,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  400),  Aimoin  (1.  i.  c.  16,  in  torn.  iii.  p.  40),  and 
the  Chroniques  de  St.  Denys  (1.  i.  ch.  20,  in  torn.  iii.  p.  171),  as  an  admirable  effu- 
sion of  Christian  zeal. 

32  Gregory  (1.  ii.  c.  40-43,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  183-185),  after  coolly  relating  the  re- 
peated crimes  and  affected  remorse  of  Clovis,  concludes,  perhaps  undesignedly, 
with  a  lesson  which  ambition  will  never  hear — "His  ita  truusactis obiit." 


i4  SUBMISSION  OF  THE  AKMORICANS    [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

ties ;  and  the  signal  deliverance  and  victory  of  Tolbiac  en- 
couraged Clovis  to  confide  in  the  future  protection  of  the 
Lord  of  Hosts.  Martin,  the  most  popular  of  the  saints,  had 
filled  the  Western  world  with  the  fame  of  those  miracles 
which  were  incessantly  performed  at  his  holy  sepulchre  of 
Tours.  His  visible  or  invisible  aid  promoted  the  cause  of  a 
liberal  and  orthodox  prince ;  and  the  profane  remark  of  Clo- 
vis himself,  that  St.  Martin  was  an  expensive  friend,33  need 
not  be  interpreted  as  the  symptom  of  any  permanent  or  ra- 
tional scepticism.  But  earth  as  well  as  heaven  rejoiced  in 
the  conversion  of  the  Franks.  On  the  memorable  day  when 
Clovis  ascended  from  the  baptismal  font,  he  alone  in  the 
Christian  world  deserved  the  name  and  prerogatives  of  a 
Catholic  king.  The  Emperor  Anastasius  entertained  some 
dangerous  errors  concerning  the  nature  of  the  divine  incar- 
nation ;  and  the  barbarians  of  Italy,  Africa,  Spain,  and  Gaul 
were  involved  in  the  Arian  heresy.  The  eldest,  or  rather  the 
only  son  of  the  Church,  was  acknowledged  by  the  clergy  as 
their  lawful  sovereign  or  glorious  deliverer;  and  the  arms  of 
Clovis  were  strenuously  supported  by  the  zeal  and  favor  of 
the  Catholic  faction.84 

Under  the  Roman  empire  the  wealth  and  jurisdiction  of 
the  bishops,  their  sacred  character  and  perpetual  office,  their 
Submission  numerous  dependents,  popular  eloquence,  and  pro- 
moricats"  vincial  assemblies,  had  rendered  them  always  re- 
manttroop°s!  spectable,  and  sometimes  dangerous.  Their  influ- 
A.D.497,etc.  ence  was  augmented  with  the  progress  of  supersti- 
tion ;  and  the  establishment  of  the  French  monarchy  may,  in 
some  degree,  be  ascribed  to  the  firm  alliance  of  a  hundred  prel- 
ates, who  reigned  in  the  discontented  or  independent  cities  of 

33  After  the  Gothic  victory,  Clovis  made  rich  offerings  to  St.  Martin  of  Tours. 
He  wished  to  redeem  his  war-horse  by  the  gift  of  one  hundred  pieces  of  gold,  but 
the  enchanted  steed  could  not  move  from  the  stable  till  the  price  of  his  redemp- 
tion had  been  doubled.  This  miracle  provoked  the  king  to  exclaim,  "Vere  B. 
Martinus  est  bonus  in  auxilio,  sed  cams  in  negotio."  Gesta  Francorum,  in  torn. 
ii.  p.  554,  555. 

34  See  the  epistle  from  Pope  Anastasius  to  the  royal  convert  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  50, 
51).  Avitus,  Bishop  of  Vienna,  addressed  Clovis  on  the  same  subject  (p.  49) ; 
and  many  of  the  Latin  bishops  would  assure  him  of  their  joy  and  attachment. 


A.D.  499.}  AND  THE  ROMAN  TROOPS.  25 

Gaul.  The  slight  foundations  of  the  Armorican  republic  had 
been  repeatedly  shaken  or  overthrown ;  but  the  same  people 
still  guarded  their  domestic  freedom,  asserted  the  dignity  of 
the  Koman  name,  and  bravely  resisted  the  predatory  inroads 
and  regular  attacks  of  Clovis,  who  labored  to  extend  his  con- 
quests from  the  Seine  to  the  Loire.  Their  successful  opposi- 
tion introduced  an  equal  and  honorable  union.  The  Franks 
esteemed  the  valor  of  the  Armoricans  ;36  and  the  Armoricans 
were  reconciled  by  the  religion  of  the  Franks.  The  military 
force  which  had  been  stationed  for  the  defence  of  Gaul  con- 
sisted of  one  hundred  different  bands  of  cavalry  or  infantry ; 
and  these  troops,  while  they  assumed  the  title  and  privileges 
of  Eoman  soldiers,  were  renewed  by  an  incessant  supply  of 
the  barbarian  youth.  The  extreme  fortifications  and  scattered 
fragments  of  the  empire  were  still  defended  by  their  hopeless 
courage.  But  their  retreat  was  intercepted,  and  their  com- 
munication was  impracticable :  they  were  abandoned  by  the 
Greek  princes  of  Constantinople,  and  they  piously  disclaim- 
ed all  connection  with  the  Arian  usurpers  of  Gaul.  They  ac- 
cepted, without  shame  or  reluctance,  the  generous  capitula- 
tion which  was  proposed  by  a  Catholic  hero;  and  this  spu- 
rious or  legitimate  progeny  of  the  Roman  legions  was  distin- 
guished in  the  succeeding  age  by  their  arms,  their  ensigns, 
and  their  peculiar  dress  and  institutions.  But  the  national 
strength  was  increased  by  these  powerful  and  voluntary  ac- 
cessions; and  the  neighboring  kingdoms  dreaded  the  num- 
bers as  well  as  the  spirit  of  the  Franks.  The  reduction  of  the 
northern  provinces  of  Gaul,  instead  of  being  decided  by  the 
chance  of  a  single  battle,  appears  to  have  been  slowly  effect- 
ed by  the  gradual  operation  of  war  and  treaty;  and  Clovis 

85  Instead  of  the  'Apfiopvxoi,  an  unknown  people,  who  now  appear  in  the  text 
of  Procopius  [Bell.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  12],  Hadrian  de  Valois  has  restored  the  proper 
name  of  the  'Apfiopvxot ;  and  this  easy  correction  has  been  almost  universally  ap- 
proved. Yet  an  unprejudiced  reader  would  naturally  suppose  that  Procopius 
means  to  describe  a  tribe  of  Germans  in  the  alliance  of  Rome,  and  not  a  confed* 
eracy  of  Gallic  cities  which  had  revolted  from  the  empire.3 


•  Compare  Hallam's  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  2,  and  Darn, 
Hist,  de  Bretagne,  vol.  i.  p.  129.— M. 


26  THE  BURGUNDIAN  WAE.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

acquired  eacli  object  of  his  ambition  by  such  efforts  or  such 
concessions  as  were  adequate  to  its  real  value.  His  savage 
character  and  the  virtues  of  Henry  IY.  suggest  the  most  op- 
posite ideas  of  human  nature ;  yet  some  resemblance  may  be 
found  in  the  situation  of  two  princes  who  conquered  France 
by  their  valor,  their  policy,  and  the  merits  of  a  seasonable 
conversion.36 

The  kingdom  of  the  Burgundians,  which  was  defined  by 
the  course  of  two  Gallic  rivers,  the  Saone  and  the  Rhone,  ex- 
tended from  the  forest  of  Yosges  to  the  Alps  and 

The  Burgnn-  °  r 

dian  war.        the  sea  of  Marseilles."     The  sceptre  was  in  the 

a.b.  499. 

hands  of  Gundobald.  That  valiant  and  ambitious 
prince  had  reduced  the  number  of  royal  candidates  by  the 
death  of  two  brothers,  one  of  whom  was  the  father  of  Clotil- 
da ;38  but  his  imperfect  prudence  still  permitted  Godegesil,  the 
youngest  of  his  brothers,  to  possess  the  dependent  principali- 
ty of  Geneva.  The  Arian  monarch  was  justly  alarmed  by  the 
satisfaction  and  the  hopes  which  seemed  to  animate  his  clergy 
and  people  after  the  conversion  of  Clovis;  and  Gundobald 
convened  at  Lyons  an  assembly  of  his  bishops,  to  reconcile,  if 
it  were  possible,  their  religious  and  political  discontents.  A 
vain  conference  was  agitated  between  the  two  factions.  The 
Arians  upbraided  the  Catholics  with  the  worship  of  three 

36  This  important  digression  of  Procopius  (de  Bell.  Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  12,  in  torn, 
ii.  p.  29-36  [torn.  ii.  p.  (J2  seq.,  edit.  Bonn])  illustrates  the  origin  of  the  French 
monarchy.  Yet  I  must  observe :  1.  That  the  Greek  historian  betrays  an  inex- 
cusable ignorance  of  the  geography  of  the  West;  2.  That  these  treaties  and  priv- 
ileges, which  should  leave  some  lasting  traces,  are  totally  invisible  in  Gregory  of 
Tours,  the  Salic  laws,  etc. 

31  Regnum  circa  Rhodanum  aut  Ararim  cum  provincia  Massiliensi  retinebant. 
— Greg.  Tuion.  1.  ii.  c.  32,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  178.  The  province  of  Marseilles,  as  far 
as  the  Durance,  was  afterwards  ceded  to  the  Ostrogoths;  and  the  signatures  of 
twenty-five  bishops  are  supposed  to  represent  the  kingdom  of  Burgundy,  a.d.  519. 
Concil.  Epaon.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  104,  105.  Yet  I  would  except  Vindonissa.  Tho 
bishop,  who  lived  under  the  pagan  Alemanni,  would  naturally  resort  to  the  synods 
of  the  next  Christian  kingdom.  Mascou  (in  his  four  first  annotations)  has  ex- 
plained many  circumstances  relative  to  the  Burgundian  monarchy. 

88  Mascou  (Hist,  of  the  Germans,  xi.  10),  who  very  reasonably  distrusts  the 
testimony  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  has  produced  a  passage  from  Avitus  (Epist.  v.)  to 
prove  that  Gundobald  affected  to  deplore  the  tragic  event  which  bis  subjecli 
affected  to  applaud. 


A..D.  500.]  VICTORY  OF  CLOVIS.  27 

Gods :  the  Catholics  defended  their  cause  by  theological  di& 
tinctions ;  and  the  usual  arguments,  objections,  and  replies 
were  reverberated  with  obstinate  clamor,  till  the  king  reveal- 
ed his  secret  apprehensions  by  an  abrupt  but  decisive  ques- 
tion, which  he  addressed  to  the  orthodox  bishops :  "  If  you 
truly  profess  the  Christian  religion,  why  do  you  not  restrain 
the  king  of  the  Franks  ?  He  has  declared  war  against  me, 
and  forms  alliances  with  my  enemies  for  my  destruction.  A 
sanguinary  and  covetous  mind  is  not  the  symptom  of  a  sin- 
cere conversion  :  let  him  show  his  faith  by  his  works."  The 
answer  of  Avitus,  Bishop  of  Vienna,  who  spoke  in  the  name 
of  his  brethren,  was  delivered  with  the  voice  and  countenance 
of  an  angel.  "  We  are  ignorant  of  the  motives  and  intentions 
of  the  king  of  the  Franks:  but  we  are  taught  by  Scripture 
that  the  kingdoms  which  abandon  the  divine  law  are  fre- 
quently subverted,  and  that  enemies  will  arise  on  every  side 
against  those  who  have  made  God  their  enemy.  Return, 
with  thy  people,  to  the  law  of  God,  and  he  will  give  peace 
and  security  to  thy  dominions."  The  King  of  Burgundy, 
who  was  not  prepared  to  accept  the  condition  which  the 
Catholics  considered  as  essential  to  the  treaty,  delayed  and 
dismissed  the  ecclesiastical  conference,  after  reproaching  his 
bishops,  that  Clovis,  their  friend  and  proselyte,  had  privately 
tempted  the  allegiance  of  his  brother.39 

The  allegiance  of  his  brother  was  already  seduced ;  and  the 
obedience  of  Godegesil,  who  joined  the  royal  standard  with 

the  troops  of  Geneva,  more  effectually  promoted 
ciovis.  the  success  of  the  conspiracy.     While  the  Franks 

and  Burgundians  contended  with  equal  valor,  his 
seasonable  desertion  decided  the  event  of  the  battle;  and  as 
Gundobald  was  faintly  supported  by  the  disaffected  Gauls,  he 
yielded  to  the  arms  of  Clovis,  and  hastily  retreated  from  the 
field,  which  appears  to  have  been  situate  between  Langres  and 
Dijon.     He  distrusted  the  strength  of  Dijon,  a  quadrangular 

39  See  the  original  conference  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  99-102).  Avitus,  the  principal 
actor,  and  probably  the  secretary  of  the  meeting,  was  Bishop  of  Vienna.  A  short 
account  of  his  person  and  works  may  be  found  iD  Dupin  (Bibliotheque  Ecctesias- 
tique,  torn.  v.  p.  5-1QY 


28  VICTORY  OF  CLOVIS.  [Ch.  XXXVHL 

fortress,  encompassed  by  two  rivers  and  by  a  wall  thirty  feet 
high  and  fifteen  thick,  with  four  gates  and  thirty-three  tow- 
ers :40  he  abandoned  to  the  pursuit  of  Clovis  the  important 
cities  of  Lyons  and  Vienna ;  and  Gundobald  still  fled  with 
precipitation  till  he  had  reached  Avignon,  at  the  distance  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  field  of  battle.  A  long 
siege  and  an  artful  negotiation  admonished  the  king  of  the 
Franks  of  the  danger  and  difficulty  of  his  enterprise.  He 
imposed  a  tribute  on  the  Burgundian  prince,  compelled  him 
to  pardon  and  reward  his  brother's  treachery,  and  proudly  re- 
turned to  his  own  dominions  with  the  spoils  and  captives  of 
the  southern  provinces.  This  splendid  triumph  was  soon 
clouded  by  the  intelligence  that  Gundobald  had  violated  his 
recent  obligations,  and  that  the  unfortunate  Godegesil,  who 
was  left  at  Vienna  with  a  garrison  of  five  thousand  Franks,41 
had  been  besieged,  surprised,  and  massacred  by  his  inhuman 
brother.  Such  an  outrage  might  have  exasperated  the  pa- 
tience of  the  most  peaceful  sovereign ;  yet  the  conqueror  of 
Gaul  dissembled  the  injury,  released  the  tribute,  and  accepted 
the  alliance  and  military  service  of  the  King  of  Burgundy. 
Clovis  no  longer  possessed  those  advantages  which  had  as- 
sured the  success  of  the  preceding  war ;  and  his  rival,  in- 
structed by  adversity,  had  found  new  resources  in  the  affec- 
tions of  his  people.  The  Gauls  or  Romans  applauded  the 
mild  and  impartial  laws  of  Gundobald,  which  almost  raised 
them  to  the  same  level  with  their  conquerors.  The  bishops 
were  reconciled  and  flattered  by  the  hopes  which  he  artful- 
ly suggested  of  his  approaching  conversion ;  and  though  he 
eluded  their  accomplishment  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life, 

40  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  iii.  c.  19,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  197)  indulges  his  genius,  or  rather 
transcribes  some  more  eloquent  writer,  in  the  description  of  Dijon — a  castle,  which 
already  deserved  the  title  of  a  city.  It  depended  on  the  bishops  of  Langres  till 
the  twelfth  century,  and  afterwards  became  the  capital  of  the  dukes  of  Burgundy. 
Longuerue,  Description  de  la  France,  part  i.  p.  280. 

41  The  Epitomizer  of  Gregory  of  Tours  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  401)  has  supplied  this 
number  of  Franks,  but  he  rashly  supposes  that  they  were  cut  in  pieces  by  Gun- 
dobald. The  prudent  Burgundian  spared  the  soldiers  of  Clovis,  and  sent  these 
captives  to  the  king  of  the  Visigoths,  who  settled  them  in  the  territory  of  Tou- 
louse. 


A.D.532.]  CONQUEST  OF  BUKGUNDY  BY  THE  FRANKS.      29 

his  moderation  secured  the  peace  and  suspended  the  ruin  of 
the  kingdom  of  Burgundy.48 

I  am  impatient  to  pursue  the  final  ruin  of  that  kingdom, 

which  was  accomplished  under  the  reign  of  Sigismond,  the 

son  of  Gundobald.     The  Catholic  Sigismond  has 

Fiual  con-  ,  .  ° 

quest  of  Bur-   acquired  the  honors  of  a  saint  and  martyr;    but 
Franks.         the  hands  of  the  royal  saint  were  stained  with  the 

a.d.532.  .  .  "  i.i 

blood  of  his  innocent  son,  whom  he  inhumanly 
sacrificed  to  the  pride  and  resentment  of  a  step-mother.  He 
soon  discovered  his  error,  and  bewailed  the  irreparable  loss. 
While  Sigismond  embraced  the  corpse  of  the  unfortunate 
youth,  he  received  a  severe  admonition  from  one  of  his  at- 
tendants :  "  It  is  not  his  situation,  O  king !  it  is  thine  which 
deserves  pity  and  lamentation."  The  reproaches  of  a  guilty 
conscience  were  alleviated,  however,  by  his  liberal  donations 
to  the  monastery  of  Agaunum,  or  St.  Maurice,  in  Yallais, 
which  he  himself  had  founded  in  honor  of  the  imaginary 
martyrs  of  the  Thebaean  legion.44  A  full  chorus  of  perpetual 
psalmody  was  instituted  by  the  pious  king;  he  assiduously 
practised  the  austere  devotion  of  the  monks ;  and  it  was  his 
humble  prayer  that  Heaven  would  inflict  in  this  world  the 
punishment  of  his  sins.  His  prayer  was  heard :  the  avengers 
were  at  hand ;  and  the  provinces  of  Burgundy  were  over- 
whelmed by  an  army  of  victorious  Franks.     After  the  event 


42  In  this  Burgundian  war  I  have  followed  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  ii.  ch.  32,  33,  in 
torn.  ii.  p.  178,  179),  whose  narrative  appears  so  incompatible  with  that  of  Proco- 
pius  (de  Bell.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  12,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  31,  32  [torn.  ii.  p.  63  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]), 
that  some  critics  have  supposed  two  different  wars.  The  Abbe  Dubos  (Hist. 
Critique,  etc.,  torn.  ii.  p.  126-162)  has  distinctly  represented  the  causes  and  the 
events. 

43  See  his  life  or  legend  (in  torn.  iii.  p.  402).  A  martyr!  how  strangely  has 
that  word  been  distorted  from  its  original  sense  of  a  common  witness  1  St.  Sigis- 
mond was  remarkable  for  the  cure  of  fevers. 

44  Before  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  the  Church  of  St.  Maurice,  and  his  The- 
bsean  legion,  had  rendered  Agaunum  a  place  of  devout  pilgrimage.  A  promiscu- 
ous community  of  both  sexes  had  introduced  some  deeds  of  darkness,  which  wera 
abolished  (a.d.  515)  by  the  regular  monasteiy  of  Sigismond.  Within  fifty  years, 
his  angels  of  light  made  a  nocturnal  sally  to  murder  their  bishop  and  his  clergy. 
See,  in  the  Bibliotheque  Raisonnee  (torn,  xxxvi.  p.  435-438),  the  curious  remarks 
of  a  learned  librarian  of  Geneva,  ^  _ 

i 


80  THE  GOTHIC  WAE.  £Ch.  XXXVHI. 

of  an  unsuccessful  battle,  Sigismond,  who  wished  to  protract 
his  life  that  he  might  prolong  his  penance,  concealed  himself 
in  the  desert  in  a  religious  habit,  till  he  was  discovered  and 
betrayed  by  his  subjects,  who  solicited  the  favor  of  their  new 
masters.  The  captive  monarch,  with  his  wife  and  two  chil- 
dren, was  transported  to  Orleans,  and  buried  alive  in  a  deep 
well  by  the  stern  command  of  the  sons  of  Clovis,  whose  cru- 
elty might  derive  some  excuse  from  the  maxims  and  exam- 
ples of  their  barbarous  age.  Their  ambition,  which  urged 
them  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  Burgundy,  was  inflamed  or 
disguised  by  filial  piety  :  and  Clotilda,  whose  sanctity  did  not 
consist  in  the  forgiveness  of  injuries,  pressed  them  to  revenge 
her  father's  death  on  the  family  of  his  assassin.  The  rebel- 
lious Burgundians,  for  they  attempted  to  break  their  chains, 
were  still  permitted  to  enjoy  their  national  laws  under  the  ob- 
ligation of  tribute  and  military  service ;  and  the  Merovingian 
princes  peaceably  reigned  over  a  kingdom  whose  glory  and 
greatness  had  been  first  overthrown  by  the  arms  of  Clovis.46 

The  first  victory  of  Clovis  had  insulted  the  honor  of  the 
Goths.  They  viewed  his  rapid  progress  with  jealousy  and 
„    „  , .       terror :  and  the  youthful  fame  of  Alaric  was  op- 

The  Gothic  '  J  ,  .         .     *, 

war.  pressed  by  the  more  potent  genius  of  his  rival. 

Some  disputes  inevitably  arose  on  the  edge  of  their 
contiguous  dominions ;  and  after  the  delays  of  fruitless  ne- 
gotiation a  personal  interview  of  the  two  kings  was  proposed 
and  accepted.  This  conference  of  Clovis  and  Alaric  was  held 
in  a  small  island  of  the  Loire,  near  Amboise.  They  embraced, 
familiarly  conversed,  and  feasted  together,  and  separated  with 
the  warmest  professions  of  peace  and  brotherly  love.  But 
their  apparent  confidence  concealed  a  dark  suspicion  of  hos- 
tile and  treacherous  designs ;  and  their  mutual  complaints  so- 
licited, eluded,  and  disclaimed  a  final  arbitration.  At  Paris, 
which  he  already  considered  as  his  royal  seat,  Clovis  declared 

45  Marins,  Bishop  of  Avenche  (Chron.  in  torn.  ii.  p.  15),  has  marked  the  authen- 
tic dates,  and  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  ill.  c.  5,  6,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  188,  189)  has  expressed 
the  principal  facts,  of  the  life  of  Sigismond  and  the  conquest  of  Burgundy.  Pro- 
copius  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  34  [torn.  ii.  p.  65,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Agathias  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  49/ 
show  their  remote  and  imperfect  knowledge. 


a.d.507.]  THE  GOTHIC  WAR.  31 

to  an  assembly  of  the  princes  and  warriors  the  pretence  and 
the  motive  of  a  Gothic  war.  "  It  grieves  me  to  see  that  the 
Arians  still  possess  the  fairest  portion  of  Gaul.  Let  us  march 
against  them  with  the  aid  of  God ;  and  having  vanquished 
the  heretics,  we  will  possess  and  divide  their  fertile  prov- 
inces."48 The  Franks,  who  were  inspired  by  hereditary  val- 
or and  recent  zeal,  applauded  the  generous  design  of  their 
monarch ;  expressed  their  resolution  to  conquer  or  die,  since 
death  and  conquest  would  be  equally  profitable ;  and  solemn- 
ly protested  that  they  would  never  shave  their  beards  till  vic- 
tory should  absolve  them  from  that  inconvenient  vow.  The 
enterprise  was  promoted  by  the  public  or  private  exhorta- 
tions of  Clotilda.  She  reminded  her  husband  how  effectu- 
ally some  pious  foundation  would  propitiate  the  Deity  and 
his  servants :  and  the  Christian  hero,  darting  his  battle  -  axe 
with  a  skilful  and  nervous  hand, "  There,"  said  he,  "  on  that 
spot  where  my  Francisco?1  shall  fall,  will  I  erect  a  church 
in  honor  of  the  holy  apostles."  This  ostentatious  piety  con- 
firmed and  justified  the  attachment  of  the  Catholics,  with 
whom  he  secretly  corresponded  ;  and  their  devout  wishes 
were  gradually  ripened  into  a  formidable  conspiracy.  The 
people  of  Aquitaine  were  alarmed  by  the  indiscreet  reproaches 
of  their  Gothic  tyrants,  who  justly  accused  them  of  prefer- 
ring the  dominion  of  the  Franks ;  and  their  zealous  adherent 
Quintianus,  Bishop  of  Rodez,48  preached  more  forcibly  in  his 
exile  than  in  his  diocese.     To  resist  these  foreign  and  domes- 


46  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  ii.  c.  37,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  181)  inserts  the  short  but  persua- 
sive speech  of  Clovis.  "  Valde  moleste  fero,  quod  hi  Ariani  partem  teneant  Gallia- 
rum  "  (the  author  of  the  Gesta  Francorum,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  553,  adds  the  precious  ep- 
ithet of  optimam),  "  eamus  cum  Dei  adjutorio,  et,  superatis  eis,  redigamus  terram 
in  ditionem  nostram." 

47  Tunc  rex  projecit  a  se  in  directum  Bipennem  suam  quod  est  Francisca,  etc. 
(Gesta  Franc,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  554).  The  form  and  use  of  this  weapon  are  clearly  de- 
scribed by  Procopius  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  37  [Bell.  Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  25,  torn.  ii.  p.  247,  248, 
edit.  Bonn]).  Examples  of  its  national  appellation  in  Latin  and  French  may  be 
found  in  the  Glossary  of  Ducange  and  the  large  Dictionnaire  de  Trevoux. 

48  It  is  singular  enough  that  some  important  and  authentic  facts  should  be  found 
in  a  Life  of  Quintianus,  composed  in  rhyme  in  the  old  patois  of  Rouergue  (Dubos, 
Hist.  Critique,  etc.,  torn.  ii.  p.  179). 


32  VICTORY  OF  CLOVIS.  [Ch.  XXXVIII. 

tic  enemies,  who  were  fortified  by  the  alliance  of  the  Burgun- 
dians,  Alaric  collected  his  troops,  far  more  numerous  than  the 
military  powers  of  Clovis.  The  Yisigoths  resumed  the  exer- 
cise of  arms,  which  they  had  neglected  in  a  long  and  luxuri- 
ous peace;49  a  select  band  of  valiant  and  robust  slaves  attend- 
ed their  masters  to  the  field  ;B0  and  the  cities  of  Gaul  were 
compelled  to  furnish  their  doubtful  and  reluctant  aid.  The- 
odoric,  king  of  the  Ostrogoths,  who  reigned  in  Italy,  had  la- 
bored to  maintain  the  tranquillity  of  Gaul ;  and  he  assumed, 
or  affected,  for  that  purpose  the  impartial  character  of  a  medi- 
ator. But  the  sagacious  monarch  dreaded  the  rising  empire 
of  Clovis,  and  he  was  firmly  engaged  to  support  the  national 
and  religious  cause  of  the  Goths. 

The  accidental  or  artificial  prodigies  which  adorned  the  ex- 
pedition of  Clovis  were  accepted,  by  a  superstitious  age,  as 

the  manifest  declaration  of  the  Divine  favor.  He 
ciovis.  marched  from  Paris ;   and  as  he  proceeded  with 

decent  reverence  through  the  holy  diocese  of 
Tours,  his  anxiety  tempted  him  to  consult  the  shrine  of  St. 
Martin,  the  sanctuary,  and  the  oracle  of  Gaul.  His  messen- 
gers were  instructed  to  remark  the  words  of  the  Psalm  which 
should  happen  to  be  chanted  at  the  precise  moment  when 
they  entered  the  church.  Those  words  most  fortunately  ex- 
pressed the  valor  and  victory  of  the  champions  of  Heaven, 
and  the  application  was  easily  transferred  to  the  new  Joshua, 
the  new  Gideon,  who  went  forth  to  battle  against  the  enemies 
of  the  Lord.61     Orleans  secured  to  the  Franks  a  bridge  on  the 

49  "Quamvis  fortitudini  vestrse  confidentiam  tribuat  parentum  vestrorum  innu- 
merabilis  multitudo ;  quamvis  Attilam  potentern  reminiscamini  Visigotharum 
viribus  inclinatum ;  tamen  quia  populorum  ferocia  corda  longa  pace  mollescunt,  ca- 
vete  subito  in  aleam  mittere,  quos  constat  tantis  temporibus  exercitia  non  habere." 
Such  was  the  salutary  but  fruitless  advice  of  peace,  of  reason,  and  of  Theodorie 
(Cassiodor.  1.  iii.  Ep.  2  [edit.  Rotom.  1679]). 

60  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xv.  ch.  14)  mentions  and  approves  the  law 
of  the  Visigoths  (1.  ix.  tit.  2,  in  torn.  iv.  p.  425),  which  obliged  all  masters  to  arm 
and  send  or  lead  into  the  field  a  tenth  of  their  slaves. 

61  This  mode  of  divination,  by  accepting  as  an  omen  the  first  sacred  words  which 
in  particular  circumstances  should  be  presented  to  the  eye  or  ear,  was  derived 
from  the  pagans  ;  and  the  Psalter,  or  Bible,  was  substituted  to  the  poems  of  Ho- 
mer and  Virgil.     From  the  fourth  to  the  fourteenth  century,  these  sories  mncto* 


A.D.  507.]  VICTOKY  OF  CLOVIS.  33 

Loire ;  but,  at  the  distance  of  forty  miles  from  Poitiers,  their 
progress  was  intercepted  by  an  extraordinary  swell  of  the 
river  Yigenna  or  Vienna ;  and  the  opposite  banks  were  cov- 
ered by  the  encampment  of  the  Yisigoths.  Delay  must  be 
always  dangerous  to  barbarians,  who  consume  the  country 
through  which  they  march ;  and  had  Clovis  possessed  leisure 
and  materials,  it  might  have  been  impracticable  to  construct 
a  bridge,  or  to  force  a  passage,  in  the  face  of  a  superior  ene- 
my. But  the  affectionate  peasants,  who  were  impatient  to 
welcome  their  deliverer,  could  easily  betray  some  unknown 
or  unguarded  ford :  the  merit  of  the  discovery  was  enhanced 
by  the  useful  interposition  of  fraud  or  fiction ;  and  a  white 
hart,  of  singular  size  and  beauty,  appeared  to  guide  and  ani- 
mate the  march  of  the  Catholic  army.  The  counsels  of  the 
Visigoths  were  irresolute  and  distracted.  A  crowd  of  impa- 
tient warriors,  presumptuous  in  their  strength,  and  disdaining 
to  fly  before  the  robbers  of  Germany,  excited  Alaric  to  assert 
in  arms  the  name  and  blood  of  the  conqueror  of  Rome.  The 
advice  of  the  graver  chieftains  pressed  him  to  elude  the  first 
ardor  of  the  Franks,  and  to  expect,  in  the  southern  provinces 
of  Gaul,  the  veteran  and  victorious  Ostrogoths,  whom  the 
King  of  Italy  had  already  sent  to  his  assistance.  The  decisive 
moments  were  wasted  in  idle  deliberation ;  the  Goths  too 
hastily  abandoned,  perhaps,  an  advantageous  post ;  and  the 
opportunity  of  a  secure  retreat  was  lost  by  their  slow  and  dis- 
orderly motions.  After  Clovis  had  passed  the  ford,  as  it  is 
still  named,  of  the  Hart,  he  advanced  with  bold  and  hasty 
steps  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  enemy.  His  nocturnal 
march  was  directed  by  a  flaming  meteor  suspended  in  the 
air  above  the  Cathedral  of  Poitiers ;  and  this  signal,  which 
might  be  previously  concerted  with  the  orthodox  successor  of 
St.  Hilar}7,  was  compared  to  the  column  of  fire  that  guided 
the  Israelites  in  the  desert.  At  the  third  hour  of  the  day, 
about  ten  miles  beyond  Poitiers,  Clovis  overtook,  and  instant- 
ly attacked,  the  Gothic  army,  whose  defeat  was  already  pre- 

rum,  as  they  are  styled,  were  repeatedly  condemned  by  the  decrees  of  councils,  and 
repeatedly  practised  by  kings,  bishops,  and  saints.  See  a  curious  dissertation  of 
the  Abb6  du  Resnel,  in  the  Memoires  de  l'Academie,  torn.  xix.  p.  287-310. 

IT.— 3 


34       CONQUEST  OF  AQUITAINE  BY  THE  FRANKS.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

pared  by  terror  and  confusion.  Yet  they  rallied  in  their  ex- 
treme distress,  and  the  martial  youths,  who  had  clamorously 
demanded  the  battle,  refused  to  survive  the  ignominy  of 
flight.  The  two  kings  encountered  each  other  in  single  com- 
bat. Alaric  fell  by  the  hand  of  his  rival ;  and  the  victorious 
Frank  was  saved,  by  the  goodness  ol  his  cuirass  and  the  vigor 
of  his  horse,  from  the  spears  of  two  desperate  Goths,  who  fu- 
riously rode  against  him  to  revenge  the  death  of  their  sover- 
eign. The  vague  expression  of  a  mountain  of  the  slain  serves 
to  indicate  a  cruel,  though  indefinite,  slaughter ;  but  Gregory 
has  carefully  observed  that  his  valiant  countryman  Apolli- 
naris,  the  son  of  Sidonius,  lost  his  life  at  the  head  of  the  no- 
bles of  Auvergne.  Perhaps  these  suspected  Catholics  had 
been  maliciously  exposed  to  the  blind  assault  of  the  enemy ; 
and  perhaps  the  influence  of  religion  was  superseded  by  per- 
sonal attachment  or  military  honor.63 

Such  is  the  empire  of  Fortune  (if  we  may  still  disguise  our 
ignorance  under  that  popular  name),  that  it  is  almost  equally 
conquest  of  difficult  to  foresee  the  events  of  war  or  to  explain 
thTFra"ksby  their  various  consequences.  A  bloody  and  com- 
a.b.508.  piete  victory  has  sometimes  yielded  no  more  than 
the  possession  of  the  field  ;  and  the  loss  of  ten  thousand  men 
has  sometimes  been  sufficient  to  destroy  in  a  single  day  the 
work  of  ages.  The  decisive  battle  of  Poitiers  was  followed 
by  the  conquest  of  Aquitaine.  Alaric  had  left  behind  him 
an  infant  son,  a  bastard  competitor,  factious  nobles,  and  a 
disloyal  people ;  and  the  remaining  forces  of  the  Goths  were 
oppressed  by  the  general  consternation,  or  opposed  to  each 
other  in  civil  discord.  The  victorious  king  of  the  Franks 
proceeded  without  delay  to  the  siege  of  Angouleme.  At  the 
sound  of  his  trumpets  the  walls  of  the  city  imitated  the  ex- 


52  After  correcting  the  text  or  excusing  the  mistake  of  Procopius,  who  places 
the  defeat  of  Alaric  near  Carcassonne,  we  majr  conclude,  from  the  evidence  of 
Gregory,  Fortunatus,  and  the  author  of  the  Gesta  Francorum,  that  the  battle  was 
fought  in  campo  Vocladensi,  on  the  banks  of  the  Clain,  about  ten  miles  to  the 
south  of  Poitiers.  Clovis  overtook  and  attacked  the  Visigoths  near  Vivonne,  and 
the  victory  was  decided  near  a  village  still  named  Champagne  St.  Hilaire.  S*tt 
the  Dissertations  of  the  Abbe'  le  Boeuf,  torn.  i.  p.  304-881. 


A.D.508...  CONQUEST  OF  AQUITAINE  BY  THE  FRANKS.      35 

ample  of  Jericho,  and  instantly  fell  to  the  ground  ;  a  splendid 
miracle,  which  may  be  reduced  to  the  supposition  that  some 
clerical  engineers  had  secretly  undermined  the  foundations 
of  the  rampart.6*  At  Bordeaux,  which  had  submitted  without 
resistance,  Clovis  established  his  winter-quarters ;  and  his  pru- 
dent economy  transported  from  Toulouse  the  royal  treasures, 
which  were  deposited  in  the  capital  of  the  monarchy.  The 
conqueror  penetrated  as  far  as  the  confines  of  Spain  ;64  re- 
stored the  honors  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  fixed  in  Aquitaine 
a  colony  of  Franks  ;66  and  delegated  to  his  lieutenants  the 
easy  task  of  subduing  or  extirpating  the  nation  of  the  Visi- 
goths. But  the  Yisigoths  were  protected  by  the  wise  and 
powerful  monarch  of  Italy.  "While  the  balance  was  still 
equal,  Theodoric  had  perhaps  delayed  the  march  of  the  Ostro- 
goths ;  but  their  strenuous  efforts  successfully  resisted  the 
ambition  of  Clovis ;  and  the  army  of  the  Franks,  and  their 
Burgundian  allies,  was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege  of  Aries, 
with  the  loss,  as  it  is  said,  of  thirty  thousand  men.  These  vi- 
cissitudes inclined  the  fierce  spirit  of  Clovis  to  acquiesce  in  an 
advantageous  treaty  of  peace.  The  Yisigoths  were  suffered 
to  retain  the  possession  of  Septimania,  a  narrow  tract  of  sea- 
coast,  from  the  Rhone  to  the  Pyrenees ;  but  the  ample  prov- 
ince of  Aquitaine,  from  those  mountains  to  the  Loire,  was  in- 
dissolubly  united  to  the  kingdom  of  France.66 

63  Angouleme  is  in  the  road  from  Poitiers  to  Bordeaux  ;  and,  although  Greg- 
ory delays  the  siege,  I  can  more  readily  believe  that  he  confounded  the  order  of 
history  than  that  Clovis  neglected  the  rules  of  war. 

54  Pyrenaaos  montes  usque  Perpinianum  subjecit,  is  the  expression  of  Rorico, 
which  betrays  his  recent  date,  since  Perpignan  did  not  exist  before  the  tenth  cen- 
tury (Marca  Hispanica,  p.  458).  This  florid  and  fabulous  writer  (perhaps  a  monk 
of  Amiens — see  the  Abbe  le  Boeuf,  Me'm.  de  FAcademie,  torn.  xvii.  p.  228-245) 
relates,  in  the  allegorical  character  of  a  shepherd,  the  general  history  of  his  coun- 
trymen the  Franks  ;  but  his  narrative  ends  with  the  death  of  Clovis. 

65  The  author  of  the  Gesta  Francorum  positively  affirms  that  Clovis  fixed  a  body 
of  Franks  in  the  Saintonge  and  Bourdelois ;  and  he  is  not  injudiciously  followed 
by  Rorico,  electos  milites,  atque  fortissimos,  cum  parvulis,  atque  mulieribus.  Yet 
it  should  seem  that  they  soon  mingled  with  the  Romans  of  Aquitaine,  till  Charle- 
magne introduced  a  more  numerous  and  powerful  colony  (Dubos,  Hist.  Critique, 
torn.  ii.  p.  215). 

56  In  the  composition  of  the  Gothic  war  I  have  used  the  following  materials, 


36  CONSULSHIP  OF  CLOVIS.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

After  the  success  of  the  Gothic  war,  Clovis  accepted  the 

honors  of  the  Roman  consulship.     The  Emperor  Anastasius 

ambitiously  bestowed  on  the  most  powerful  rival 

Consulship  1.1         .i  i  .  r    i 

of  clovis.        of  lheodonc  the  title  and  ensigns  of  that  eminent 

A.D.510.  ° 

dignity ;  yet,  from  some  unknown  cause,  the  name 
of  Clovis  has  not  been  inscribed  in  the  Fasti  either  of  the 
East  or  West."  On  the  solemn  day,  the  monarch  of  Gaul, 
placing  a  diadem  on  his  head,  was  invested,  in  the  church  of 
St.  Martin,  with  a  purple  tunic  and  mantle.  From  thence  he 
proceeded  on  horseback  to  the  Cathedral  of  Tours ;  and,  as 
he  passed  through  the  streets,  profusely  scattered,  with  his 
own  hand,  a  donative  of  gold  and  silver  to  the  joyful  mul- 
titude, who  incessantly  repeated  their  acclamations  of  Consul 
and  Augustus.  The  actual  or  legal  authority  of  Clovis  could 
not  receive  any  new  accessions  from  the  consular  dignity.  It 
was  a  name,  a  shadow,  an  empty  pageant ;  and  if  the  conquer- 
or had  been  instructed  to  claim  the  ancient  prerogatives  of 
that  high  office,  they  must  have  expired  with  the  period  of 
its  annual  duration.  But  the  Romans  were  disposed  to  re- 
vere, in  the  person  of  their  master,  that  antique  title  which 
the  emperors  condescended  to  assume :  the  barbarian  himself 
seemed  to  contract  a  sacred  obligation  to  respect  the  majesty 
of  the  republic ;  and  the  successors  of  Theodosius,  by  solic- 


with  due  regard  to  their  unequal  value :  Four  epistles  from  Theodoric,  King  of 
Italy  (Cassiodor.  1.  iii.  Epist.  1-4,  in  torn.  iv.  p.  3-5),  Procopius  (de  Bell.  Goth. 
1.  i.  c.  12,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  32,  33),  Gregory  of  Tours  (I.  ii.  ch.  35,  36,  37,  in  torn.  ii. 
p.  181-183),  Jomandes  (de  Eeb.  Geticis,  c.  58,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  28),  Foitunatus  (in 
Vit.  St.  Hilarii,  in  torn.  iii.  p.  380),  Isidore  (in  Chron.  Goth,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  702), 
the  Epitome  of  Gregory  of  Tours  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  401),  the  author  of  the  Gesta 
Francorum  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  553-555),  the  Fragments  of  Fredegarius  (in  torn.  ii.  p. 
463),  Aimoin  (1.  i.  c.  20,  in  torn.  iii.  p.  41,  42),  and  Rorico  (1.  iv.  in  torn.  iii.  p. 
14-19). 

51  The  Fasti  of  Italy  would  naturally  reject  a  consul,  the  enemy  of  their  sov- 
ereign ;  but  any  ingenious  hypothesis  that  might  explain  the  silence  of  Constanti- 
nople and  Egypt  (the  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus,  and  the  Paschal)  is  overturned  by 
the  similar  silence  of  Marius,  Bishop  of  Avenche,  who  composed  his  Fasti  in  the 
kingdom  of  Burgundy.  If  the  evidence  of  Gregory  of  Tours  were  less  weighty 
and  positive  (1.  ii.  ch.  38,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  183),  I  could  believe  that  Clovis,  like  Odoa- 
cer,  received  the  lasting  title  and  honors  of  Patrician  (Pagi  Critica,  torn.  ii.  p. 
474, 492). 


A..D.  536.]    ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  FRENCH  MONARCHY.  37 

iting  his  friendship,  tacitly  forgave,  and  almost  ratified,  the 
usurpation  of  Gaul.a 

Twenty-live  years  after  the  death  of  Clovis  this  important 
concession  was  more  formally  declared  in  a  treaty  between 
Final  estab-  his  sons  and  the  Emperor  Justinian.  The  Ostro- 
theFrenchf  gotns  of  Italy>  unable  to  defend  their  distant  ac- 
in°GauLby  quisitions,  had  resigned  to  the  Franks  the  cities  of 
a.d.  536.  Aries  and  Marseilles :  of  Aries,  still  adorned  with 
the  seat  of  a  Praetorian  prsefect,  and  of  Marseilles,  enriched 
by  the  advantages  of  trade  and  navigation.68  This  transac- 
tion was  confirmed  by  the  imperial  authority  ;  and  Justinian, 
generously  yielding  to  the  Franks  the  sovereignty  of  the 
countries  beyond  the  Alps,  which  they  already  possessed,  ab- 
solved the  provincials  from  their  allegiance,  and  established 
on  a  more  lawful,  though  not  more  solid,  foundation,  the 
throne  of  the  Merovingians.69     From  that  era  they  enjoyed 

58  Under  the  Merovingian  kings,  Marseilles  still  imported  from  the  East  paper, 
wine,  oil,  linen,  silk,  precious  stones,  spices,  etc.  The  Gauls  or  Franks  traded  ta 
Syria,  and  the  Syrians  were  established  in  Gaul.  See  M.  de  Guignes,  Mem.  de 
l'Academie,  torn,  xxxvii.  p.  471-475. 

69  Ov  yap  ttote  qiovTO  TaXXiac  Zvv  r<p  aotyaKei  KeKTtfaQai  $>pciyyot,  [irj  rov  av- 
TOKpdropog  to  ipyov  iiriafypayiaavTOQ  tovto  ye.  This  strong  declaration  of  Pro- 
copius  (de  Bell.  Gothic.  1.  iii.  cap.  33,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  41  [torn.  ii.  p.  417,  edit.  Bonn]) 
would  almost  suffice  to  justify  the  Abbe*  Dubos.b 


a  It  can  scarcely  admit  of  doubt  that  Anastasius  conferred  the  consulship  upon 
Clovis ;  and  this  fact  has  been  employed  by  Dubos  and  many  subsequent  writers 
to  prove  what  may  be  called  the  Roman  origin  of  the  French  monarchy,  since 
they  suppose  that  it  was  mainly  by  the  recognition  of  the  authority  of  Clovis  by 
the  emperor  that  he  was  recognized  as  their  sovereign  by  the  provincials  of  Gaul. 
This  question,  which  has  occasioned  so  much  controversy  among  French  histori- 
ans, cannot  be  discussed  in  a  note ;  but  the  reader  will  find  some  valuable  remarks 
upon  the  subject  in  the  Supplemental  Notes  to  Mr.  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  ch.  i. 
note  3. — S. 

b  It  has,  however,  been  well  observed  by  Mr.  Hallam  that  it  was  merely  a  piece 
of  Greek  vanity  in  Procopius  to  pretend  that  the  Franks  never  thought  themselves 
secure  of  Gaul  until  they  obtained  this  sanction  from  the  emperor.  They  had 
lately  put  to  flight  the  armies  of  Justinian  in  Italy,  and  they  had  held  possession 
of  Gaul  for  the  preceding  sixty  years.  Moreover,  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
Procopius  ever  meant  to  say  that  Justinian  confirmed  to  the  Frank  sovereign  his 
rights  over  the  whole  of  Gaul.  The  word  raXkiae  should  probably  be  understood 
according  to  the  general  sense  of  the  passage,  which  would,  limit  its  meaning  to 
Provence,  the  recent  acquisition  of  the  Franks. 

With  respect  to  the  next  statement  of  Gibbon,  that  the  gold  coin  of  the  Mero- 
vingian kings,  "by  a  singular  privilege,  which  was  denied  to  the  Persian  monarch, 
obtained  a  legal  currency  in  the  empire,"  Mr.  Hallam  observes  that  this  legal  cur« 


38  THE  FRENCH  MONARCHY.  [Oh.  XXXVHI 

the  right  of  celebrating  at  Aries  the  games  of  the  circus ;  and 
by  a  singular  privilege,  which  was  denied  even  to  the  Persian 
monarch,  the  gold  coin,  impressed  with  their  name  and  image, 
obtained  a  legal  currency  in  the  empire.80  A  Greek  historian 
of  that  age  has  praised  the  private  and  public  virtues  of  the 
Franks,  with  a  partial  enthusiasm  which  cannot  be  sufficient- 
ly justified  by  their  domestic  annals."  He  celebrates  their 
politeness  and  urbanity,  their  regular  government,  and  ortho- 
dox religion,  and  boldly  asserts  that  these  barbarians  could 
be  distinguished  only  by  their  dress  and  language  from  the 
subjects  of  Eome.  Perhaps  the  Franks  already  displayed  the 
social  disposition  and  lively  graces  which  in  every  age  have 
disguised  their  vices,  and  sometimes  concealed  their  intrinsic 
merit.  Perhaps  Agathias  and  the  Greeks  were  dazzled  by 
the  rapid  progress  of  their  arms  and  the  splendor  of  their 
empire.  Since  the  conquest  of  Burgundy,  Gaul,  except  the 
Gothic  province  of  Septimania,  was  subject,  in  its  whole  ex- 
tent, to  the  sons  of  Clovis.  They  had  extinguished  the  Ger- 
man kingdom  of  Thuringia,  and  their  vague  dominion  pene- 
trated beyond  the  Rhine,  into  the  heart  of  their  native  for- 
ests. The  Alemanni  and  Bavarians,  who  had  occupied  the 
Roman  provinces  of  Rhsetia  and  Noricum,  to  the  south  of 

60  The  Franks,  who  probably  used  the  mints  of  Treves,  Lyons,  and  Aries,  imi- 
tated the  coinage  of  the  Roman  emperors,  of  seventy-two  solidi,  or  pieces,  to  the 
pound  of  gold.  But  as  the  Franks  established  only  a  decuple  proportion  of  gold 
and  silver,  ten  shillings  will  be  a  sufficient  valuation  of  their  solidus  of  gold.  It 
was  the  common  standard  of  the  barbaric  fines,  and  contained  forty  denarii,  or 
silver  threepences.  Twelve  of  these  denarii  made  a  solidus,  or  shilling,  the  twen- 
tieth part  of  the  ponderal  and  numeral  livre,  or  pound  of  silver,  which  has  been  so 
strangely  reduced  in  modern  France.  See  Le  Blanc,  Traite  Histoiique  des  Mon- 
noyes  de  France,  p.  37-43,  etc. 

61  Agathias,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  47  [p.  17,  edit.  Bonn].  Gregory  of  Tours  exhibits  a 
very  different  picture.  Perhaps  it  would  not  be  easy,  within  the  same  historical 
6pace,  to  find  more  vice  and  less  virtue.  We  are  continually  shocked  by  the  union 
of  savage  and  corrupt  manners. 


rency  is  not  distinctly  mentioned  by  Procopius,  though  he  strongly  asserts  that  it 
was  not  lawful  (ov  Qijxiq)  for  the  King  of  Persia  to  coin  gold  with  his  own  effigy, 
as  if  the  9efiig  of  Constantinople  were  regarded  at  Seleucia.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  Goths  as  well  as  Franks  coined  gold,  which  might  possibly  circu- 
late in  the  empire,  without  having,  strictly  speaking,  a  legal  currency.  Hallam, 
ut  supra, — S. 


A.D.  536.]  POLITICAL  CONTROVERSY.  39 

the  Danube,  confessed  themselves  the  humble  vassals  of  the 
Franks ;  and  the  feeble  barrier  of  the  Alps  was  incapable  of 
resisting  their  ambition.  When  the  last  survivor  of  the  sons 
of  Clovis  united  the  inheritance  and  conquests  of  the  Mero- 
vingians, his  kingdom  extended  far  beyond  the  limits  of  mod- 
ern France.  Yet  modern  France,  such  has  been  the  progress 
of  arts  and  policy,  far  surpasses,  in  wealth,  populousness,  and 
power,  the  spacious  but  savage  realms  of  Clotaire  or  Dago- 
bert.62 

The  Franks,  or  French,  are  the  only  people  of  Europe  who 
can  deduce  a  perpetual  succession  from  the  conquerors  of  the 
Political  Western  empire.  But  their  conquest  of  G-aul  was 
controversy.  f0uowe(j  ]yy  ten  centuries  of  anarchy  and  igno- 
rance. On  the  revival  of  learning,  the  students  who  had 
been  formed  in  the  schools  of  Athens  and  Rome  disdained 
their  barbarian  ancestors ;  and  a  long  period  elapsed  before 
patient  labor  could  provide  the  requisite  materials  to  satisfy, 
or  rather  to  excite,  the  curiosity  of  more  enlightened  times.63 
At  length  the  eye  of  criticism  and  philosophy  was  directed 
to  the  antiquities  of  France;  but  even  philosophers  have 
been  tainted  by  the  contagion  of  prejudice  and  passion.  The 
most  extreme  and  exclusive  systems,  of  the  personal  servitude 
of  the  Gauls,  or  of  their  voluntary  and  equal  alliance  with  the 
Franks,  have  been  rashly  conceived  and  obstinately  defend- 
ed ;  and  the  intemperate  disputants  have  accused  each  other 
of  conspiring  against  the  prerogative  of  the  crown,  the  dig- 
nity of  the  nobles,  or  the  freedom  of  the  people.     Yet  the 


62  M.  de  Foncemagne  has  traced,  in  a  correct  and  elegant  dissertation  (Me'm. 
de  l'Academie,  torn.  viii.  p.  505-528),  the  extent  and  limits  of  the  French  mon- 
archy. 

63  The  Abbe*  Dubos  (Histoire  Critique,  torn.  i.  p.  29-36)  has  truly  and  agreea- 
bly represented  the  slow  progress  of  these  studies ;  and  he  observes  that  Gregory 
of  Tours  was  only  once  printed  before  the  year  1560.  According  to  the  com- 
plaint of  Heineccius  (Opera,  torn.  iii.  Sylloge  iii.  p.  248,  etc.),  Germany  received 
with  indifference  and  contempt  the  codes  of  barbaric  laws  which  were  published  by 
Heroldus,Lindebrogius,  etc.  At  present  those  laws  (as  far  as  they  relate  to  Gaul), 
the  history  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  and  all  the  monuments  of  the  Merovingian  race, 
appear  in  a  pure  and  perfect  state,  iu  the  first  four  volumes  of  the  Historians  of 
France. 


40  LAWS  OF  THE  BARBAKIANS.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

sharp  conflict  has  usefully  exercised  the  adverse  powers  of 
learning  and  genius;  and  each  antagonist,  alternately  van- 
quished and  victorious,  has  extirpated  some  ancient  errors, 
and  established  some  interesting  truths.  An  impartial  stran- 
ger, instructed  by  their  discoveries,  their  disputes,  and  even 
their  faults,  may  describe,  from  the  same  original  materials, 
the  state  of  the  Roman  provincials,  after  Gaul  had  submitted 
to  the  arms  and  laws  of  the  Merovingian  kings.64 

The  rudest,  or  the  most  servile,  condition  of  human  socie- 
ty is  regulated,  however,  by  some  fixed  and  general  rules. 
Laws  of  the  When  Tacitus  surveyed  the  primitive  simplicity 
barbarians.  Qf  fae  Germans,  he  discovered  some  permanent 
maxims,  or  customs,  of  public  and  private  life,  which  were 
preserved  by  faithful  tradition  till  the  introduction  of  the 
art  of  writing  and  of  the  Latin  tongue.86  Before  the  election 
of  the  Merovingian  kings,  the  most  powerful  tribe,  or  nation, 
of  the  Franks  appointed  four  venerable  chieftains  to  com- 
pose the  Salic  laws  ;68  and  their  labors  were  examined  and  ap- 

64  In  the  space  of  [about]  thirty  years  (1728-1765)  this  interesting  subject  has 
been  agitated  by  the  free  spirit  of  the  Count  de  Boulainvilliers  (Me'moires  Histo- 
riques  sur  l'Etat  de  la  France,  particularly  torn.  i.  p.  15-49),  the  learned  ingenuity  of 
the  Abbe  Dubos  (Histoire  Critique  de  l'Etablissement  de  la  Monarchic  Francoise 
dans  les  Gaules,  2  vols,  in  4to),  the  comprehensive  genius  of  the  President  de 
Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  particularly  1.  xxviii.  xxx.  xxxi.),  and  the  good- 
sense  and  diligence  of  the  Abbe  de  Mably  (Observations  sur  1'Histoire  de  France, 
2  vols.  12mo). 

65  I  have  derived  much  instruction  from  two  learned  works  of  Heineccius — the 
History  and  the  Elements  of  the  Germanic  law.  In  a  judicious  preface  to  the 
Elements,  he  considers,  and  tries  to  excuse,  the  defects  of  that  barbarous  jurispru- 
dence. 

66  Latin  appears  to  have  been  the  original  language  of  the  Salic  law.  It  was 
probably  composed  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  before  the  era  (a.d.  421) 
of  the  real  or  fabulous  Pharamond.  The  preface  mentions  the  four  cantons  which 
produced  the  four  legislators;  and  many  provinces — Franconia,  Saxony,  Hanover, 
Brabant,  etc. — have  claimed  them  as  their  own.  See  an  excellent  Dissertation  of 
Heineccius,  de  Lege  Salica,  torn.  iii.  Sylloge  iii.  p.  247-267. a 


a  "  The  Salic  law  exists  in  two  texts :  one  purely  Latin,  of  which  there  are 
fifteen  manuscripts ;  the  other  mingled  with  German  words,  of  which  there  are 
three.  Most  have  considered  the  latter  to  be  the  original :  the  manuscripts  con- 
taining it  are  entitled,  Lex  Salica  antiquissima,  or  vetustior ;  the  others  generally 
run,  Lex  Salica  recentior,  or  emendata.  This  seems  to  create  a  presumption.  But 
M.  Wraida,  who  published  a  history  of  the  Salic  law  in  1808,  inclines  to  think  the 


A.D.  536.]  LAWS  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.  41 

proved  in  three  successive  assemblies  of  the  people.  After 
the  baptism  of  Clovis,  he  reformed  several  articles  that  ap- 
peared incompatible  with  Christianity ;  the  Salic  law  was 
again  amended  by  his  sons ;  and  at  length,  under  the  reign  of 
Dagobert,  the  code  was  revised  and  promulgated  in  its  actual 
form,  one  hundred  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  French 
monarchy.  Within  the  same  period,  the  customs  of  the  Ri- 
jpuarians  were  transcribed  and  published ;  and  Charlemagne 
himself,  the  legislator  of  his  age  and  country,  had  accurately 
studied  the  two  national  laws  which  still  prevailed  among  the 
Franks.67  The  same  care  was  extended  to  their  vassals ;  and 
the  rude  institutions  of  the  Alemcmni  and  Bavarians  were 
diligently  compiled  and  ratified  by  the  supreme  authority  of 
the  Merovingian  kings.  The  Visigoths  and  Burgitndians, 
whose  conquests  in  Gaul  preceded  those  of  the  Franks,  show- 
ed less  impatience  to  attain  one  of  the  principal  benefits  of 
civilized  society.  Euric  was  the  first  of  the  Gothic  princes 
who  expressed  in  writing  the  manners  and  customs  of  his 
people ;  and  the  composition  of  the  Burgundian  laws  was  a 
measure  of  policy  rather  than  of  justice,  to  alleviate  the  yoke 
and  regain  the  affections  of  their  Gallic  subjects.68     Thus,  by 

67  Eginhard,  in  Vit.  Caroli  Magni,  c.  29,  in  torn.  v.  p.  100.  By  these  two  laws 
most  critics  understand  the  Salic  and  the  Ripuarian.  The  former  extended  from 
the  Carbonarian  forest  to  the  Loire  (torn.  iv.  p.  151  [Lex  Sal.  tit.  L.]),  and  the 
latter  might  be  obeyed  from  the  same  forest  to  the  Rhine  (torn.  iv.  p.  232). 

68  Consult  the  ancient  and  modern  prefaces  of  the  several  codes,  in  the  fourth 


pure  Latin  older  than  the  other.  M.  Guizot  adopts  the  same  opinion  (Civilisation 
en  France,  Lecon  9).  M.Wraida  refers  its  original  enactment  to  the  period  when 
the  Franks  were  still  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  that  is,  long  before  the  reign 
of  Clovis.  And  this  seems  an  evident  inference  from  what  is  said  in  the  prologue 
to  the  law,  written  long  afterwards.  But  of  course  it  cannot  apply  to  those  pas- 
sages which  allude  to  the  Romans  as  subjects,  or  to  Christianity.  M.  Guizot  is 
of  opinion  that  it  bears  marks  of  an  age  when  the  Franks  had  long  been  mingled 
with  the  Roman  population.  This  is  consistent  with  its  having  been  revised  by 
the  sons  of  Clovis,  Childebert  and  Clotaire,  as  is  asserted  in  the  prologue.  Nei- 
ther Wraida  nor  Guizot  think  it  older  in  its  present  text  than  the  seventh  century. 
It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  two  later  writers — M.  Pertz,  in  Monumenta  Ger- 
manise Historica,  and  M.  Pardessus,  in  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  vol.  xv. 
(Nouvelle  Se'rie) — have  entered  anew  on  this  discussion,  and  do  not  agree  with  M. 
Wraida,  nor  wholly  with  each  other.  M.  Lehueron  is  clearly  of  opinion  that,  in 
all  its  substance,  the  Salic  code  is  to  be  referred  to  Germany  for  its  birthplace,  and 
to  the  period  of  heathenism  for  its  date  (Institutions  Mfrovingiennss,  p.  83)."  Hal- 
lam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  276,  tenth  edit.— S. 


42  LAWS  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.  [Ch.  XXXVIH, 

a  singular  coincidence,  the  Germans  framed  their  artless  insti- 
tutions at  a  time  when  the  elaborate  system  of  Roman  juris- 
prudence was  finally  consummated.  In  the  Salic  laws,  and 
the  Pandects  of  Justinian,  we  may  compare  the  first  rudi- 
ments, and  the  full  maturity,  of  civil  wisdom ;  and  whatever 
prejudices  may  be  suggested  in  favor  of  barbarism,  our  calm- 
er reflections  will  ascribe  to  the  Romans  the  superior  advan- 
tages, not  only  of  science  and  reason,  but  of  humanity  and 
justice.  Tet  the  lawsa  of  the  barbarians  were  adapted  to 
their  wants  and  desires,  their  occupations  and  their  capacity ; 
and  they  all  contributed  to  preserve  the  peace,  and  promote 
the  improvements,  of  the  society  for  whose  use  they  were 
originally  established.  The  Merovingians,  instead  of  impos- 
ing a  uniform  rule  of  conduct  on  their  various  subjects,  per- 
mitted each  people,  and  each  family,  of  their  empire  freely 
to  enjoy  their  domestic  institutions  ;89  nor  were  the  Romans 
excluded  from  the  common  benefits  of  this  legal  toleration.70 
The  children  embraced  the  law  of  their  parents,  the  wife  that 
of  her  husband,  the  freedman  that  of  his  patron ;  and  in  all 
causes  where  the  parties  were  of  different  nations,  the  plaintiff 
or  accuser  was  obliged  to  follow  the  tribunal  of  the  defend- 
ant, who  may  always  plead  a  judicial  presumption  of  right  or 

volume  of  the  Historians  of  France.  The  original  prologue  to  the  Salic  law  ex- 
presses (though  in  a  foreign  dialect)  the  genuine  spirit  of  the  Franks  more  forci- 
bly than  the  ten  books  of  Gregory  of  Tours. 

69  The  Ripuarian  law  declares  and  defines  this  indulgence  in  favor  of  the  plain- 
tiff (tit.  xxxi.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  240) ;  and  the  same  toleration  is  understood  or  ex- 
pressed in  all  the  codes,  except  that  of  the  Visigoths  of  Spain.  "Tanta  diversi- 
tas  legum  "  (says  Agobard  in  the  ninth  century)  "quanta  non  solum  in  [singulis] 
regionibus,  aut  civitatibus,  sed  etiam  in  multis  domibus  habetur.  Nam  plerumque 
contingit  ut  simul  eant  aut  sedeant  quinque  homines,  et  nullas  eorum  commuuem 
legem  cum  altera  habeat "  (in  torn.  vi.  p.  356).  He  foolishly  proposes  to  intro- 
duce a  uniformity  of  law  as  well  as  of  faith. b 

10  "  Inter  Romanos  negotla  causarum  Romanis  legibus  praecipimus  terminari.* 
Such  are  the  words  of  a  general  constitution  promulgated  by  Clotaire,  the  son  of 
Clovis,  and  sole  monarch  of  the  Franks  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  116),  about  the  year  560. 


a  The  most  complete  collection  of  these  codes  is  in  the  "Barbarorum  leges  an» 
tiquae,"  by  P.  Canciani ;  5  vols,  folio,  Venice,  1781-9. — M. 

b  It  is  the  object  of  the  important  work  of  M.  Savigny,  Geschichte  des  Romi- 
schen  Rechts  im  Mittelalter,  to  show  the  perpetuity  of  the  Roman  law  from  the 
fifth  to  the  twelfth  century. — M. 


AJ>.536.]  FINES  FOR  HOMICIDE.  43 

innocence.  A  more  ample  latitude  was  allowed  if  every  citi- 
zen, in  the  presence  of  the  judge,  might  declare  the  law  under 
which  he  desired  to  live  and  the  national  society  to  which 
he  chose  to  belong.  Such  an  indulgence  would  abolish  the 
partial  distinctions  of  victory :  and  the  Boman  provincials 
might  patiently  acquiesce  in  the  hardships  of  their  condi- 
tion, since  it  depended  on  themselves  to  assume  the  privi- 
lege, if  they  dared  to  assert  the  character,  of  free  and  warlike 
barbarians.71 

When  justice  inexorably  requires  the  death  of  a  murderer, 

each  private  citizen  is  fortified  by  the  assurance  that  the  laws, 

the  magistrate,  and  the  whole  community  are  the 

Pecuniary  ,.■.,.  „  -,-,  ,. 

fines  for         guardians  of  his  personal  safety.     But  in  the  loose 

homicide.  °     .  x  u 

society  oi  the  Germans,  revenge  was  always  hon- 
orable, and  often  meritorious:  the  independent  warrior  chas- 
tised, or  vindicated,  with  his  own  hand  the  injuries  which  he 
had  offered  or  received ;  and  he  had  only  to  dread  the  resent- 
ment of  the  sons  and  kinsmen  of  the  enemy  whom  he  had 
sacrificed  to  his  selfish  or  angry  passions.  The  magistrate, 
conscious  of  his  weakness,  interposed,  not  to  punish,  but  to 
reconcile ;  and  he  was  satisfied  if  he  could  persuade  or  com- 
pel the  contending  parties  to  pay  and  to  accept  the  moderate 

11  This  liberty  of  choice3  has  been  aptly  deduced  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxviii.  2) 
from  a  constitution  of  Lothaire  I.b  (Leg.  Langobard.  1.  ii.  tit.  lvii.  in  Codex  Lin- 
debrog.  p.  664),  though  the  example  is  too  recent  and  partial.  From  a  various 
reading  in  the  Salic  law  (tit.  xliv.  not.  xlv.),  the  Abbe*  de  Mably  (torn.  i.  p.  290- 
293)  has  conjectured  that  at  first  a  barbarian  only,  and  afterwards  any  man  (con- 
sequently a  Roman),  might  live  according  to  the  law  of  the  Franks.  I  am  sorry 
to  offend  this  ingenious  conjecture  by  observing  that  the  stricter  sense  (barbarum) 
is  expressed  in  the  reformed  copy  of  Charlemagne,  which  is  confirmed  by  the  Roy- 
al and  Wolfenbiittel  MSS.  The  looser  interpretation  (hominerri)  is  authorized 
only  by  the  MS.  of  Fulda,  from  whence  Heroldus  published  his  edition.  See  the 
four  original  texts  of  the  Salic  law,  in  torn.  iv.  p.  147, 173,  196,  220. 


a  Gibbon  appears  to  have  doubted  the  evidence  on  which  this  "liberty  of  choice" 
rested.  His  doubts  have  been  confirmed  by  the  researches  of  M.  Savigny,  who 
has  not  only  confuted  but  traced  with  convincing  sagacity  the  origin  and  progress 
of  this  error.  As  a  general  principle,  though  liable  to  some  exceptions,  each  lived 
according  to  his  native  law.  Gesch.  des  Romischen  Reohts,  vol.  i.  p.  123-138. 
— M. 

b  This  constitution  of  Lothaire  at  first  related  only  to  the  duchy  of  Rome ;  it 
afterwards  found  its  way  into  the  Lombard  code.     Savigny,  p.  138. — M. 


44  FINES  FOE  HOMICIDE.  [Ch.XXXVIIL 

fine  which  had  been  ascertained  as  the  price  of  blood.7'  The 
fierce  spirit  of  the  Franks  would  have  opposed  a  more  rigor- 
ous sentence;  the  same  fierceness  despised  these  ineffectual 
restraints ;  and,  when  their  simple  manners  had  been  corrupt- 
ed by  the  wealth  of  Gaul,  the  public  peace  was  continually 
violated  by  acts  of  hasty  or  deliberate  guilt.  In  every  just 
government  the  same  penalty  is  inflicted,  or  at  least  is  im- 
posed, for  the  murder  of  a  peasant  or  a  prince.  But  the  na- 
tional inequality  established  by  the  Franks  in  their  criminal 
proceedings  was  the  last  insult  and  abuse  of  conquest.73  In 
the  calm  moments  of  legislation  they  solemnly  pronounced 
that  the  life  of  a  Koman  was  of  smaller  value  than  that  of  a 
barbarian.  The  Antrustion,''*  a  name  expressive  of  the  most 
illustrious  birth  or  dignity  among  the  Franks,  was  apprecia- 
ted at  the  sum  of  six  hundred  pieces  of  gold ;  while  the  no- 
ble provincial,  who  was  admitted  to  the  king's  table,  might 
be  legally  murdered  at  the  expense  of  three  hundred  pieces. 
Two  hundred  were  deemed  sufficient  for  a  Frank  of  ordinary 
condition  ;  but  the  meaner  Romans  were  exposed  to  disgrace 
and  danger  by  a  trifling  compensation  of  one  hundred,  or 
even  fifty,  pieces  of  gold.  Had  these  laws  been  regulated 
by  any  principle  of  equity  or  reason,  the  public  protection 
should  have  supplied,  in  just  proportion,  the  want  of  personal 
strength.  But  the  legislator  had  weighed  in  the  scale,  not  of 
justice,  but  of  policy,  the  loss  of  a  soldier  against  that  of  a 

72  In  the  heroic  times  of  Greece,  the  guilt  of  murder  was  expiated  by  a  pecun* 
iary  satisfaction  to  the  family  of  the  deceased  (Feithius  Antiquitat.  Homer.  1.  ii. 
c.  8).  Heineccius,  in  his  preface  to  the  Elements  of  Germanic  Law,  favorably 
suggests  that  at  Rome  and  Athens  homicide  was  only  punished  with  exile.  It  is 
true ;  but  exile  was  a  capital  punishment  for  a  citizen  of  Rome  or  Athens. 

13  This  proportion  is  fixed  by  the  Salic  (tit.  xliv.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  147)  and  the 
Ripuarian  (tit.  vii.  xi.  xxxvi.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  237,  241)  laws  ;  but  the  latter  does  not 
distinguish  any  difference  of  Romans.  Yet  the  orders  of  the  clergy  are  placed 
above  the  Franks  themselves,  and  the  Burgundians  and  Alemanni  between  the 
Franks  and  the  Romans. 

14  The  Antrustiones,  qui  in  truste  Dominica  sunt,  leudi,  JideJes,  undoubtedly 
represent  the  first  order  of  Franks ;  but  it  is  a  question  whether  their  rank  was 
personal  or  hereditary.  The  Abbe  de  Mably  (torn.  i.  p.  334-347)  is  not  displeased 
to  mortify  the  pride  of  birth  (Esprit,  1.  xxx.  c.  25)  by  dating  the  origin  of  French 
nobility  from  the  reign  of  Clotaire  II.  (a.d.  615). 


A.D.536.]  JUDGMENTS  OF  GOD.  45 

slave :  the  head  of  an  insolent  and  rapacious  barbarian  was 
guarded  by  a  heavy  fine ;  and  the  slightest  aid  was  afforded 
to  the  most  defenceless  subjects.  Time  insensibly  abated  the 
pride  of  the  conquerors  and  the  patience  of  the  vanquished; 
and  the  boldest  citizen  was  taught  by  experience  that  he 
might  suffer  more  injuries  than  he  could  inflict.  As  the 
manners  of  the  Franks  became  less  ferocious,  their  laws  were 
rendered  more  severe ;  and  the  Merovingian  kings  attempted 
to  imitate  the  impartial  rigor  of  the  Yisigoths  and  Bnrgun- 
dians.75  Under  the  empire  of  Charlemagne  murder  was  uni- 
versally punished  with  death ;  and  the  use  of  capital  punish- 
ments has  been  liberally  multiplied  in  the  jurisprudence  of 
modern  Europe.16 

The  civil  and  military  professions,  which  had  been  separa- 
ted by  Constantine,  were  again  united  by  the  barbarians.  The 
judgments  harsh  sound  of  the  Teutonic  appellations  was  molii- 
ofGod.  £ecj  jnto  tne  Latin  titles  of  Duke,  of  Count,  or  of 

Prsefect;  and  the  same  officer  assumed,  within  his  district, 
the  command  of  the  troops  and  the  administration  of  justice.77 
But  the  fierce  and  illiterate  chieftain  was  seldom  qualified  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  a  judge,  which  require  all  the  faculties 

1,5  See  the  Burgundian  laws  (tit.  ii.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  257),  the  code  of  the  Visigoths 
(I.  vi.  tit.  v.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  383),  and  the  constitution  of  Childebert,  not  of  Paris, 
but  most  evidently  of  Austrasia  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  112).  Their  premature  severity  was 
sometimes  rash  and  excessive.  Childebert  condemned  not  only  murderers  but 
robbers  ;  "quomodo  sine  lege  involavit,  sine  lege  moriatur;"  and  even  the  negli- 
gent judge  was  involved  in  the  same  sentence.  The  Visigoths  abandoned  an  un- 
successful surgeon  to  the  family  of  his  deceased  patient,  "  ut  quod  de  eo  facere 
voluerint  habeant  potestatc.n  "  (1.  xi.  tit.  i.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  435). 

1G  See,  in  the  sixth  volume  of  the  works  of  Heineccius,  the  Elementa  Juris  Ger- 
manici,  1.  ii.  p.  ii.  No.  261,  262,  280-283.  Yet  some  vestiges  of  these  pecuniary 
compositions  for  murder  have  been  traced  in  Germany  as  late  as  the  sixteenth 
century. 

"  The  whole  subject  of  the  Germanic  judges  and  their  jurisdiction  is  copiously 
treated  by  Heineccius  (Element.  Jur.  Germ.  1.  iii.  No.  1-72).  I  cannot  find  any 
proof  that,  under  the  Merovingian  race,  the  scabini,  or  assessors,  were  chosen  by 
the  people.*  

"  The  question  of  the  scabini  is  treated  at  considerable  length  by  Savigny.  Ha 
questions  the  existence  of  the  scabini  anterior  to  Charlemagne.  Before  this  time 
the  decision  was  by  an  open  court  of  the  freemen,  the  boni  homines.  Gesch.  del 
Bomischen  Bechts,  vol.  i.  p.  195  seq. — M» 


46  JUDGMENTS  OF  GOD.  [Ch.  XXXVIII. 

of  a  philosophic  mind,  laboriously  cultivated  by  experience 
and  study ;  and  his  rude  ignorance  was  compelled  to  embrace 
some  simple  and  visible  methods  of  ascertaining  the  cause 
of  justice.  In  every  religion  the  Deity  has  been  invoked  to 
confirm  the  truth,  or  to  punish  the  falsehood,  of  human  tes- 
timony; but  this  powerful  instrument  was  misapplied  and 
abused  by  the  simplicity  of  the  German  legislators.  The 
party  accused  might  justify  his  innocence,  by  producing  be- 
fore their  tribunal  a  number  of  friendly  witnesses,  who  sol- 
emnly declared  their  belief  or  assurance  that  he  was  not 
guilty.  According  to  the  weight  of  the  charge,  this  legal 
number  of  compurgators  was  multiplied :  seventy-two  voices 
were  required  to  absolve  an  incendiary  or  assassin ;  and  when 
the  chastity  of  a  queen  of  France  was  suspected,  three  hun- 
dred gallant  nobles  swore,  without  hesitation,  that  the  infant 
prince  had  been  actually  begotten  by  her  deceased  husband.78 
The  sin  and  scandal  of  manifest  and  frequent  perjuries  en- 
gaged the  magistrates  to  remove  these  dangerous  temptations, 
and  to  supply  the  defects  of  human  testimony  by  the  famous 
experiments  of  fire  and  water.  These  extraordinary  trials 
were  so  capriciously  contrived,  that  in  some  cases  guilt,  and 
innocence  in  others,  could  not  be  proved  without  the  inter- 
position of  a  miracle.  Such  miracles  were  readily  provided 
by  fraud  and  credulity ;  the  most  intricate  causes  were  deter- 
mined by  this  easy  and  infallible  method ;  and  the  turbulent 
barbarians,  who  might  have  disdained  the  sentence  of  the 
magistrate,  submissively  acquiesced  in  the  judgment  of  God.79 
But  the  trials  by  single  combat  gradually  obtained  superior 
credit  and  authority  among  a  warlike  people,  who  could  not 


18  Gregor.  Turon.  1.  viii.  c.  9,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  316.  Montesquieu  observes  (Esprit 
des  Loix,  1.  xxviii.  c.  13)  that  the  Salic  law  did  not  admit  these  negative  proofs  so 
universally  established  in  the  barbaric  codes.  Yet  this  obscure  concubine  (Fiede- 
gundis),  who  became  the  wife  of  the  grandson  of  Clovis,  must  have  followed  the 
Salic  law. 

19  Muratori,  in  the  Antiquities  of  Italy,  has  given  two  Dissertations  (xxxviii. 
xxxix.)  on  the  judgments  of  God.  It  was  expected  that^re  would  not  burn  the 
innocent,  arid  that  the  pure  element  of  water  would  not  allow  the  guilty  to  sink 
Into  its  bosom. 


a.d.536.]  JUDICIAL  COMBATS.  47 

deserved  to  live.80  Botli  in  civil  and  criminal  proceedings, 
judicial  *ne  plaintiff,  or  accuser,  the  defendant,  or  even 
combats.  ^e  wjtness,  were  exposed  to  mortal  challenge  from 
the  antagonist  who  was  destitute  of  legal  proofs ;  and  it  was 
incumbent  on  them  either  to  desert  their  cause  or  publicly 
to  maintain  their  honor  in  the  lists  of  battle.  They  fought 
either  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  according  to  the  custom  of 
their  nation  ;81  and  the  decision  of  the  sword  or  lance  was  rat- 
ified by  the  sanction  of  Heaven,  of  the  judge,  and  of  the  peo- 
ple. This  sanguinary  law  was  introduced  into  Gaul  by  the 
Burgundians ;  and  their  legislator  Gundobald82  condescended 
to  answer  the  complaints  and  objections  of  his  subject  Avitus. 
"  Is  it  not  true,"  said  the  King  of  Burgundy  to  the  bishop, 
"  that  the  event  of  national  wars  and  private  combats  is 
directed  by  the  judgment  of  God,  and  that  his  providence 
awards  the  victory  to  the  juster  cause  ?"  By  such  prevailing 
arguments,  the  absurd  and  cruel  practice  of  judicial  duels, 
which  had  been  peculiar  to  some  tribes  of  Germany,  was  prop- 
agated and  established  in  all  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  from 
Sicily  to  the  Baltic.  At  the  end  of  ten  centuries  the  reign 
of  legal  violence  was  not  totally  extinguished ;  and  the  inef- 
fectual censures  of  saints,  of  popes,  and  of  synods  may  seem 
to  prove  that  the  influence  of  superstition  is  weakened  by  its 
unnatural  alliance  with  reason  and  humanity.  The  tribunals 
were  stained  with  the  blood,  perhaps,  of  innocent  and  respect- 

80  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxviii.  c.  17)  has  condescended  to  explain 
and  excuse  "la  maniere  de  penser  de  nos  peres"  on  the  subject  of  judicial  com- 
bats. He  follows  this  strange  institution  from  the  age  of  Gundobald  to  that  of 
St.  Lewis  ;  and  the  philosopher  is  sometimes  lost  in  the  legal  antiquarian. 

81  In  a  memorable  duel  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  (a.d.  820),  before  the  Emperor 
Lewis  the  Pious,  his  biographer  observes,  "Secundum  legem  propriam,  utpote 
quia  uterque  Gothus  erat,  equestri  pugna  [prcelio]  congressus  est''  (Vit.  Lud.  Pii, 
c.  33,  in  torn.  vi.  p.  103).  Ermoldus  Nigellus  (1.  iii.  543-628,  in  torn.  vi.  p.  48-50), 
who  describes  the  duel,  admires  the  ars  nova  of  fighting  on  horseback,  which  was 
unknown  to  the  Franks. 

82  In  his  original  edict,  published  at  Lyons  (a.d.  501),  Gundobald  establishes 
and  justifies  the  use  of  judicial  combat.  (Leg.  Burgund.  tit.  xlv.  in  torn.  iii.  p. 
267,  268.)  Three  hundred  years  afterwards,  Agobard,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  solicited 
Lewis  the  Pious  to  abolish  the  law  of  an  Arian  tyrant  (in  torn.  vi.  p.  356-358). 
He  relates  the  conversation  of  Gundobald  and  Avitus. 


48  DIVISION  OF  LANDS.  [Cn.  XXXVIIL 

able  citizens;  the  law,  which  now  favors  the  rich,  then  yield- 
ed to  the  strong ;  and  the  old,  the  feeble,  and  the  infirm  were 
condemned  either  to  renounce  their  fairest  claims  and  pos- 
sessions, to  sustain  the  dangers  of  an  unequal  conflict,63  of 
to  trust  the  doubtful  aid  of  a  mercenary  champion.  Thifl 
oppressive  jurisprudence  was  imposed  on  the  provincials  of 
Gaul  who  complained  of  any  injuries  in  their  persons  and 
property.  Whatever  might  be  the  strength  or  courage  of  in- 
dividuals, the  victorious  barbarians  excelled  in  the  love  and 
exercise  of  arms ;  and  the  vanquished  Koman  was  unjustly 
summoned  to  repeat,  in  his  own  person,  the  bloody  contest 
which  had  been  already  decided  against  his  country.84 

A  devouring  host  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 

Germans  had  formerly  passed  the  Rhine  under  the  command 

of  Ariovistus.     One  third  part  of  the  fertile  lands 

Division  of  .  .         ,  ,     . 

lands  by  the    ot  the  bequam  was  appropriated  to  their  use;  and 

barbarians.  *  ,     i  -,  •  •         ■,  -, 

the  conqueror  soon  repeated  his  oppressive  demand 
of  another  third,  for  the  accommodation  of  a  new  colony  of 
twenty -four  thousand  barbarians  whom  he  had  invited  to 
share  the  rich  harvest  of  Gaul.85  At  the  distance  of  five  hun- 
dred years  the  Yisigoths  and  Burgundians,  who  revenged  the 
defeat  of  Ariovistus,  usurped  the  same  unequal  proportion  of 
two  thirds  of  the  subject  lands.  But  this  distribution,  instead 
of  spreading  over  the  province,  may  be  reasonably  confined 
to  the  peculiar  districts  where  the  victorious  people  had  been 
planted  by  their  own  choice  or  by  the  policy  of  their  leader. 

83  "Accidit"  (says  Agobavd),  "ut  non  solum  valentes  viribus,  sed  etiam  in- 
firmi  et  senes  lacessantur  ad  [certamen  et]  pugnam,  etiam  pro  vilissimis  rebus. 
Quibus  feralibus  certaminibus  contingunt  homicidia  injusta,  et  crudeles  ac  per- 
versi  eventus  judiciorum  "  [torn.  vi.  p.  357].  Like  a  prudent  rhetorician,  he  sup- 
presses the  legal  privilege  of  hiring  champions. 

84  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  xxviii.  c.  14),  who  understands  why  the  ju- 
dicial combat  was  admitted  by  the  Burgundians,  Ripuarians,  Alemanni,  Bavari- 
ans, Lombards,  Thuringians,  Frisons,  and  Saxons,  is  satisfied  (and  Agobard  seems 
to  countenance  the  assertion)  that  it  was  not  allowed  by  the  Salic  law.  Yet  the 
same  custom,  at  least  in  cases  of  treason,  is  mentioned  by  Krmoldus  Nigellus  (1. 
iii.  543,  in  torn.  vi.  p.  48)  and  the  anonymous  biographer  of  Lewis  the  Pious  (ch. 
46,  in  torn.  vi.  p.  112),  as  the  "  mos  antiquus  Francorum,  more  Francis  solito," 
etc.,  expressions  too  general  to  exclude  the  noblest  of  their  tribes. 

85  Caesar  de  Bell.  Gall.  1.  L  c.  SI,  in  torn.  i.  p.  213. 


A.r>.  536.3  DIVISION  OF  LANDS.  49 

In  these  districts  each  barbarian  was  connected  by  the  ties  of 
hospitality  with  some  Koman  provincial.  To  this  unwelcome 
guest  the  proprietor  was  compelled  to  abandon  two  thirds  of 
his  patrimony :  but  the  German,  a  shepherd  and  a  hunter, 
might  sometimes  content  himself  with  a  spacious  range  of 
wood  and  pasture,  and  resign  the  smallest,  though  most  valu- 
able, portion  to  the  toil  of  the  industrious  husbandman.89  The 
silence  of  ancient  and  authentic  testimony  has  encouraged  an 
opinion  that  the  rapine  of  the  Franks  was  not  moderated  or 
disguised  by  the  forms  of  a  legal  division ;  that  they  dispersed 
themselves  over  the  provinces  of  Gaul  without  order  or  con- 
trol ;  and  that  each  victorious  robber,  according  to  his  wants, 
his  avarice,  and  his  strength,  measured  with  his  sword  the  ex- 
tent of  his  new  inheritance.  At  a  distance  from  their  sover- 
eign the  barbarians  might  indeed  be  tempted  to  exercise  such 
arbitrary  depredation ;  but  the  firm  and  artful  policy  of  Clo- 
vis  must  curb  a  licentious  spirit  which  would  aggravate  the 
misery  of  the  vanquished,  whilst  it  corrupted  the  union  and 
discipline  of  the  conquerors.*  The  memorable  vase  of  Sois- 
sons  is  a  monument  and  a  pledge  of  the  regular  distribution 
of  the  Gallic  spoils.  It  was  the  duty  and  the  interest  of  Clo- 
vis  to  provide  rewards  for  a  successful  army,  and  settlements 

86  Th«  obscure  hints  of  a  division  of  lands  occasionally  scattered  in  the  laws  of 
the  Burgundians  (tit.  liv.  No.  1,  2,  in  torn.  iv.  p.  271,  272)  and  "Visigoths  (1.  x.  tit.  i. 
No.  8,  9,  16,  in  torn.  iv.  p.  428,  429,  430)  are  skilfully  explained  by  the  Presi- 
dent Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxx.  c.  7,  8,  9).  I  shall  only  add  that, 
among  the  Goths,  the  division  seems  to  have  been  ascertained  by  the  judgment  of 
the  neighborhood ;  that  the  barbarians  frequently  usurped  the  remaining  third; 
and  that  the  Romans  might  recover  their  right,  unless  they  were  barred  by  a  pre* 
scription  of  fifty  years. 

*  Sismondi  (Hist,  des  Francais,  vol.  i.  p.  197)  observes  that  the  Franks  were  not 
a  conquering  people,  who  had  emigrated  with  their  families,  like  the  Goths  or  Bur- 
gundians.  The  women,  the  children,  the  old,  had  not  followed  Clovis :  they  re- 
mained in  their  ancient  possessions  on  the  Waal  and  the  Rhine.  The  adventurers 
alone  had  formed  the  invading  force,  and  they  always  considered  themselves  as  an 
army,  not  as  a  colony.  Hence  their  laws  retained  no  traces  of  the  partition  of  the 
Roman  properties.  It  is  curious  to  observe  the  recoil  from  the  national  vanity  of 
the  French  historians  of  the  last  century.  M.  Sismondi  compares  the  position 
of  the  Franks  with  regard  to  the  conquered  people  with  that  of  the  Dey  of  Algiers 
and  his  corsair  troops  to  the  peaceful  inhabitants  of  that  province :  M.  Thierry 
(Lettres  sur  l'Histoire  de  France,  p.  1 17)  with  that  of  the  Turks  towards  the  Raias 
or  Phanariotes,  the  mass  of  the  Greeks. — M. 

IY.— 4: 


50  DOMAIN  AND  BENEFICES  [Ch.  XXXVUI. 

for  a  numerous  people,  without  inflicting  any  wanton  or  su- 
perfluous injuries  on  the  loyal  Catholics  of  Gaul.  The  ample 
fund  which  he  might  lawfully  acquire  of  the  imperial  patri- 
mony, vacant  lands,  and  Gothic  usurpations  would  diminish 
the  cruel  necessity  of  seizure  and  confiscation,  and  the  hum- 
ble provincials  would  more  patiently  acquiesce  in  the  equal 
and  regular  distribution  of  their  loss.87 

The  wealth  of  the  Merovingian  princes  consisted  in  their 
extensive  domain.  After  the  conquest  of  Gaul  they  still  de- 
Domainand  lighted  in  the  rustic  simplicity  of  their  ancestors; 
Jh" Merovin-  tne  cities  were  abandoned  to  solitude  and  decay ; 
gians.  an(j  £heir  coins,  their  charters,  and  their  synods  are 

still  inscribed  with  the  names  of  the  villas  or  rural  palaces  in 
which  they  successively  resided.  One  hundred  and  sixty  of 
these  palaces — a  title  which  need  not  excite  any  unseasonable 
ideas  of  art  or  luxury — were  scattered  through  the  provinces 
of  their  kingdom ;  and  if  some  might  claim  the  honors  of  a 
fortress,  the  far  greater  part  could  be  esteemed  only  in  the 
light  of  profitable  farms.  The  mansion  of  the  long-haired 
kings  was  surrounded  with  convenient  yards  and  stables  for 
the  cattle  and  the  poultry ;  the  garden  was  planted  with  use- 
ful vegetables ;  the  various  trades,  the  labors  of  agriculture, 
and  even  the  arts  of  hunting  and  fishing,  were  exercised  by 
servile  hands  for  the  emolument  of  the  sovereign ;  his  mag- 
azines were  filled  with  corn  and  wine,  either  for  sale  or  con- 
sumption ;  and  the  whole  administration  was  conducted  by 
the  strictest  maxims  of  private  economy.88     This  ample  patri- 

87  It  is  singular  enough  that  the  President  de  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1. 
xxx.  ch.  7)  and  the  Abbe  de  Mably  (Observations,  torn.  i.  p.  21,  22)  agree  in  this 
strange  supposition  of  arbitrary  and  private  rapine.  The  Count  de  Boulainvilliers 
(Etat  de  la  France,  torn.  i.  p.  22,  23)  shows  a  strong  understanding  through  a 
cloud  of  ignorance  and  prejudice.3 

88  See  the  rustic  edict,  or  rather  code,  of  Charlemagne,  which  contains  seventy 
distinct  and  minute  regulations  of  that  great  monarch  (in  torn.  v.  p.  652-657).  He 
requires  an  account  of  the  horns  and  skins  of  the  goats,  allows  his  fish  to  be  sold, 


»  Sismondi  supposes  that  the  barbarians,  if  a  farm  were  conveniently  situated, 
would  show  no  great  respect  for  the  laws  of  property  ;  bat  in  general  there  would 
have  been  vacant  land  enough  for  the  lots  assigned  to  old  or  worn-out  warriors. 
Hist,  des  Fruncais,  vol.  i.  p.  196. — M. 


a.d.536.]  OP  THE  MEROVINGIANS.  51 

mony  was  appropriated  to  supply  the  hospitable  plenty  of 
Clovis  and  his  successors,  and  to  reward  the  fidelity  of  their 
brave  companions,  who,  both  in  peace  and  war,  were  devoted 
to  their  personal  service.  Instead  of  a  horse  or  a  suit  of  ar- 
mor, each  companion,  according  to  his  rank,  or  merit,  or  favor, 
was  invested  with  a  benefice,  the  primitive  name  and  most 
simple  form  of  the  feudal  possessions.  These  gifts  might  be 
resumed  at  the  pleasure  of  the  sovereign ;  and  his  feeble  pre- 
rogative derived  some  support  from  the  influence  of  his  liber- 
ality." But  this  dependent  tenure  was  gradually  abolished" 
by  the  independent  and  rapacious  nobles  of  France,  who  es- 
tablished the  perpetual  property  and  hereditary  succession  of 
their  benefices — a  revolution  salutary  to  the  earth,  which  had 
been  injured  or  neglected  by  its  precarious  masters.00  Besides 
these  royal  and  beneficiary  estates,  a  large  proportion  had 
been  assigned,  in  the  division  of  Gaul,  of  allodial  and  Salic 
lands:  they  were  exempt  from  tribute,  and  the  Salic  lands 
were  equally  shared  among  the  male  descendants  of  the 
Franks.91 

and  carefully  directs  that  the  larger  villas  (Capitanece)  shall  maintain  one  hun- 
dred hens  and  thirty  geese,  and  the  smaller  (Mansionales)  fifty  hens  and  twelve 
geese.  Mabillon  (de  Re  Diplomatics*)  has  investigated  the  names,  the  number, 
and  the  situation  of  the  Merovingian  villas. 

89  From  a  passage  of  the  Burgundian  law  (tit.  i.  No.  4  [3]  in  torn.  iv.  p.  2~>7)  it 
is  evident  that  a  deserving  son  might  expect  to  hold  the  lands  which  his  father  had 
received  from  the  royal  bounty  of  Gundobald.  The  Burgundians  would  firmly 
maintain  their  privilege,  and  their  example  might  encourage  the  beneficiaries  of 
France. 

90  The  revolutions  of  the  benefices  and  fiefs  are  clearly  fixed  by  the  Abbe  de 
Mably.  His  accurate  distinction  of  times  gives  him  a  merit  to  which  even  Mon- 
tesquieu is  a  stranger. 

91  See  the  Salic  law  (tit.  lxii.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  156).  The  origin  and  nature  of 
these  Salic  lands,  which  in  times  of  ignorance  were  perfectly  understood,  now  per- 
plex our  most  learned  and  sagacious  critics. b 


a  The  resumption  of  benefices  at  the  pleasure  of  the  sovereign  (the  general  the- 
ory down  to  his  time)  is  ably  contested  by  Mr.  Hallam  ;  "for  this  resumption  some 
delinquency  must  be  imputed  to  the  vassal."  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  159  [tenth 
edit.].  The  reader  will  be  interested  by  the  singular  analogies  with  the  beneficial 
and  feudal  system  of  Europe  in  a  remote  part  of  the  world,  indicated  by  Colonel 
Tod  in  his  splendid  work  on  Raja'sthan,  vol.  i.  c.  i.  p.  129,  etc. — M. 

b  No  solution  seems  more  probable  than  that  the  ancient  lawgivers  of  the  Salic 
Franks  prohibited  females  from  inheriting  the  lauds  assigned  to  the  nation,  upon 


52  PEIVATE  USUEPATIONS.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

In  the  bloody  discord  and  silent  decay  of  the  Merovingian 
line  a  new  order  of  tyrants  arose  in  the  provinces,  who,  under 
Private  tne  appellation  of  Seniors,  or  Lords,  usurped  a  right 

usurpations.  £0  govern  and  a  license  to  oppress  the  subjects  of 
their  peculiar  territory.  Their  ambition  might  be  checked 
by  the  hostile  resistance  of  an  equal :  but  the  laws  were  ex- 
tinguished ;  and  the  sacrilegious  barbarians,  who  dared  to 
provoke  the  vengeance  of  a  saint  or  bishop,92  would  seldom 
respect  the  landmarks  of  a  profane  and  defenceless  neighbor. 
The  common  or  public  rights  of  nature,  such  as  they  had 
always  been  deemed  by  the  Roman  jurisprudence,93  were  se- 
verely restrained  by  the  German  conquerors,  whose  amuse- 
ment, or  rather  passion,  was  the  exercise  of  hunting.  The 
vague  dominion  which  Man  has  assumed  over  the  wild  in- 
habitants of  the  earth,  the  air,  and  the  waters  was  confined 
to  some  fortunate  individuals  of  the  human  species.  Gaul 
was  again  overspread  with  woods ;  and  the  animals,  who  were 
reserved  for  the  use  or  pleasure  of  the  lord,  might  ravage 
with  impunity  the  fields  of  his  industrious  vassals.  The 
chase  was  the  sacred  privilege  of  the  nobles  and  their  domes- 
tic servants.  Plebeian  transgressors  were  legally  chastised 
with  stripes  and  imprisonment  ;94  but  in  an  age  which  admit- 

92  Many  of  the  two  hundred  and  six  miracles  of  St.  Martin  (Greg.  Turon.  in 
Maxima  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  torn.  xi.  p.  896-932)  were  repeatedly  performed  to 
punish  sacrilege.  "Audite  haec  omnes  "  (exclaims  the  Bishop  of  Tours)  "potes- 
tatem  habentes,"  after  relating  how  some  horses  ran  mad  that  had  been  turned 
into  a  sacred  meadow. 

93  Heinec.  Element.  Jur.  German.  1.  ii.  p.  1,  No.  8. 

94  Jonas,  Bishop  of  Orleans  (a.d.  82 1  -826  ;  Cave,  Hist.  Litteraria,  p.  443),  cen- 
sm-es  the  legal  tyranny  of  the  nobles.  Pro  feris,  quas  cura  hominum  non  aluit, 
6ed  Deus  in  commune  mortalibus  ad  utendum  concessit,  pauperes  a  potentioribus 
spoliantur,  flagellantur,  ergastulis  detruduntur,  et  multa  alia  patiuntur.  Hoc  enira 
qui  faciunt,  lege  mundi  se  facere  juste  posse  contendunt.  De  Institutione  Laico- 
rum,  1.  ii.  c.  23,  apud  Thomassin,  Discipline  de  l'Eglise,  torn.  iii.  p.  1348. 


its  conquest  of  Gaul,  both  in  compliance  with  their  ancient  usages,  and  in  order  to 
secure  the  military  service  of  every  proprietor.  But  lands  subsequently  acquired 
by  purchase  or  other  means,  though  equally  bound  to  the  public  defence,  were  re- 
lieved from  the  severity  of  this  rule,  and  presumed  not  to  belong  to  the  class  of 
Salic.  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  146.  Compare  Sismondi,  vol.  i.  p.  196. 
— M. 


a.d.536.]  PERSONAL  SERVITUDE.  53 

ted  a  slight  composition  for  the  life  of  a  citizen,  it  was  a  capi- 
tal crime  to  destroy  a  stag  or  a  wild  bull  within  the  precincts 
of  the  royal  forests." 

According  to  the  maxims  of  ancient  war,  the  conqueror  be- 
came the  lawful  master  of  the  enemy  whom  he  had  subdued 
Personal  and  spared  :9"  and  the  fruitful  cause  of  personal 
servitude.  slavery,  which  had  been  almost  suppressed  by  the 
peaceful  sovereignty  of  Rome,  was  again  revived  and  mul- 
tiplied by  the  perpetual  hostilities  of  the  independent  bar- 
barians. The  Goth,  the  Burgundian,  or  the  Frank,  who  re- 
turned from  a  successful  expedition,  dragged  after  him  a  long 
train  of  sheep,  of  oxen,  and  of  human  captives,  whom  he 
treated  with  the  same  brutal  contempt.  The  youths  of  am 
elegant  form  and  ingenuous  aspect  were  set  apart  for  the 
domestic  service ;  a  doubtful  situation,  which  alternately 
exposed  them  to  the  favorable  or  cruel  impulse  of  passion. 
The  useful  mechanics  and  servants  (smiths,  carpenters,  tailors, 
shoemakers,  cooks,  gardeners,  dyers,  and  workmen  in  gold  and 
silver,  etc.)  employed  their  skill  for  the  use  or  profit  of  their 
master.  But  the  Roman  captives  who  were  destitute  of  art, 
but  capable  of  labor,  were  condemned,  without  regard  to  their 
former  rank,  to  tend  the  cattle  and  cultivate  the  lands  of  the 
barbarians.  The  number  of  the  hereditary  bondsmen  who 
were  attached  to  the  Gallic  estates  was  continually  increased 
by  new  supplies  ;  and  the  servile  people,  according  to  the  sit- 
uation and  temper  of  their  lords,  was  sometimes  raised  by 
precarious  indulgence,  and  more  frequently  depressed  by  ca- 
pricious despotism.97     An  absolute  power  of  life  and  death 

98  On  a  mere  suspicion,  Chundo,  a  chamberlain  of  Gontran,  King  of  Burgundy, 
was  stoned  to  death  (Greg.  Turon.  1.  x.  c.  10,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  3'69).  John  of  Salis- 
bury (Policrat.  1.  i.  c.  4)  asserts  the  rights  of  nature,  and  exposes  the  cruel  practice 
of  the  twelfth  century.     See  Heineccius,  Elem.  Jur.  Germ.  1.  ii.  p.  1,  No.  51-57. 

96  The  custom  of  enslaving  prisoners  of  war  was  totally  extinguished  in  the 
thirteenth  century  by  the  prevailing  influence  of  Christianity ;  but  it  might  be 
proved,  from  frequent  passages  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  etc.,  that  it  was  practised 
without  censure  under  the  Merovingian  race;  and  even  Grotius  himself  (de  Jure 
Belli  et  Pacis,  1.  iii.  c.  7),  as  well  as  his  commentator  Barbeyrac,  have  labored  to 
reconcile  it  with  the  laws  of  nature  and  reason. 

97  The  state,  professions,  etc.,  of  the  German,  Italian,  and  Gallic  slaves,  during 


54  PEKSONAL  SERVITUDE.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

was  exercised  by  these  lords ;  and  when  they  married  their 
daughters,  a  train  of  useful  servants,  chained  on  the  wagons 
to  prevent  their  escape,  was  sent  as  a  nuptial  present  into  a 
distant  country.98  The  majesty  of  the  Koman  laws  protected 
the  liberty  of  each  citizen  against  the  rash  effects  of  his  own 
distress  or  despair.  But  the  subjects  of  the  Merovingian 
kings  might  alienate  their  personal  freedom  ;  and  this  act  of 
legal  suicide,  which  was  familiarly  practised,  is  expressed  in 
terms  most  disgraceful  and  afflicting  to  the  dignity  of  human 
nature."  The  example  of  the  poor,  who  purchased  life  by 
the  sacrifice  of  all  that  can  render  life  desirable,  was  grad- 
ually imitated  by  the  feeble  and  the  devout,  who,  in  times 
of  public  disorder,  pusillanimously  crowded  to  shelter  them- 
selves under  the  battlements  of  a  powerful  chief  and  around 
the  shrine  of  a  popular  saint.  Their  submission  was  accepted 
by  these  temporal  or  spiritual  patrons ;  and  the  hasty  trans- 
action irrecoverably  fixed  their  own  condition  and  that  of 
their  latest  posterity.  From  the  reign  of  Clovis,  during  five 
successive  centuries,  the  laws  and  manners  of  Gaul  uniformly 
tended  to  promote  the  increase  and  to  confirm  the  duration 
of  personal  servitude.  Time  and  violence  almost  obliterated 
the  intermediate  ranks  of  society,  and  left  an  obscure  and  nar- 
row interval  between  the  noble  and  the  slave.  This  arbi- 
trary and  recent  division  has  been  transformed  by  pride  and 
prejudice  into  a  national  distinction,  universally  established 
by  the  arms  and  the  laws  of  the  Merovingians.     The  nobles, 

the  Middle  Ages,  are  explained  by  Heineccius  (Element.  Jur.  Germ.  1.  i.  No. 
28-47),  Muvatori  (Dissertat.  xiv.  xv.),  Ducange  (Gloss,  sub  voce  Servi),  and  the 
Abbe'  de  Mably  (Observations,  torn.  ii.  p.  3,  etc.,  p.  237,  etc.).a 

98  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  vi.  c.  45,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  289)  relates  a  memorable  exam- 
ple, in  which  Chilperic  only  abused  the  private  rights  of  a  master.  Many  fami- 
lies, which  belonged  to  his  domus  fi&cales  in  the  neighborhood  of  Paris,  were 
forcibly  sent  away  into  Spain. 

99  Liccntiam  habeatis  mihi  qualemcunqne  volueritis  disciplinam  ponere  ;  vel 
venumdare,  ant  quod  vobis  placuerit  de  me  facere.  Marculf.  Formul.  1.  ii.  28,  in 
torn.  iv.  p.  497.  The  Formula  of  Lindenbrogius  (p.  559),  and  that  of  Anjou 
(p.  565),  are  to  the  same  effect.  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  vii.  c.  45,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  311/ 
speaks  of  many  persons  who  sold  themselves  for  bread  in  a  great  famine. 


Compare  Hallam,  vol.  i.  p.  196.— M. 


A.D.536.]  EXAMPLE  OF  AUVERGNE.  55 

who  claimed  their  genuine  or  fabulous  descent  from  the  in- 
dependent and  victorious  Franks,  have  asserted  and  abused 
the  indefeasible  right  of  conquest  over  a  prostrate  crowd  of 
slaves  and  Plebeians,  to  whom  they  imputed  the  imaginary 
disgrace  of  a  Gallic  or  Roman  extraction. 

The  general  state  and  revolutions  of  France,  a  name  which 
was  imposed  by  the  conquerors,  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
Example  of  particular  example  of  a  province,  a  diocese,  or  a 
Auvergne.  senatorial  family.  Auvergne  had  formerly  main- 
tained a  just  pre-eminence  among  the  independent  states  and 
cities  of  Gaul.  The  brave  and  numerous  inhabitants  display- 
ed a  singular  trophy — the  sword  of  Caesar  himself,  which  he 
had  lost  when  he  was  repulsed  before  the  walls  of  Gergovia.100 
As  the  common  offspring  of  Troy,  they  claimed  a  fraternal 
alliance  with  the  Romans;101  and  if  each  province  had  imi- 
tated the  courage  and  loyalty  of  Auvergne,  the  fall  of  the 
Western  empire  might  have  been  prevented  or  delayed.  They 
firmly  maintained  the  fidelity  which  they  had  reluctantly 
sworn  to  the  Yisigoths ;  but  when  their  bravest  nobles  had 
fallen  in  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  they  accepted  without  resist- 
ance a  victorious  and  Catholic  sovereign.  This  easy  and  val- 
uable conquest  was  achieved  and  possessed  by  Theodoric,  the 
eldest  son  of  Clovis ;  but  the  remote  province  was  separated 
from  his  Austrasian  dominions  by  the  intermediate  kingdoms 
of  Soissons,  Paris,  and  Orleans,  which  formed,  after  their  fa- 
ther's death,  the  inheritance  of  his  three  brothers.  The  King 
of  Paris,  Childebert,  was  tempted  by  the  neighborhood  and 
beauty  of  Auvergne.102     Tl*o  upper  country,  which  rises  to- 


100  "When  Caesar  saw  it,  he  laughed  (Plutarch,  in  Caesar,  [c.  26]  in  torn.  i.  p. 
409  [p.  720,  edit.  Frankf.]);  yet  he  relates  his  unsuccessful  siege  of  Gergovia  with 
less  frankness  than  we  might  expect  from  a  great  man  to  whom  victory  was  famil- 
iar. He  acknowledges,  however,  that  in  one  attack  he  lost  forty-six  centurions  and 
seven  hundred  men  (de  Bell.  Gallico,  1.  vi.  [vii.]  c.  44-53,  in  torn.  i.  p.  270-272). 

101  Audehant  se  quondam  fratres  Latio  dicere,  et  sanguine  ab  Iliaco  populos 
computare  (Sidon.  Apollinar.  1.  vii.  Epist.  7,  in  torn.  i.  p.  799).  I  am  not  informed 
of  the  degrees  and  circumstances  of  this  fabulous  pedigree. 

102  Either  the  first  or  second  partition  among  the  sons  of  Clovis  had  given  Berry 
to  Childebert  (Greg.  Turon.  1.  iii.  c.  12,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  192).  "  Velim"  (said  he), 
"  Arvernam  Lemanem,  quas  tanta?  jocunditatis  gratia  refulgere  dicitur,  oculis  cer. 


56  EXAMPLE  OF  AUVERGNE.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

wards  the  south  into  the  mountains  of  the  Cevennes,  present- 
ed a  rich  and  various  prospect  of  woods  and  pastures;  the 
sides  of  the  hills  were  clothed  with  vines ;  and  each  eminence 
was  crowned  with  a  villa  or  castle.  In  the  Lower  Auvergne, 
the  river  Allier  flows  through  the  fair  and  spacious  plain 
of  Limagne ;  and  the  inexhaustible  fertility  of  the  soil  sup- 
plied, and  still  supplies,  without  any  interval  of  repose,  the 
constant  repetition  of  the  same  harvests.103  On  the  false  re- 
port that  their  lawful  sovereign  had  been  slain  in  Germany, 
the  city  and  diocese  of  Auvergne  were  betrayed  by  the  grand- 
son of  Sidonius  Apollinaris.  Child ebert  enjoyed  this  clan- 
destine victory ;  and  the  free  subjects  of  Theodoric  threat- 
ened to  desert  his  standard  if  he  indulged  his  private  resent- 
ment while  the  nation  was  engaged  in  the  Burgundian  war. 
But  the  Franks  of  Austrasia  soon  yielded  to  the  persuasive 
eloquence  of  their  king.  "  Follow  me,"  said  Theodoric,  "  into 
Auvergne;  I  will  lead  you  into  a  province  where  you  may 
acquire  gold,  silver,  slaves,  cattle,  and  precious  apparel  to  the 
full  extent  of  your  wishes.  I  repeat  my  promise;  I  give 
you  the  people  and  their  wealth  as  your  prey,  and  you  may 
transport  them  at  pleasure  into  your  own  country."  By  the 
execution  of  this  promise  Theodoric  justly  forfeited  the  alle- 
giance of  a  people  whom  he  devoted  to  destruction.  His 
troops,  reinforced  by  the  fiercest  barbarians  of  Germany,104 
spread  desolation  over  the  fruitful  face  of  Auvergne;  and 
two  places  only,  a  strong  castle  and  a  holy  shrine,  were  saved 
or  redeemed  from  their  licentious  fury.  The  castle  of  Mero- 
liac105  was  seated  on  a  lofty  rock,  which  rose  a  hundred  feet 


nere"  (1.  iii.  c.  9,  p.  191).     The  face  of  the  country  was  concealed  by  a  thick  fog 
when  the  King  of  Paris  made  his  entry  into  Clermont. 

103  For  the  description  of  Auvergne,  see  Sidonius  (1.  iv.  Epist.  21,  in  torn.  i.  p. 
793),  with  the  notes  of  Savaron  and  Sirmond  (p.  279  and  51  of  their  respective 
editions).  Boulainvilliers  (Etat  de  la  France,  torn.  ii.  p.  242-268),  and  the  Abbe 
de  la  Longuerue  (Description  de  la  France,  part  i.  p.  132-139). 

104  Furorem  gentium,  qnaa  de  ulteriore  Rheni  amnis  parte  venerant,  superare 
non  poterat  (Greg.  Turon.  1.  iv.  c.  50,  in  torn.  ii.  229),  was  the  excuse  of  another 
king  of  Austrasia  (a.d.  574)  for  the  ravages  which  his  troops  committed  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Paris. 

106  prom  the  name  and  situation,  the  Benedictine  editors  of  Gregory  of  Toura 


a.d.530.]  STORY  OF  ATTALUS.  57 

above  the  surface  of  the  plain  ;  and  a  large  reservoir  of  fresh 
water  was  enclosed  with  some  arable  lands  within  the  circle 
of  its  fortifications.  The  Franks  beheld  with  envy  and  de- 
spair this  impregnable  fortress :  but  they  surprised  a  party  of 
fifty  stragglers ;  and,  as  they  were  oppressed  by  the  number 
of  their  captives,  they  fixed  at  a  trifling  ransom  the  alterna- 
tive of  life  or  death  for  these  wretched  victims,  whom  the 
cruel  barbarians  were  prepared  to  massacre  on  the  refusal  of 
the  garrison.  Another  detachment  penetrated  as  far  as  Bri- 
vas,  or  Brioude,  where  the  inhabitants,  with  their  valuable 
effects,  had  taken  refuge  in  the  sanctuary  of  St.  Julian.  The 
doors  of  the  church  resisted  the  assault,  but  a  daring  soldier 
entered  through  a  window  of  the  choir  and  opened  a  passage 
to  his  companions.  The  clergy  and  people,  the  sacred  and 
the  profane  spoils,  were  rudely  torn  from  the  altar ;  and  the 
sacrilegious  division  was  made  at  a  small  distance  from  the 
town  of  Brioude.  But  this  act  of  impiety  was  severely  chas- 
tised by  the  devout  son  of  Clovis.  He  punished  with  death 
the  most  atrocious  offenders ;  left  their  secret  accomplices  to 
the  vengeance  of  St.  Julian ;  released  the  captives ;  restored 
the  plunder ;  and  extended  the  rights  of  sanctuary  five  miles 
round  the  sepulchre  of  the  holy  martyr.106 

Before  the  Austrasian  army  retreated  from  Auvergne,  The- 
odoric  exacted  some  pledges  of  the  future  loyalty  of  a  people 
story  of  whose  just  hatred  could  be  restrained  only  by  their 
Attains.  fear.  A  select  band  of  noble  youths,  the  sons  of 
the  principal  senators,  was  delivered  to  the  conqueror  as  the 
hostages  of  the  faith  of  Childebert  and  of  their  countrymen. 
On  the  first  rumor  of  war  or  conspiracy  these  guiltless  youths 


(in  torn.  ii.  p.  192)  have  fixed  this  fortress  at  a  place  named  Chastel  Merliac,  two 
miles  from  Mauriac,  in  the  Upper  Auvergne.  In  this  description  I  translate  infra 
as  if  I  read  intra;  the  two  prepositions  are  perpetually  confounded  by  Gregory  or 
his  transcribers,  and  the  sense  must  always  decide. 

106  See  these  revolutions  and  wars  of  Auvergne  in  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  ii.  c.  37, 
in  torn.  ii.  p.  183,  and  1.  iii.  c.  9,  12,  13,  p.  191, 192,  de  Miraculis  St.  Julian,  c.  13, 
in  torn.  ii.  p.  466).  He  frequently  betrays  his  extraordinary  attention  to  his  nativa 
country. 


58  STORY  OF  ATTALUS.  [Ch.  XXXVIII, 

talus,107  whose  adventures  are  more  particularly  related,  kept 
his  master's  horses  in  the  diocese  of  Treves.  After  a  painful 
search  he  was  discovered,  in  this  unworthy  occupation,  by  the 
emissaries  of  his  grandfather,  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Langres ;  but 
his  offers  of  ransom  were  sternly  rejected  by  the  avarice  of 
the  barbarian,  who  required  an  exorbitant  sum  of  ten  pounds 
of  gold  for  the  freedom  of  his  noble  captive.  His  deliver- 
ance was  effected  by  the  hardy  stratagem  of  Leo,  a  slave 
belonging  to  the  kitchens  of  the  Bishop  of  Langres.108  An 
unknown  agent  easily  introduced  him  into  the  same  family. 
The  barbarian  purchased  Leo  for  the  price  of  twelve  pieces 
of  gold,  and  was  pleased  to  learn  that  he  was  deeply  skilled 
in  the  luxury  of  an  episcopal  table.  "Next  Sunday,"  said 
the  Frank,  "  I  shall  invite  my  neighbors  and  kinsmen.  Exert 
thy  art,  and  force  them  to  confess  that  they  have  never  seen 
or  tasted  such  an  entertainment,  even  in  the  king's  house." 
Leo  assured  him  that,  if  he  would  provide  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  poultry,  his  wishes  should  be  satisfied.  The  master,  who 
already  aspired  to  the  merit  of  elegant  hospitality,  assumed 
as  his  own  the  praise  which  the  voracious  guests  unanimous- 
ly bestowed  on  his  cook ;  and  the  dexterous  Leo  insensibly 
acquired  the  trust  and  management  of  his  household.  After 
the  patient  expectation  of  a  whole  year,  he  cautiously  whis- 
pered his  design  to  Attalus,  and  exhorted  him  to  prepare  for 
flight  in  the  ensuing  night.  At  the  hour  of  midnight  the  in- 
temperate guests  retired  from  table,  and  the  Frank's  son-in- 
kw,  whom  Leo  attended  to  his  apartment  with  a  nocturnal 

I0T  The  story  of  Attalus  is  related  by  Gregory  of  Tours  (1-  "i-  ch.  15,  in  torn.  ii. 
p.  193-195).  His  editor,  the  P.  Ruinart,  confounds  this  Attalus,  who  was  a}fouth 
(puer)  in  the  year  532,  with  a  friend  of  Sidonius  of  the  same  name,  who  was  Count 
of  Autun  fifty  or  sixty  years  before.  Such  an  error,  which  cannot  be  imputed  to 
ignorance,  is  excused  in  some  degree  by  its  own  magnitude. 

108  This  Gregory,  the  great-grandfather  of  Gregory  of  Tours  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  197, 
490)  lived  ninety-two  years,  of  which  he  passed  forty  as  Count  of  Autun,  and  thir- 
ty-two as  Bishop  of  Langres.  According  to  the  poet  Fortunatus,  he  displayed 
equal  merit  in  these  different  stations  : 

"Nobilis  antiqufi  decurrens  prole  parentum, 
Nobilior  gestis,  nunc  super  astra  manet. 
Arbiter  ante  ferox,  dein  pius  ipse  sacerdos, 
Quos  domuit  judex,  fovit  amore  patris." 


ad. 536.]  STORY  OF  ATTALUS.  59 

potation,  condescended  to  jest  on  the  facility  with  which  he 
might  betray  his  trust.  The  intrepid  slave,  after  sustaining 
this  dangerous  raillery,  entered  his  master's  bedchamber,  re- 
moved his  spear  and  shield,  silently  drew  the  fleetest  horses 
from  the  stable,  unbarred  the  ponderous  gates,  and  excited 
Attalus  to  save  his  life  and  liberty  by  incessant  diligence. 
Their  apprehensions  urged  them  to  leave  their  horses  on  the 
banks  of  the  Meuse;109  they  swam  the  river,  wandered  three 
days  in  the  adjacent  forest,  and  subsisted  only  by  the  acci- 
dental discovery  of  a  wild  plum-tree.  As  they  lay  concealed 
in  a  dark  thicket,  they  heard  the  noise  of  horses ;  they  were 
terrified  by  the  angry  countenance  of  their  master,  and  they 
anxiously  listened  to  his  declaration  that,  if  he  could  seize 
the  guilty  fugitives,  one  of  them  he  would  cut  in  pieces  with 
his  sword,  and  would  expose  the  other  on  a  gibbet.  At  length 
Attalus  and  his  faithful  Leo  reached  the  frieudly  habitation 
of  a  presbyter  of  Rheims,  who  recruited  their  fainting  strength 
with  bread  and  wine,  concealed  them  from  the  search  of  their 
enemy,  and  safely  conducted  them  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
Austrasian  kingdom  to  the  episcopal  palace  of  Langres.  Greg- 
ory embraced  his  grandson  with  tears  of  joy,  gratefully  deliv- 
ered Leo,  with  his  whole  family,  from  the  yoke  of  servitude, 
and  bestowed  on  him  the  property  of  a  farm,  where  he  might 
end  his  days  in  happiness  and  freedom.  Perhaps  this  singu- 
lar adventure,  which  is  marked  with  so  many  circumstances 
of  truth  and  nature,  was  related  by  Attalus  himself  to  his 
cousin  or  nephew,  the  first  historian  of  the  Franks.  Gregory 
of  Tours110  was  born  about  sixty  years  after  the  death  of  Si- 
donius  Apollinaris ;  and  their  situation  was  almost  similar, 
eince  each  of  them  was  a  native  of  Auvergne,  a  senator,  and 

109  As  M.  de  Valois  and  the  P.  Ruinart  are  determined  to  change  the  MoseUct 
of  the  text  into  Mosa,  it  becomes  me  to  acquiesce  in  the  alteration.  Yet,  after 
some  examination  of  the  topography,  I  could  defend  the  common  reading. 

110  The  parents  of  Gregory  (Gregorius  Florentius  Georgius)  were  of  noble  ex- 
traction (natalibus illustres,  and  they  possessed  large  estates  (latifundia)  both 

in  Auvergne  and  Burgundy.  He  was  born  in  the  year  539,  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Tours  in  573,  and  died  in  593  or  595,  soon  after  he  had  terminated  his  history. 
See  his  Life  by  Odo,  Abbot  of  Clugny  (in  torn.  ii.  p.  129-135),  and  a  new  Life  in 
the  Me*moires  de  1' Academic,  etc.,  torn.  xxvi.  p,  598-637. 


60  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  ROMANS        lCh.  XXXVIII 

a  bishop.  The  difference  of  their  style  and  sentiments  may, 
therefore,  express  the  decay  of  Gaul;  and  clearly  ascertain 
how  much,  in  so  short  a  space,  the  human  iniud  had  lost  of 
its  energy  and  refinement.111 

"We  are  now  qualified  to  despise  the  opposite,  and  perhaps 

artful,  misrepresentations  which  have  softened  or  exaggerated 

.    the  oppression  of  the  Romans  of  Gaul  under  the 

Privileges  of  LJ-  . 

the  Romans  reign  of  the  Merovingians.  Ine  conquerors  nev- 
er promulgated  any  universal  edict  of  servitude  or 
confiscation :  but  a  degenerate  people,  who  excused  their  weak- 
ness by  the  specious  names  of  politeness  and  peace,  was  ex- 
posed to  the  arms  and  laws  of  the  ferocious  barbarians,  who 
contemptuously  insulted  their  possessions,  their  freedom,  and 
their  safety.  Their  personal  injuries  were  partial  and  irregu- 
lar ;  but  the  great  body  of  the  Romans  survived  the  revolu- 
tion, and  still  preserved  the  property  and  privileges  of  citi- 
zens. A  large  portion  of  their  lands  was  exacted  for  the  use 
of  the  Franks :  but  they  enjoyed  the  remainder  exempt  from 
tribute  ;ua  and  the  same  irresistible  violence  which  swept  away 
the  arts  and  manufactures  of  Gaul  destroyed  the  elaborate 
and  expensive  system  of  imperial  despotism.  The  provin- 
cials must  frequently  deplore  the  savage  jurisprudence  of  the 
Salic  or  Ripuarian  laws ;  but  their  private  life,  in  the  impor- 
tant concerns  of  marriage,  testaments,  or  inheritance,  was  still 
regulated  by  the  Theodosian  Code;  and  a  discontented  Ro- 

111  Decedente  atque  immo  potius  pereunte  ab  urbibus  Gallicanis  liberalium  cul- 
tura  literarnm,  etc.  (in  prsefat.  in  torn.  ii.  p.  137),  is  the  complaint  of  Gregory  him- 
self, which  he  fully  verifies  by  his  own  work.  His  style  is  equally  devoid  of  ele- 
gance and  simplicity.  In  a  conspicuous  stalion  he  still  remained  a  stranger  to 
his  own  age  and  country ;  and  in  a  prolix  work  (the  five  last  books  contain  ten 
years)  he  has  omitted  almost  everything  that  posterity  desires  to  learn.  I  have 
tediously  acquired,  by  a  painful  perusal,  the  right  of  pronouncing  this  unfavorable 
sentence. 

112  The  Abbe  de  Mably  (torn.  i.  p.  247-267)  has  diligently  confirmed  this  opin- 
ion of  the  President  de  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxx.  ch.  13). a 


a  There  is,  however,  no  evidence  in  favor  of  this  opinion ;  and  M.  Lehuerou  has 
shown  (Histoire  des  Institutions  Me'rovingiennes,  vol.  i.  p.  271  seq.)  that  the  land- 
tax  imposed  under  the  empire  continued  to  be  levied  on  the  Roman  subjects  of 
Clovis  and  the  next  two  generations.  See  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  286, 
tenth  edit. — S. 


A.D.  536.]  OF  GAUL.  61 

man  might  freely  aspire  or  descend  to  the  title  and  character 
of  a  barbarian.8  The  honors  of  the  State  were  accessible  to 
his  ambition :  the  education  and  temper  of  the  Romans  more 
peculiarly  qualified  them  for  the  offices  of  civil  government ; 
and  as  soon  as  emulation  had  rekindled  their  military  ardor, 
they  were  permitted  to  march  in  the  ranks,  or  even  at  the 
head,  of  the  victorious  Germans.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  enu- 
merate the  generals  and  magistrates  whose  names113  attest  the 
liberal  policy  of  the  Merovingians.  The  supreme  command 
of  Burgundy,  with  the  title  of  Patrician,  was  successively  in- 
trusted to  three  Romans;  and  the  last  and  most  powerful, 
Mummolus,114  who  alternately  saved  and  disturbed  the  mon- 
archy, had  supplanted  his  father  in  the  station  of  Count  of 
Autun,  and  left  a  treasure  of  thirty  talents  of  gold  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty  talents  of  silver.  The  fierce  and  illiterate 
barbarians  were  excluded,  during  several  generations,  from 
the  dignities,  and  even  from  the  orders,  of  the  Church.115  The 
clergy  of  Gaul  consisted  almost  entirely  of  native  provincials ; 
the  haughty  Franks  fell  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  their  subjects 
who  were  dignified  with  the  episcopal  character;  and  the 
power  and  riches  which  had  been  lost  in  war  were  insensibly 
recovered  by  superstition.116  In  all  temporal  affairs  the  The- 
odosian  Code  was  the  universal  law  of  the  clergy  ;  but  the 
barbaric  jurisprudence  had  liberally  provided  for  their  person- 

113  See  Dubos,  Hist.  Critique  de  la  Monarchic  Francoise,  torn.  ii.  1.  vi.  ch.  9, 10. 
The  French  antiquarians  establish  as  a,  principle  that  the  Romans  and  barbarians 
may  be  distinguished  by  their  names.  Their  names  undoubtedly  form  a  reason- 
able presumption ;  yet,  in  reading  Gregory  of  Tours,  I  have  observed  Gondulphus, 
of  Senatorian  or  Roman  extraction  (1.  vi.  ch.  11,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  273),  and  Claudius,  a 
barbarian  (1.  vii.  c.  29,  p.  303). 

114  Eunius  Mummolus  is  repeatedly  mentioned  by  Gregory  of  Tours,  from  the 
fourth  (ch.  42,  p.  224)  to  the  seventh  (ch.  40,  p.  310)  book.  The  computation  by 
talents  is  singular  enough  ;  but  if  Gregory  attached  any  meaning  to  that  obsolete 
word,  the  treasures  of  Mummolus  must  have  exceeded  £100,000  sterling. 

m  See  Fleury,  Discours  iii.  sur  l'Histoire  Ecclesiastique. 

116  The  Bishop  of  Tours  himself  has  recorded  the  complaint  of  Chilperic,  the 
grandson  of  Clovis.  Ecce  pauper  remansit  fiscus  noster ;  ecce  divitiae  nostra  ad 
ecclesias  sunt  translate :  nulli  penitus  nisi  soli  Episcopi  regnant  (1.  vi.  c.  46,  in 
torn,  ii.  p.  291). 

•  S«e  note  a,  p.  43.— S. 


62  ANARCHY  OF  THE  FRANKS.  [Ch.  XXXVIII 

a±  safety :  a  subdeacon  was  equivalent  to  two  Franks ;  the 
antrustion  and  priest  were  held  in  similar  estimation ;  and 
the  life  of  a  bishop  was  appreciated  far  above  the  common 
standard,  at  the  price  of  nine  hundred  pieces  of  gold.117  The 
Romans  communicated  to  their  conquerors  the  use  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  Latin  language  ;118  but  their  language 
and  their  religion  had  alike  degenerated  from  the  simple  pu- 
rity of  the  Augustan  and  Apostolic  age.  The  progress  of  su- 
perstition and  barbarism  was  rapid  and  universal:  the  wor^ 
ship  of  the  saints  concealed  from  vulgar  eyes  the  God  of  the 
Christians,  and  the  rustic  dialect  of  peasants  and  soldiers  was 
corrupted  by  a  Teutonic  idiom  and  pronunciation.  Yet  such 
intercourse  of  sacred  and  social  communion  eradicated  the 
distinctions  of  birth  and  victory ;  and  the  nations  of  Gaul 
were  gradually  confounded  under  the  name  and  government 
of  the  Franks. 

The  Franks,  after  they  mingled  with  their  Gallic  subjects, 
might  have  imparted  the  most  valuable  of  human  gifts — a 
Anarchy  of  spirit  and  system  of  constitutional  liberty.  Under 
the  Franks.  a  king,  hereditary  but  limited,  the  chiefs  and  coun- 
sellors might  have  debated  at  Paris  in  the  palace  of  the  Cae- 
sars :  the  adjacent  field,  where  the  emperors  reviewed  their 
mercenary  legions,  would  have  admitted  the  legislative  assem- 
bly of  freemen  and  warriors;  and  the  rude  model  which  had 
been  sketched  in  the  woods  of  Germany119  might  have  been 
polished  and  improved  by  the  civil  wisdom  of  the  Romans. 
But  the  careless  barbarians,  secure  of  their  personal  independ- 

111  See  the  Ripuarian  Code  (tit.  xxxvi.  in  torn.  iv.  p.  241).  The  Salic  law  does 
not  provide  for  the  safety  of  the  clergy  ;  and  we  might  suppose,  on  the  behalf  of 
the  more  civilized  tribe,  that  they  had  not  foreseen  such  an  impious  act  as  the 
murder  of  a  priest.  Yet  Prastextatus,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  was  assassinated  by 
the  order  of  Queen  Fredegundis  before  the  altar  (Greg.  Turon.  1.  viii.  c.  31,  in 
torn.  ii.  p.  326). 

118  M.  Bonamy  (Mem.  de  l'Acade"mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  xxiv.  p.  582-670) 
has  ascertained  the  Lingua  Romana  Rustica,  which,  through  the  medium  of  the 
Romance,  has  gradually  been  polished  into  the  actual  form  of  the  French  language. 
Under  the  Carlovingian  race  the  kings  and  nobles  of  France  still  understood  the 
dialect  of  their  German  ancestors. 

119  Ce  beau  systeme  a  4t6  trouve*  dans  les  bois.  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Loix, 
1.  xi.  ch.  6. 


*.D.536\]        ANARCHY  OF  THE  FRANKS.  63 

ence,  disdained  the  labor  of  government:  the  annual  assem- 
blies of  the  month  of  March  were  silently  abolished,  and  the 
nation  was  separated  and  almost  dissolved  by  the  conquest  of 
Gaul.120  The  monarchy  was  left  without  any  regular  establish- 
ment of  justice,  of  arms,  or  of  revenue.  The  successors  of 
Clovis  wanted  resolution  to  assume,  or  strength  to  exercise,  the 
legislative  and  executive  powers  which  the  people  had  abdica- 
ted: the  royal  prerogative  was  distinguished  only  by  a  more 
ample  privilege  of  rapine  and  murder ;  and  the  love  of  free- 
dom, so  often  invigorated  and  disgraced  by  private  ambition, 
was  reduced  among  the  licentious  Franks  to  the  contempt  of 
order  and  the  desire  of  impunity.  Seventy -five  years  after 
the  death  of  Clovis,  his  grandson  Gontran,  king  of  Burgundy, 
sent  an  army  to  invade  the  Gothic  possessions  of  Septimania, 
or  Languedoc.  The  troops  of  Burgundy,  Berry,  Auvergne, 
and  the  adjacent  territories,  were  excited  by  the  hopes  of 
spoil.  They  marched  without  discipline  under  the  banners 
of  German  or  Gallic  counts :  their  attack  was  feeble  and  un- 
successful, but  the  friendly  and  hostile  provinces  were  deso- 
lated with  indiscriminate  rage.  The  cornfields,  the  villages, 
the  churches  themselves,  were  consumed  by  fire;  the  inhabi- 
tants were  massacred  or  dragged  into  captivity ;  and,  in  the 
disorderly  retreat,  five  thousand  of  these  inhuman  savages 
were  destroyed  by  hunger  or  intestine  discord.  When  the 
pious  Gontran  reproached  the  guilt  or  neglect  of  their  lead- 
ers, and  threatened  to  inflict,  not  a  legal  sentence,  but  instant 
and  arbitrary  execution,  they  accused  the  universal  and  incu- 
rable corruption  of  the  people.  "  No  one,"  they  said,  "  any 
longer  fears  or  respects  his  king,  his  duke,  or  his  count.  Each 
man  loves  to  do  evil,  and  freely  indulges  his  criminal  incli- 
nations. The  most  gentle  correction  provokes  an  immediate 
tumult,  and  the  rash  magistrate  who  presumes  to  censure  or 
restrain  his  seditious  subjects  seldom  escapes  alive  from  their 
revenge."121     It  has  been  reserved  for  the  same  nation  to  ex- 

120  See  the  Abbe  de  Mably,  Observations,  etc.,  torn.  i.  p.  34-56.  It  should  seem 
that  the  institution  of  national  assemblies,  which  are  coeval  with  the  French  na- 
tion, has  never  been  congenial  to  its  temper. 

121  Gregory  of  Touts  Q.  viii.  ch.  30,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  325,  326)  relates,  with  much  iu- 


64  VISIGOTHS  OF  SPAIN.  [Ch.  XXXVIH, 

pose,  by  their  intemperate  vices,  the  most  odious  abuse  of 
freedom,  and  to  supply  its  loss  by  the  spirit  of  honor  and  hu- 
manity, which  now  alleviates  and  dignifies  their  obedience  to 
an  absolute  sovereign.* 

The  Visigoths  had  resigned  to  Clovis  the  greatest  part  of 
their  Gallic  possessions ;  but  their  loss  was  amply  compen- 
The Visigoths  sated  by  the  easy  conquest  and  secure  enjoyment 
«f  Spain.  0£  fae  provinces  of  Spain.  From  the  monarchy  of 
the  Goths,  which  soon  involved  the  Suevic  kingdom  of  Gal- 
licia,  the  modern  Spaniards  still  derive  some  national  vanity, 
but  the  historian  of  the  Roman  empire  is  neither  invited  nor 
compelled  to  pursue  the  obscure  and  barren  series  of  their 
annals.1M  The  Goths  of  Spain  were  separated  from  the  rest 
of  mankind  by  the  lofty  ridge  of  the  Pyrenaean  mountains : 
their  manners  and  institutions,  as  far  as  they  were  common 
to  the  Germanic  tribes,  have  been  already  explained.  I  have 
anticipated  in  the  preceding  chapter  the  most  important  of 
their  ecclesiastical  events — the  fall  of  Arianism  and  the  per- 
secution of  the  Jews :  and  it  only  remains  to  observe  some 
interesting  circumstances  which  relate  to  the  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical constitution  of  the  Spanish  kingdom. 

After  their  conversion  from  idolatry  or  heresy,  the  Franks 
and  the  Visigoths  were  disposed  to  embrace,  with  equal  sub- 

mission,  the  inherent  evils  and  the  accidental  ben- 
Bssembiies      efits  of  superstition.     But  the  prelates  of  France, 

long  before  the  extinction  of  the  Merovingian  race, 
had  degenerated  into  fighting  and  hunting  barbarians.  They 
disdained  the  use  of  synods,  forgot  the  laws  of  temperance 

difference,  the  crimes,  the  reproof,  and  the  apology.  Nullus  Begem  metnit,  nul- 
lus Ducem,  nullus  Comitem  reveretur ;  et  si  fortassis  alicui  ista  displicent,  et  ea, 
pro  longaevitate  vitse  vestrse,  emendare  conatur,  statim  seditio  in  populo,  statim 
tumultus  exoritur,  et  in  tantum  nnusquisque  contra  seniorem,  sa;va  intentione 
grassatur,  ut  vix  se  credat  evadere,  si  tandem  silere  nequiverit. 

122  Spain  in  these  dark  ages  has  been  peculiarly  unfortunate.  The  Franks  had 
a  Gregory  of  Tours ;  the  Saxons,  or  Angles,  a  Bede ;  the  Lombards,  a  Paul  War- 
nefrid,  etc.  But  the  history  of  the  Visigoths  is  contained  in  the  short  and  in> 
perfect  Chronicles  of  Isidore  of  Seville  and  John  of  Biclar. 


*  This  remarkable  passage  was  published  in  1779. — M. 


A.D.  536.]  LEGISLATIVE  ASSEMBLIES  OF  SPAIN.  65 

and  chastity,  and  preferred  the  indulgence  of  private  ambi- 
tion and  luxury  to  the  general  interest  of  the  sacerdotal  pro- 
fession.1" The  bishops  of  Spain  respected  themselves,  and 
were  respected  by  the  public :  their  indissoluble  union  dis- 
guised their  vices  and  confirmed  their  authority ;  and  the 
regular  discipline  of  the  Church  introduced  peace,  order,  and 
stability  into  the  government  of  the  State.  From  the  reign 
of  Kecared,  the  first  Catholic  king,  to  that  of  Witiza,  the  im- 
mediate predecessor  of  the  unfortunate  Koderic,  sixteen  na- 
tional councils  were  successively  convened.  The  six  metro- 
politans— Toledo,  Seville,  Merida,  Braga,  Tarragona,  and  Nar- 
bonne — presided  according  to  their  respective  seniority ;  the 
assembly  was  composed  of  their  suffragan  bishops,  who  ap- 
peared in  person  or  by  their  proxies,  and  a  place  was  assigned 
to  the  most  holy  or  opulent  of  the  Spanish  abbots.  During 
the  first  three  days  of  the  convocation,  as  long  as  they  agi- 
tated the  ecclesiastical  questions  of  doctrine  and  discipline, 
the  profane  laity  was  excluded  from  their  debates,  which 
were  conducted,  however,  with  decent  solemnity.  But  on 
the  morning  of  the  fourth  day  the  doors  were  thrown  open 
for  the  entrance  of  the  great  officers  of  the  palace,  the  dukes 
and  counts  of  the  provinces,  the  judges  of  the  cities,  and  the 
Gothic  nobles;  and  the  decrees  of  Heaven  were  ratified  by 
the  consent  of  the  people.  The  same  rules  were  observed  in 
the  provincial  assemblies,  the  annual  synods,  which  were  em- 
powered to  hear  complaints  and  to  redress  grievances ;  and  a 
legal  government  was  supported  by  the  prevailing  influence 
of  the  Spanish  clergy.  The  bishops,  who  in  each  revolution 
were  prepared  to  flatter  the  victorious  and  to  insult  the  pros- 
trate, labored  with  diligence  and  success  to  kindle  the  flames 
of  persecution,  and  to  exalt  the  mitre  above  the  crown.  Yet 
the  national  councils  of  Toledo,  in  which  the  free  spirit  of  the 
barbarians  was  tempered  and  guided  by  episcopal  policy,  have 
established  some  prudent  laws  for  the  common  benefit  of  the 

153  Such  are  the  complaints  of  St.  Boniface,  the  apostle  of  Germany  and  the  re- 
former of  Gaul  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  94~  The  fourscore  years  which  he  deplores  of  li- 
cense and  corruption  would  seeni  to  insinuate  that  the  barbarians  were  admitted 
into  the  clergy  about  the  year  660. 

IV.— 5 


6Q  CODE  OF  THE  VISIGOTHS.  [Oh.  XXXVHL 

king  and  people.  The  vacancy  of  the  throne  was  supplied 
by  the  choice  of  the  bishops  and  palatines ;  and  after  the  fail- 
ure of  the  line  of  Alaric,  the  regal  dignity  was  still  limited 
to  the  pure  and  noble  blood  of  the  Goths.  The  clergy,  who 
anointed  their  lawful  prince,  always  recommended,  and  some- 
times practised,  the  duty  of  allegiance :  and  the  spiritual  cen- 
sures were  denounced  on  the  heads  of  the  impious  subjects 
who  should  resist  his  authority,  conspire  against  his  life,  or 
violate  by  an  indecent  union  the  chastity  even  of  his  widow. 
But  the  monarch  himself,  when  he  ascended  the  throne,  was 
bound  by  a  reciprocal  oath  to  God  and  his  people  that  he 
would  faithfully  execute  his  important  trust.  The  real  or 
imaginary  faults  of  his  administration  were  subject  to  the 
control  of  a  powerful  aristocracy ;  and  the  bishops  and  pala- 
tines were  guarded  by  a  fundamental  privilege  that  they 
should  not  be  degraded,  imprisoned,  tortured,  nor  punished 
with  death,  exile,  or  confiscation,  unless  by  the  free  and  pub- 
lic judgment  of  their  peers.124 

One  of  these  legislative  councils  of  Toledo  examined  and 
ratified  the  code  of  laws  which  had  been  compiled  by  a  sue- 
code  of  the  cession  of  Gothic  kings,  from  the  fierce  Euric  to 
Visigoths.  ^q  (jey0llt  Egica.  As  long  as  the  Visigoths  them- 
selves were  satisfied  with  the  rude  customs  of  their  ancestors, 
they  indulged  their  subjects  of  Aquitain  and  Spain  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  Roman  law.  Their  gradual  improvement 
in  arts,  in  policy,  and  at  length  in  religion,  encouraged  them 
to  imitate  and  to  supersede  these  foreign  institutions,  and  to 
compose  a  code  of  civil  and  criminal  jurisprudence  for  the 
use  of  a  great  and  united  people.  The  same  obligations  and 
the  same  privileges  were  communicated  to  the  nations  of  the 
Spanish  monarchy  ;  and  the  conquerors,  insensibly  renounc- 
ing the  Teutonic  idiom,  submitted  to  the  restraints  of  equity, 

124  The  acts  of  the  councils  of  Toledo  are  still  the  most  authentic  records  of  the 
Church  and  constitution  of  Spain.  The  following  passages  are  particularly  impor- 
tant :  iii.  17,  18 ;  iv.  75 ;  v.  2,  3,  4,  5,  8  ;  vi.  11,  12,  13,  14,  17,  18  ;  vii.  1  ;  xiii. 
2,  3,  6.  I  have  found  Mascon  (Hist,  of  the  Ancient  Germans,  xv.  29,  and  Anno- 
tations, xxvi.  and  xxxiii.)  and  Ferreras  (Hist.  Ge*nerale  de  l'Espagne,  torn,  ii.)  very 
useful  and  accurate  guides. 


A.D. 536.3  REVOLUTION  OF  BRITAIN.  67 

and  exalted  the  Romans  to  the  participation  of  freedom.  The 
merit  of  this  impartial  policy  was  enhanced  by  the  situation 
of  Spain  under  the  reign  of  the  Visigoths.  The  provincials 
were  long  separated  from  their  Arian  masters  by  the  irrecon- 
cilable difference  of  religion.  After  the  conversion  of  Re- 
cared  had  removed  the  prejudices  of  the  Catholics,  the  coasts 
both  of  the  Ocean  and  Mediterranean  were  still  possessed  by 
the  Eastern  emperors,  who  secretly  excited  a  discontented 
people  to  reject  the  yoke  of  the  barbarians,  and  to  assert  the 
name  and  dignity  of  Roman  citizens.  The  allegiance  of 
doubtful  subjects  is  indeed  most  effectually  secured  by  their 
own  persuasion  that  they  hazard  more  in  a  revolt  than  they 
can  hope  to  obtain  by  a  revolution ;  but  it  has  appeared  so 
natural  to  oppress  those  whom  we  hate  and  fear,  that  the 
contrary  system  well  deserves  the  praise  of  wisdom  and  mod- 
eration.12* 

While  the  kingdoms  of  the  Franks  and  Yisigoths  were  es- 
tablished in  Gaul  and  Spain,  the  Saxons  achieved  the  con- 
Eevoiution  quest  of  Britain,  the  third  great  diocese  of  the  prse- 
of  Britain.  fecture  of  the  West.  Since  Britain  was  already 
separated  from  the  Roman  empire,  I  might  without  reproach 
decline  a  story  familiar  to  the  most  illiterate,  and  obscure  to 
the  most  learned,  of  my  readers.  The  Saxons,  who  excelled 
in  the  use  of  the  oar  or  the  battle-axe,  were  ignorant  of  the 
art  which  could  alone  perpetuate  the  fame  of  their  exploits ; 
the  provincials,  relapsing  into  barbarism,  neglected  to  describe 
the  ruin  of  their  country  ;  and  the  doubtful  tradition  was  al- 
most extinguished  before  the  missionaries  of  Rome  restored 
the  light  of  science  and  Christianity.  The  declamations  of 
Gildas,  the  fragments  or  fables  of  Nennius,  the  obscure  hints 
of  the  Saxon  laws  and  chronicles,  and  the  ecclesiastical  tales 


125  The  Code  of  the  Visigoths,  regularly  divided  into  twelve  books,  has  been 
correctly  published  by  Dom  Bouquet  (in  torn.  iv.  p.  2S3-460).  It  has  been  treat- 
ed by  the  President  de  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxviii.  ch.  1)  with  ex- 
cessive severity.  I  dislike  the  style ;  I  detest  the  superstition  ;  but  I  shall 
presume  to  think  that  the  civil  jurisprudence  displays  a  more  civilized  and  en- 
lightened state  of  society  than  that  of  the  Burgmidians  or  even  of  the  Lom- 
bards. 


68  DESCENT  OF  THE  SAXONS.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

of  the  venerable  Bede,"8  have  been  illustrated  by  the  dili- 
gence, and  sometimes  embellished  by  the  fancy,  of  succeeding 
writers,  whose  works  I  am  not  ambitious  either  to  censure 
or  to  transcribe.1"  Yet  the  historian  of  the  empire  may  be 
tempted  to  pursue  the  revolutions  of  a  Roman  province  till 
it  vanishes  from  his  sight ;  and  an  Englishman  may  curiously 
trace  the  establishment  of  the  barbarians  from  whom  he  de- 
rives his  name,  his  laws,  and  perhaps  his  origin. 

About  forty  years  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment Vortigern  appears  to  have  obtained  the  supreme, 

though  precarious,  command  of  the  princes  and 
iheSaxons.     cities  of  Britain.     That  unfortunate  monarch  has 

been  almost  unanimously  condemned  for  the  weak 
and  mischievous  policy  of  inviting128  a  formidable  stranger 
to  repel  the  vexatious  inroads  of  a  domestic  foe.  His  ambas- 
sadors are  despatched  by  the  gravest  historians  to  the  coast  of 
Germany :  they  address  a  pathetic  oration  to  the  general  as- 
sembly of  the  Saxons,  and  those  warlike  barbarians  resolve  to 
assist  with  a  fleet  and  army  the  suppliants  of  a  distant  and 
unknown  island.     If  Britain  had  indeed  been  unknown  to 


126  See  Gildas  de  Excidio  Britanniae,  c.  11-25,  p.  4-9,  edit.  Gale;  Nennius 
Hist.  Britonum,  c.  28,  35-65,  p.  105-115,  edit.  Gale  ;  Bede,  Hist.  Ecclesiast.  Gen- 
tis  Anglovum,  1.  i.  c.  12-16,  p.  49-53,  c.  22,  p.  58,  edit.  Smith  ;  Chron.  Saxoni- 
cum,  p.  11-23,  etc.,  edit.  Gibson.  The  Anglo-Saxon  laws  were  published  by 
Wilkins,  London,  1731,  in  folio ;  and  the  Leges  Wallicse,  by  Wotton  &  Clarka, 
London,  1730,  in  folio. 

127  The  laborious  Mr.  Carte  and  the  ingenious  Mr.Whitaker  are  the  two  mod- 
ern writers  to  whom  I  am  principally  indebted.  The  particular  historian  of  Man- 
chester embraces,  under  that  obscure  title,  a  subject  almost  as  extensive  as  the 
general  history  of  England.* 

128  This  invitation,  which  may  derive  some  countenance  from  the  loose  expres 
sions  of  Gildas  and  Bede,  is  framed  into  a  regular  story  by  Witikind,  a  Saxon 
monk  of  the  tenth  century  (see  Cousin,  Hist,  de  l'Empire  d'Occident,  torn.  ii.  p. 
356).  Rapin,  and  even  Hume,  have  too  freely  used  this  suspicious  evidence  with- 
out regarding  the  precise  and  probable  testimony  of  Nennius  :  "  Interea  vene- 
runt  tres  ChiulaB  a  Germanic  in  exilio  pulsce,  in  quibus  erant  Hors  et  Hengist " 
[c28].  

•  Add  the  Anglo-Saxon  History  of  Mr.  S.  Turner,  and  Sir  ¥.  Palgrave's  Sketch 
of  the  "  Early  History  of  England." — M.  Also  Lappenbeig"s  History  of  England 
under  the  Anglo-Saxon  Kings,  translated  by  Thorpe. — S. 


A.D.  449.]  DESCENT  OF  THE  SAXONS.  69 

the  Saxons,  the  measure  of  its  calamities  would  have  been 
less  complete.  But  the  strength  of  the  Roman  government 
could  not  always  guard  the  maritime  province  against  the  pi- 
rates of  Germany :  the  independent  and.  divided  states  were 
exposed  to  their  attacks,  and  the  Saxons  might  sometimes 
join  the  Scots  and  the  Picts  in  a  tacit  or  express  confederacy 
of  rapine  and  destruction.  Vortigern  could  only  balance  the 
various  perils  which  assaulted  on  every  side  his  throne  and 
his  people ;  and  his  policy  may  deserve  either  praise  or  ex- 
cuse if  he  preferred  the  alliance  of  those  barbarians  whose 
naval  power  rendered  them  the  most  dangerous  enemies  and 
the  most  serviceable  allies.  Hengist  and  Horsa,  as  they 
ranged  along  the  eastern  coast  with  three  ships,  were  engaged 
by  the  promise  of  an  ample  stipend  to  embrace  the  defence 
of  Britain,  and  their  intrepid  valor  soon  delivered  the  coun- 
try from  the  Caledonian  invaders.  The  Isle  of  Thanet,  a  se- 
cure and  fertile  district,  was  allotted  for  the  residence  of  these 
German  auxiliaries,  and  they  were  supplied,  according  to  the 
treaty,  with  a  plentiful  allowance  of  clothing  and  provisions. 
This  favorable  reception  encouraged  five  thousand  warriors 
to  embark,  with  their  families,  in  seventeen  vessels,  and  the 
infant  power  of  Hengist  was  fortified  by  this  strong  and  sea- 
sonable reinforcement.  The  crafty  barbarian  suggested  to 
Yortigern  the  obvious  advantage  of  fixing,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Picts,  a  colony  of  faithful  allies :  a  third  fleet,  of 
forty  ships,  under  the  command  of  his  son  and  nephew,  sailed 
from  Germany,  ravaged  the  Orkneys,  and  disembarked  a  new 
army  on  the  coast  of  Northumberland  or  Lothian,  at  the  op- 
posite extremity  of  the  devoted  land.  It  was  easy  to  foresee, 
but  it  was  impossible  to  prevent,  the  impending  evils.  The 
two  nations  were  soon  divided  and  exasperated  by  mutual 
jealousies.  The  Saxons  magnified  all  that  they  had  done  and 
suffered  in  the  cause  of  an  ungrateful  people ;  while  the  Brit- 
ons regretted  the  liberal  rewards  which  could  not  satisfy  the 
avarice  of  those  haughty  mercenaries.  The  causes  of  fear 
and  hatred  were  inflamed  into  an  irreconcilable  quarrel.  The 
Saxons  flew  to  arms;  and  if  they  perpetrated  a  treacherous 
massacre  during  the  security  of  a  feast,  they  destroyed  the 


70  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  [Ch.  XXXVIII 

reciprocal  confidence  which  sustains  the  intercourse  of  peace 
and  war.129  a 

Hengist,  who  boldly  aspired  to  the  conquest  of  Britain,  ex- 
horted his  countrymen  to  embrace  the  glorious  opportunity: 
Establishment  ne  painted  in  lively  colors  the  fertility  of  the  soil, 
heptarchy.on  the  wealth  of  the  cities,  the  pusillanimous  temper 
a.d.  455-582.  0£  ^he  nativeS)  and  the  convenient  situation  of  a 
spacious  solitary  island,  accessible  on  all  sides  to  the  Saxon 
fleets.  The  successive  colonies  which  issued  in  the  period  of 
a  century  from  the  mouths  of  the  Elbe,  the  Weser,  and  the 
Rhine  were  principally  composed  of  three  valiant  tribes  or 

129  Nennins  imputes  to  the  Saxons  the  murder  of  three  hundred  British  chiefs ; 
a  crime  not  unsuitable  to  their  savage  manners.  But  we  are  not  obliged  t  believe 
(see  Jeffrey  of  Monmouth,  1.  viii.  ch.  9-12)  that  Stonehenge  is  their  monument, 
which  the  giants  had  formerly  transported  from  Africa  to  Ireland,  and  which  was 
removed  to  Britain  by  the  order  of  Ambrosius  and  the  art  of  Merlin. 


a  An  eminent  modern  historian  has  observed,  "Hengist  and  Horsa,  Vortigern 
and  liowena,  Arthur  and  Mordred,  are  mythical  persons,  whose  very  existence  may 
be  questioned,  and  whose  adventures  must  be  classed  with  those  of  Hercules  and 
Komulns."  (Macaulav,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  17.)  Of  the  justice  of  this  re- 
mark there  can  be  no  doubt;  and  the  following  considerations  will  show  that  the 
popular  tale  which  Gibbon  has  received  rests  on  no  trustworthy  evidence:  1.  The 
details  of  the  conquest  of  England  by  the  Saxons  are  not  recorded  by  any  contem- 
porary writer,  and  are  only  traditional.  The  first  writer  who  mentions  the  con- 
quest is  Gildas,  who  wrote  his  history  in  the  year  580,  or  more  than  one  hundred 
years  after  the  reputed  event ;  but  the  narrative  which  has  formed  the  basis  of  all 
subsequent  accounts  ic  that  or'  Bede,  who  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury. But  even  Bedc's  narrative  contains  few  details ;  and  the  popular  story  of 
the  conflicts  between  the  Britons  and  their  Saxon  invaders  is  chiefly  derived  from 
Jeffrey  of  Monmouth,  who  was  born  in  1152,  and  whose  history  is  little  better  than 
a  romance.  2.  The  story  of  the  conquest  contains  elements  which  appear  in  the 
traditions  of  other  Germanic  races.  Thus  Hengist  and  Horsa  approach  the  coast 
of  Kent  in  three  ships,  and  iElli  and  his  three  sons  land  in  Sussex  with  the  same 
number;  just  as  in  the  Gothic  tradition  the  Ostrogoths,  Visigoths,  and  Gepidse 
are  carried  in  three  vessels  to  the  mouths  of  the  Vistula.  Again,  the  murder  of 
the  British  chiefs  by  Hengist  is  told  in  the  same  words,  by  Widukind  and  others, 
of  the  Old  Saxons  in  Thuringia.  8.  There  is  evidence  that  there  were  Saxons 
Wi  England  before  a.d.  449.  In  the  Notitia  Imperii,  which  was  drawn  up  about 
a.d.  400  (see  note  in  vol.  ii.  p.  2G9),  there  is  mentioned,  as  an  officer  of  state,  the 
"Comes  littoris  Saxonici  per  Britannias,"  whose  government  extended  along  the 
coast  from  the  neighborhood  of  Portsmouth  to  the  Wash.  (Notit.  Imp.  Occid. 
c.  25.)  It  has  been  supposed  by  many  that  the  "Littus  Saxonicum  "  derived  its 
name  from  the  enemy  to  whose  attacks  it  was  exposed ;  but  it  has  been  already 
observed  that  this  mode  of  interpretation  is  opposed  to  all  sound  philological  prin- 
ciples, and  has  only  been  adopted  to  save  the  credit  of  the  popular  traditions.  .(See 
editor's  note,  vol.  ii.  p.  60.)  The  Saxons  ravaged  the  coast  of  Britain  as  early 
as  a.d.  287  (see  editor's  note,  vol.  ii.  p.  661),  and  it  is  probable  that  about  this 
time  they  began  to  form  settlements  in  the  island.  See  Kemble,  The  Saxons  in 
England,  vol.  L  p,  1  sea,.— S. 


A.D.  455-582.]  SAXON  HEPTARCHY.  71 

nations  of  Germany ;  the  Jutes,  the  old  Saxons,  and  the  An- 
gles. The  Jutes,  who  fought  under  the  peculiar  banner  of 
Hengist,  assumed  the  merit  of  leading  their  countrymen  in 
the  paths  of  glory,  and  of  erecting  in  Kent  the  first  indepen- 
dent kingdom.  The  fame  of  the  enterprise  was  attributed  to 
the  primitive  Saxons,  and  the  common  laws  and  language  of 
the  conquerors  are  described  by  the  national  appellation  of 
a  people  which,  at  the  end  of  four  hundred  years,  produced 
the  first  monarchs  of  South  Britain.  The  Angles  were  distin- 
guished by  their  numbers  and  their  success,  and  they  claim- 
ed the-  honor  of  fixing  a  perpetual  name  on  the  country  of 
which  they  occupied  the  most  ample  portion.  The  barbari- 
ans, who  followed  the  hopes  of  rapine  either  on  the  land  or 
sea,  were  insensibly  blended  with  this  triple  confederacy ;  the 
Frisians,  who  had  been  tempted  by  their  vicinity  to  the  Brit- 
ish shores,  might  balance  during  a  short  space  the  strength 
and  reputation  of  the  native  Saxons;  the  Danes,  the  Prus- 
sians, the  Rugians,  are  faintly  described ;  and  some  adventu- 
rous Huns,  who  had  wandered  as  far  as  the  Baltic,  might  em- 
bark on  board  the  German  vessels  for  the  conquest  of  a  new 
world.130  But  this  arduous  achievement  was  not  prepared 
or  executed  by  the  union  of  national  powers.  Each  intrepid 
chieftain,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  fame  and  fortunes, 
assembled  his  followers ;  equipped  a  fleet  of  three,  or  perhaps 
of  sixty,  vessels;  chose  the  place  of  the  attack,  and  conducted 
his  subsequent  operations  according  to  the  events  of  the  war 
and  the  dictates  of  his  private  interest.  In  the  invasion  of 
Britain  many  heroes  vanquished  and  fell;  but  only  seven 
victorious  leaders  assumed,  or  at  least  maintained,  the  title  of 
kings.      Seven  independent  thrones,  the  Saxon  Heptarchy,3 


130  All  these  tribes  are  expressly  enumerated  by  Bede  (1.  i.  c.  15,  p.  52,  1.  v.  c. 
9,  p.  190)  ;  and  though  I  have  considered  Mr.  Whitaker's  remarks  (Hist,  of  Man- 
chester, vol.  ii.  p.  538-543),  I  do  not  perceive  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  the 
Frisians,  etc.,  were  mingled  with  the  Anglo-Saxons. 


■  This  term  (the  Heptarchy)  must  be  rejected,  because  an  idea  is  conveyed 
thereby  which  is  substantially  wrong.  At  no  one  period  were  there  ever  seven 
kingdoms  independent  of  each  other.  Palgrave,  vol.  i.  p.  46.  Mr.  Sharon  Tur- 
ner has  the  merit  of  having  first  confuted  the  popular  notion  on  this  subject. 
Anglo-Saxon  History,  vol.  i.  p.  302. — M. 


72  STATE  OF  THE  BRITONS.  [Ch.  XXXVIII. 

were  founded  by  the  conquerors ;  and  seven  families,  one  of 
which  has  been  continued,  by  female  succession,  to  our  pres- 
ent sovereign,  derived  their  equal  and  sacred  lineage  from 
Woden,  the  god  of  war.  It  has  been  pretended  that  this  re- 
public of  kings  was  moderated  by  a  general  council  and  a  su- 
preme magistrate.  But  such  an  artificial  scheme  of  policy  is 
repugnant  to  the  rude  and  turbulent  spirit  of  the  Saxons: 
their  laws  are  silent,  and  their  imperfect  annals  afford  only  a 
dark  and  bloody  prospect  of  intestine  discord.131 

A  monk,  who  in  the  profound  ignorance  of  human  life  has 
presumed  to  exercise  the  office  of  historian,  strangely  disfig- 
stateofthe  ures  ^ne  state  of  Britain  at  the  time  of  its  separa- 
Britons.  f.jon  from  the  Western  empire.  Gildas132  describes 
in  florid  language  the  improvements  of  agriculture,  the  for- 
eign trade  which  flowed  with  every  tide  into  the  Thames  and 
the  Severn,  the  solid  and  lofty  construction  of  public  and  pri- 
vate edifices :  he  accuses  the  sinful  luxury  of  the  British  peo- 
ple ;  of  a  people,  according  to  the  same  writer,  ignorant  of  the 
most  simple  arts,  and  incapable,  without  the  aid  of  the  Ro 
mans,  of  providing  walls  of  stone  or  weapons  of  iron  for  the 
defence  of  their  native  land.133  Under  the  long  dominion  of 
the  emperors,  Britain  had  been  insensibly  moulded  into  the 
elegant  and  servile  form  of  a  Roman  province,  whose  safety 
was  intrusted  to  a  foreign  power.  The  p  bjects  of  Honorius 
contemplated  their  new  freedom  with  surprise  and  terror; 
they  were  left  destitute  of  any  civil  or  military  constitution ; 
and  their  uncertain  rulers  wanted  either  skill,  or  courage,  or 
authority  to  direct  the  public  force  against  the  common  ene- 
my.    The  introduction  of  the  Saxons  betrayed  their  internal 

131  Bede  has  enumerated  seven  kings — two  Saxons,  a  Jute,  and  four  Angles — 
who  successively  acquired  in  the  heptarchy  an  indefinite  supremacy  of  power  and 
renown.  But  their  reign  was  the  effect,  not  of  law,  but  of  conquest ;  and  he  ob- 
serves, in  similar  terms,  that  one  of  them  subdued  the  Isles  of  Man  and  Anglesey, 
and  that  another  imposed  a  tribute  on  the  Scots  and  Picts  (Hist.  Eccles.  1.  ii.  c. 
5,  p.  83). 

132  See  Gildas  de  Excidio  Britannia?,  c.  i.  p.  1,  edit.  Gale. 

133  jyr,._  "Whitaker  (History  of  Manchester,  vol.  ii.  p.  503,  516)  has  smartly  ex- 
posed this  glaring  absurdity,  which  had  passed  unnoticed  by  the  general  historians, 
as  they  were  hastening  to  more  interesting  and  important  events. 


a.d.  455-582.]  THEIR  RESISTANCE.  7S 

weakness,  and  degraded  the  character  both  of  the  prince  and 
people.  Their  consternation  magnified  the  danger,  the  want 
of  union  diminished  their  resources,  and  the  madness  of  civil 
factions  was  more  solicitous  to  accuse  than  to  remedy  the 
evils  which  they  imputed  to  the  misconduct  of  their  adver- 
saries. Yet  the  Britons  were  not  ignorant,  they  could  not  be 
ignorant,  of  the  manufacture  or  the  use  of  arms :  the  successive 
and  disorderly  attacks  of  the  Saxons  allowed  them  to  recover 
from  their  amazement,  and  the  prosperous  or  adverse  events  of 
the  war  added  discipline  and  experience  to  their  native  valor. 
While  the  continents  of  Europe  and  Africa  yielded,  without 
resistance,  to  the  barbarians,  the  British  island,  alone  and  un- 
Their  re-  aided,  maintained  a  long,  a  vigorous,  though  an  un- 
eistance,  successful,  struggle,  against  the  formidable  pirates 
who,  almost  at  the  same  instant,  assaulted  the  northern,  the 
eastern,  and  the  southern  coasts.  The  cities,  which  had  been 
fortified  with  skill,  were  defended  with  resolution ;  the  ad- 
vantages of  ground,  hills,  forests,  and  morasses  were  diligently 
improved  by  the  inhabitants;  the  conquest  of  each  district 
was  purchased  with  blood ;  and  the  defeats  of  the  Saxons  are 
strongly  attested  by  the  discreet  silence  of  their  annalist. 
Hengist  might  hope  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  Britain ;  but 
his  ambition,  in  an  active  reign  of  thirty-five  years,  was  con- 
fined to  the  possession  of  Kent ;  and  the  numerous  colony 
which  he  had  planted  in  the  North  was  extirpated  by  the 
sword  of  the  Britons.  The  monarchy  of  the  West  Saxons 
was  laboriously  founded  by  the  persevering  efforts  of  three 
martial  generations.  The  life  of  Cerdic,  one  of  the  bravest 
of  the  children  of  Woden,  was  consumed  in  tho  conquest  of 
Hampshire  and  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  and  the  loss  which  ne  sus- 
tained in  the  battle  of  Mount  Badon  reduced  him  to  a  state 
of  inglorious  repose.  Kenric,  his  valiant  son,  advanced  into 
Wiltshire ;  besieged  Salisbury,  at  that  time  seated  on  a  com- 
manding eminence ;  and  vanquished  an  army  which  advanced 
to  the  relief  of  the  city.  In  the  subsequent  battle  of  Marl- 
borough,134 his  British  enemies  displayed  their  military  sci- 

134  At  Beran-birig,  or  Barbury  Castle,  near  Marlborough.     The  Saxoa  Chron- 


74  FLIGHT  OF  THE  BRITONS.  a.  _  X]  Till 

ence.  Their  troops  were  formed  in  three  lines;  each  line 
consisted  of  three  distinct  bodies ;  and  the  cavalry,  the  arch- 
ers, and  the  pikemen  were  distributed  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  Roman  tactics.  The  Saxons  charged  in  one  weighty 
column,  boldly  encountered  with  their  short  swords  the  long 
lances  of  the  Britons,  and  maintained  an  equal  conflict  till  the 
approach  of  night.  Two  decisive  victories,  the  death  of  three 
British  kings,  and  the  reduction  of  Cirencester,  Bath,  and 
Gloucester,  established  the  fame  and  power  of  Oeaulin,  the 
grandson  of  Cerdic,  who  carried  his  victorious  arms  to  ■  the 
banks  of  the  Severn. 

After  a  war  of  a  hundred  years  the  independent  Britons 
still  occupied  the  whole  extent  of  the  western  coast,  from  the 
wall  of  Antoninus  to  the  extreme  promontory  of 
Cornwall;  and  the  principal  cities  of  the  inland 
country  still  opposed  the  arms  of  the  barbarians.  Resistance 
became  more  languid,  as  the  number  and  boldness  of  the  as- 
sailants continually  increased.  "Winning  their  way  by  slow 
and  painful  efforts,  the  Saxons,  the  Angles,  and  their  various 
confederates  advanced  from  the  North,  from  the  East,  and 
from  the  South,  till  their  victorious  banners  were  united  in  the 
centre  of  the  island.  Beyond  the  Severn  the  Britons  still  as- 
serted their  national  freedom,  which  survived  the  heptarchy, 
and  even  the  monarchy,  of  the  Saxons.  The  bravest  war- 
riors, who  preferred  exile  to  slavery,  found  a  secure  refuge  in 
the  mountains  of  Wales:  the  reluctant  submission  of  Corn- 
wall was  delayed  for  some  ages  ;135  and  a  band  of  fugitives  ac- 
quired a  settlement  in  Gaul,  by  their  own  valor  or  the  liber- 
ality of  the  Merovingian  kings.138     The  western  angle  of  Ar- 

icle  assigns  the  name  and  date.  Camden  (Britannia,  vol.  i.  p.  128)  ascertains  the 
place;  and  Henry  of  Huntingdon  (Scriptores  post  Bedam,  p.  314)  relates  the  cir- 
cumstances of  this  battle.  They  are  probable  and  characteristic ;  and  the  histo- 
rians of  the  twelfth  century  might  consult  some  materials  that  no  longer  exist. 

135  Cornwall  was  finally  subdued  by  Athclstan  (a.j  .  927-941),  who  planted  an 
English  colony  at  Exeter,  and  confined  the  Britons  beyond  the  river  Tamar.  See 
William  of  Malmesbury,  1.  ii.  in  the  Scriptores  pcct  Bedam,  p.  50.  The  spirit  of 
the  Cornish  knights  was  degraded  by  servitude :  and  it  should  seem,  from  the 
romance  of  Sir  Tristram,  that  their  cowardice  was  almost  proverbial. 

m  The  establishment  of  the  Britons  in  Gaul  is  proved  in  the  sixth  century  by 


a.d.  455-582.]  FAME  OF  ARTHUR.  75 

morica  acquired  the  new  appellations  of  Corn/wall  and  the 
Lesser  Britain;  and  the  vacant  lands  of  the  Osismii  were 
filled  by  a  strange  people,  who,  under  the  authority  of  their 
counts  and  bishops,  preserved  the  laws  and  language  of  their 
ancestors.  To  the  feeble  descendants  of  Clovis  and  Charle- 
magne, the  Britons  of  Arraorica  refused  the  customary  trib- 
ute, subdued  the  neighboring  dioceses  of  Vannes,  Rennes,  and 
Nautes,  and  formed  a  powerful,  though  vassal,  state,  which 
has  been  united  to  the  crown  of  France.137 

In  a  century  of  perpetual,  or  at  least  implacable,  war,  much 
courage  and  some  skill  must  have  been  exerted  for  the  de- 
The  fame  fence  of  Britain.  Yet  if  the  memory  of  its  cham- 
of  Arthur.  pi0ns  is  almost  buried  in  oblivion,  we  need  not  re- 
pine ;  since  every  age,  however  destitute  of  science  or  virtue, 
sufficiently  abounds  with  acts  of  blood  and  military  renown. 


Procopius  [Bell.  Goth.  iv.  20],  Gregory  of  Tours,  the  second  council  of  Tours 
(a.d.  567),  and  the  least  suspicious  of  their  chronicles  and  lives  of  saints.  The 
subscription  of  a  bishop  of  the  Britons  to  the  first  council  of  Tours  (a.d.  461,  or 
rather  481),  the  army  of  Riothamus,  and  the  loose  declamation  of  Gildas  ("alii 
transmarinas  petebant  regiones,"  c.  25,  p.  8),  may  countenance  an  emigration  as 
early  as  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  Beyond  that  era  the  Britons  of  Armori- 
ca  can  be  found  only  in  romance;3  and  I  am  surprised  that  Mr.  Whitaker  (Genu- 
ine History  of  the  Britons,  p.  214-221)  should  so  faithfully  transcribe  the  gross 
ignorance  of  Carte,  whose  venial  errors  he  has  so  rigorously  chastised. 

137  The  antiquities  of  Bretagne,  which  have  been  the  subject  even  of  political 
controversy,  are  illustrated  by  Hadrian  Valesius  (Notitia  Galliarum,  snb  voce  Bri- 
tannia Cismarina,  p.  98-100),  M.  d'Anville  (Notice  de  l'Ancienne  Gaule,  Coriso- 
piti,  Curiosolites,  Osismii,  Vorganium,  p.  248,  258,  508,  720,  and  Etats  de  l'Eu- 
rope,  p.  76-80),  Longuerue  (Description  de  la  France,  torn.  i.  p.  84-94),  and  the 
Abbe  de  Vertot  (Hist.  Critique  de  l'Etablissement  des  Bretons  dans  les  Ganles,  2 
-vols,  in  12mo.  Paris,  1720).  I  may  assume  the  merit  of  examining  the  original 
evidence  which  they  have  produced.11 


a  Lappenberg  places  as  early  as  the  usurpation  of  Maximus  in  Britain  the  set- 
tlement of  a  Roman  military  colony  ("milites  limitanei,  laeti  "),  consisting  of  Brit- 
ish warriors,  in  Arraorica,  which  has  given  name,  as  well  as  a  distinct  character 
and  history,  to  Bretagne.  (Gildas,  c.  10 ;  Nennius,  c.  23  ;  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  i.  12, 
copies  the  words  of  Gildas.)  Lappenberg  expresses  his  surprise  that  Gibbon  here 
wholly  rejects  the  authors  whom  he  elsewhere  follows.  Hist,  of  England,  transl. 
by  Thorpe,  vol.  i.  p.  59.— S. 

b  Compare  Gallet,  Me'moires  sur  la  Bretagne,  and  Daru,  Histoire  de  Bretagne. 
These  authors  appear  to  me  to  establish  the  point  of  the  independence  of  Bretagne 
at  the  time  that  the  insular  Britons  took  refuge  in  their  country,  and  that  the 
greater  part  landed  as  fugitives  rather  than  as  conquerors. — M. 


76  FAME  OF  ARTHUR.  [Ch.  XXXVIII 

The  tomb  of  Vortimer,  the  son  of  Vortigern,  was  erected  on 
the  margin  of  the  sea-shore,  as  a  landmark  formidable  to  the 
Saxons,  whom  he  had  thrice  vanquished  in  the  fields  of  Kent. 
Ambrosius  Aurelian  was  descended  from  a  noble  family  of 
Romans,18*  his  modesty  was  equal  to  his  valor,  and  his  valor, 
till  the  last  fatal  action,139  was  crowned  with  splendid  success. 
But  every  British  name  is  effaced  by  the  illustrious  name 
of  Arthur,140  the  hereditary  prince  of  the  Silures,  in  South 
Wales,  and  the  elective  king  or  general  of  the  nation.  Ac- 
cording to  the  most  rational  account,  he  defeated,  in  twelve 
successive  battles,  the  Angles  of  the  North  and  the  Saxons  of 
the  West ;  but  the  declining  age  of  the  hero  was  embitter- 
ed by  popular  ingratitude  and  domestic  misfortunes.  The 
events  of  his  life  are  less  interesting  than  the  singular  revolu- 
tions of  his  fame.  During  a  period  of  five  hundred  years  the 
tradition  of  his  exploits  was  preserved,  and  rudely  embellish- 
ed, by  the  obscure  bards  of  Wales  and  Armorica,  who  were 
odious  to  the  Saxons,  and  unknown  to  the  rest  of  mankind. 
The  pride  and  curiosity  of  the  Norman  conquerors  prompted 


138  Bede,  who  in  his  chronicle  (p.  28)  places  Ambrosius  under  the  reign  ofZeno 
(a.d.  474-491),  observes  that  his  parents  had  been  "purpura  induti;"  which  be 
explains,  in  his  ecclesiastical  history,  by  "regium  nomen  et  insigne  ferentibus" 
(1.  i.  c.  16,  p.  53).  The  expression  of  Nennius  (c.  44,  p.  110,  edit.  Gale)  is  still 
more  singular,  "  Unus  de  consulibus  gentis  Romanic*  est  pater  meus." 

139  By  the  unanimous,  though  doubtful,  conjecture  of  our  antiquarians,  Ambro- 
sius is  confounded  with  Natanleod,  who  (a.d.  508)  lost  his  own  life  and  five  thou- 
sand of  his  subjects  in  a  battle  against  Cerdic,  the  West  Saxon  (Chron.  Saxon,  p. 
17, 18). 

140  As  I  am  a  stranger  to  the  Welsh  bards,  Myrdhin,  Llomarch,a  and  Talies. 
sin,  my  faith  in  the  existence  and  exploits  of  Arthur  principally  rests  on  the  sim- 
ple and  circumstantial  testimony  of  Nennius  (Hist.  Brit.  c.  62,  63,  p.  114).  Mr. 
Whitaker  (Hist,  of  Manchester,  vol.  ii.  p.  31-71)  has  framed  an  interesting,  and 
even  probable,  narrative  of  the  wars  of  Arthur :  though  it  is  impossible  to  allow 
the  reality  of  the  round-table. 


*  I  presume  that  Gibbon  means  Llywarch  Hen,  or  the  Aged.- — The  Elegies  of 
jhis  Welsh  prince  and  bard  have  been  published  by  Mi\  Owen,  in  whose  works, 
and  in  the  Myvyrian  Archaeology,  slumbers  much  curious  information  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Welsh  tradition  and  poetry.  But  the  Welsh  antiquarians  have  never  ob- 
tained a  hearing  from  the  public :  they  have  had  no  Macpherson  to  compensate 
for  his  corruption  of  their  poetic  legends  by  forcing  them  into  popularity. — See  also 
Mr.  Sharon  Turner's  Essay  on  the  Welsh  Bards.  — M. 


a.d.  455-582.]  FAME  OF  ARTHUR.  77 

them  to  inquire  into  the  ancient  history  of  Britain  ;  they  lis- 
tened with  fond  credulity  to  the  tale  of  Arthur,  and  eagerly 
applauded  the  merit  of  a  prince  who  had  triumphed  over  the 
Saxons,  their  common  enemies.  His  romance,  transcribed  in 
the  Latin  of  Jeffrey  of  Monmouth,  and  afterwards  translated 
into  the  fashionable  idiom  of  the  times,  was  enriched  with 
the  various,  though  incoherent,  ornaments  which  were  famil- 
iar to  the  experience,  the  learning,  or  the  fancy  of  the  twelfth 
century.  The  progress  of  a  Phrygian  colony,  from  the  Tiber 
to  the  Thames,  was  easily  ingrafted  on  the  fable  of  the  iEne- 
id ;  and  the  royal  ancestors  of  Arthur  derived  their  origin 
from  Troy,  and  claimed  their  alliance  with  the  Csesars.  His 
trophies  were  decorated  with  captive  provinces  and  imperial 
titles;  and  his  Danish  victories  avenged  the  recent  injuries 
of  his  country.  The  gallantry  and  superstition  of  the  British 
hero,  his  feasts  and  tournaments,  and  the  memorable  institu- 
tion of  his  Knights  of  the  Bound-table,  were  faithfully  cop- 
ied from  the  reigning  manners  of  chivalry ;  and  the  fabulous 
exploits  of  Uther's  son  appear  less  incredible  than  the  advent- 
ures which  were  achieved  by  the  enterprising  valor  of  the 
Normans.  Pilgrimage,  and  the  holy  wars,  introduced  into 
Europe  the  specious  miracles  of  Arabian  magic.  Fairies  and 
giants,  flying  dragons  and  enchanted  palaces,  were  blended 
with  the  more  simple  fictions  of  the  West ;  and  the  fate  of 
Britain  depended  on  the  art,  or  the  predictions,  of  Merlin. 
Every  nation  embraced  and  adorned  the  popular  romance  of 
Arthur  and  the  Knights  of  the  Round-table:  their  names 
were  celebrated  in  Greece*  and  Italy ;  and  the  voluminous 
tales  of  Sir  Lancelot  and  Sir  Tristram  were  devoutly  studied 
by  the  princes  and  nobles  who  disregarded  the  genuine  he- 
roes and  historians  of  antiquity.  At  length  the  light  of  sci- 
ence and  reason  was  rekindled ;  the  talisman  was  broken ;  the 
visionary  fabric  melted  into  air;  and  by  a  natural,  though  un- 


*  In  the  twelfth  century  a  Greek  poem,  recently  Drought  to  light,  was  composed 
in  celebration  of  Arthur  and  the  Knights  of  the  Round-table.  This  poem,  of 
which  only  306  verses  are  extant,  was  first  published  by  Von  der  Hagen  in  his 
"  Denkmale  des  Mittelalters,"  Berlin,  1824.  See  Lappenberg,  Hist,  of  England, 
Vol.  i.  p.  102.— S. 


78  DESOLATION  OF  BEITAIN.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

just,  reverse  of  the  public  opinion,  the  seventy  of  the  present 
age  is  inclined  to  question  the  existence  of  Arthur.141 

Resistance,  if  it  cannot  avert,  must  increase  the  miseries 
of  conquest ;  and  conquest  has  never  appeared  more  dreadful 
Desolation  an0^  destructive  than  in  the  hands  of  the  Saxons, 
of  Britain.  wj10  hate(j  the  valor  of  their  enemies,  disdained  the 
faith  of  treaties,  and  violated,  without  remorse,  the  most  sa- 
cred objects  of  the  Christian  worship.  The  fields  of  battle 
might  be  traced,  almost  in  every  district,  by  monuments  of 
bones;  the  fragments  of  falling  towers  were  stained  with 
blood ;  the  last  of  the  Britons,  without  distinction  of  age  or 
sex,  was  massacred,142  in  the  ruins  of  Anderida  ;143  and  the  rep- 
etition of  such  calamities  was  frequent  and  familiar  under 
the  Saxon  heptarchy.  The  arts  and  religion,  the  laws  and 
language,  which  the  Romans  had  so  carefully  planted  in  Brit- 
ain, were  extirpated  by  their  barbarous  successors.  After  the 
destruction  of  the  principal  churches,  the  bishops  who  had 
declined  the  crown  of  martyrdom  retired  with  the  holy  relics 
into  Wales  and  Armorica ;  the  remains  of  their  flocks  were 
left  destitute  of  any  spiritual  food  ;  the  practice,  and  even  the 
remembrance,  of  Christianity  were  abolished ;  and  the  British 
clergy  might  obtain  some  comfort  from  the  damnation  of  the 
idolatrous  strangers.  The  kings  of  France  maintained  the 
privileges  of  their  Roman  subjects  ;  but  the  ferocious  Saxons 
trampled  on  the  laws  of  Rome  and  of  the  emperors.     The 

141  The  progress  of  romance  and  the  state  of  learning  in  the  Middle  Ages  are 
illustrated  by  Mr.  Thomas  Warton,  with  the  taste  of  a  poet  and  the  minute  dili- 
gence of  an  antiquarian.  I  have  derived  much  instruction  from  the  two  learned 
dissertations  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  his  History  of  English  Poetry.* 

142  Hoc  anno  (490)  JElla  et  Cissa  obsederunt  Andredes-Ceaster ;  et  interfece- 
rtmt  omnes  qui  id  incolerent ;  adeo  ut  ne  unus  Brito  ibi  superstes  fuerit  (Chron. 
Saxon,  p.  15) ;  an  expression  more  dreadful  in  its  simplicity  than  all  the  vague 
and  tedious  lamentations  of  the  British  Jeremiah. 

143  Andredes-Ceaster,  or  Anderida,  is  placed  by  Camden  (Britannia,  vol.  i.  p. 
258)  at  Newenden,  in  the  marshy  grounds  of  Kent,  which  might  be  formerly  cov- 
ered by  the  sea,  and  on  the  edge  of  the  great  forest  (Anderida)  which  overspread 
so  large  a  portion  of  Hampshire  and  Sussex. 


1  These  valuable  dissertations  should  not  now  be  read  without  the  note3  and 
preliminary  essay  of  the  iate  editor,  Mr.  Price,  which,  in  point  of  taste  and  fulness 
of  information,  are  worthy  of  accompanying  and  completing  those  of  Warton. — M. 


a.d.  455-582.]  DESOLATION  OF  BRITAIN.  79 

proceedings  of  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  the  titles  of 
honor,  the  forms  of  office,  the  ranks  of  society,  and  even  the 
domestic  rights  of  marriage,  testament,  and  inheritance,  were 
finally  suppressed;  and  the  indiscriminate  crowd  of  noble 
and  Plebeian  slaves  was  governed  by  the  traditionary  customs 
which  had  been  coarsely  framed  for  the  shepherds  and  pi- 
rates of  Germany.  The  language  of  science,  of  business,  and 
of  conversation,  which  had  been  introduced  by  the  Romans, 
was  lost  in  the  general  desolation.  A  sufficient  number  of 
Latin  or  Celtic  words  might  be  assumed  by  the  Germans  to 
express  their  new  wants  and  ideas  ;144  but  those  illiterate  pa- 
gans preserved  and  established  the  use  of  their  national  dia- 
lect.145 Almost  every  name,  conspicuous  either  in  the  Church 
or  State,  reveals  its  Teutonic  origin  ;146  and  the  geography  of 
England  was  universally  inscribed  with  foreign  characters 

144  Dr.  Johnson  affirms  that  few  English  words  are  of  British  extraction.  Mr. 
Whitaker,  who  understands  the  British  language,  has  discovered  more  than  three 
thousand,  and  actually  produces  a  long  and  various  catalogue  (vol.  ii.  p.  235-329). 
It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  many  of  these  words  may  have  been  imported  from  the 
Latin  or  Saxon  into  the  native  idiom  of  Britain.* 

145  In  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  the  Franks  and  the  Anglo-Saxons 
mutually  understood  each  other's  language,  which  was  derived  from  the  same  Teu- 
tonic root  (Bede,  1.  i.  c.  25,  p.  60). 

146  After  the  first  generation  of  Italian  or  Scottish  missionaries,  the  dignities  of 
the  Church  were  filled  with  Saxon  proselytes. 


*  This  question,  like  all  others  connected  with  comparative  philology,  has  been 
placed  on  an  entirely  new  footing  since  the  time  of  Gibbon.  Even  down  to  a  very 
recent  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  Keltic  languages  had  no  connection  with  the 
great  Indo-European  family  of  languages ;  but  the  researches  of  Dr.  Prichard  in 
his  work  on  "The  Eastern  Origin  of  the  Celtic  Nations,"  and  of  Professor  Pictet 
of  Geneva,  in  his  work  "Sur  l'Affinite  des  Langues  Celtiques  avec  le  Sanscrit," 
have  proved  beyond  question  that  the  previous  opinion  was  erroneous,  and  that 
the  Keltic  languages  formed  an  essential  part  of  the  great  Indo-European  family. 
Consequently,  in  considering  the  words  which  are  borrowed  by  us  from  the  Keltic, 
we  must  distinguish  carefully  between  the  words  which  have  been  actually  derived 
from  the  Keltic  and  those  which  are  the  common  property  of  the  Indo-European 
family.  But  after  deducting  the  latter  class  of  words,  a  sufficient  number  of  the 
former  remains  to  make  it  clear  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  adopted  Keltic  words  to 
a  greater  extent  than  has  been  usually  supposed.  Mr.  Garnett  has  shown  that 
a  large  number  of  English  words  denoting  the  daily  processes  of  agriculture,  do- 
mestic life,  and  generally  in-door  and  out-door  service,  are  borrowed  by  us  from  the 
Keltic;  and  Mr.  Kemb'le  observes  that  the  signatures  to  very  early  charters  sup. 
ply  us  with  names  which  are  certainly  not  Teutonic,  and  were  probably  borne  by 
persons  of  Keltic  race,  who  occupied  positions  of  dignity  at  the  courts  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  kings.  See  Garnett,  Transactions  of  Philological  Society,  vol.  i.  p.  169; 
Kemble,  The  Saxons  in  England,  vol.  i.  p.  21. — S. 


80  SERVITUDE  IN  BRITAIN.  [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

and  appellations.  The  example  of  a  revolution  so  rapid  and 
so  complete  may  not  easily  be  found ;  but  it  will  excite  a 
probable  suspicion  that  the  arts  of  Rome  were  less  deeply 
rooted  in  Britain  than  in  Gaul  or  Spain ;  and  that  the  native 
rudeness  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants  was  covered  by  a 
thin  varnish  of  Italian  manners. 

This  strange  alteration  has  persuaded  historians,  and  even 
■philosophers,  that  the  provincials  of  Britain  were  totally  ex- 
terminated, and  that  the  vacant  land  was   again 

Servitude. 

peopled  by  the  perpetual  influx  and  rapid  increase 
of  the  German  colonies.  Three  hundred  thousand  Saxons 
are  said  to  have  obeyed  the  summons  of  Hengist  ;147  the  en- 
tire  emigration  of  the  Angles  was  attested,  in  the  age  of 
Bede,  by  the  solitude  of  their  native  country  ;U8  and  our  expe- 
rience has  shown  the  free  propagation  of  the  human  race,  if 
they  are  cast  on  a  fruitful  wilderness,  where  their  steps  are 
unconfined  and  their  subsistence  is  plentiful.  The  Saxon 
kingdoms  displayed  the  face  of  recent  discovery  and  cultiva- 
tion :  the  towns  were  small,  the  villages  were  distant ;  the 
husbandry  was  languid  and  unskilful ;  four  sheep  were  equiv- 
alent to  an  acre  of  the  best  land  ;14fl  an  ample  space  of  wood 
and  morass  was  resigned  to  the  vague  dominion  of  nature ; 
and  the  modern  bishopric  of  Durham,  the  whole  territory 
from  the  Tyne  to  the  Tees,  had  returned  to  its  primitive  state 
of  a  savage  and  solitary  forest.160  Such  imperfect  population 
might  have  been  supplied,  in  some  generations,  by  the  Eng- 

141  Carte's  History  of  England,  vol  i.  p.  195.  He  quotes  the  British  historians ; 
but  I  much  fear  that  Jeffrey  of  Monmouth  (1.  vi.  ch.  15)  is  his  only  witness. 

148  Bede,  Hist.  Ecclesiast.  1.  i.  c.  15,  p.  52.  The  fact  is  probable  and  well  at- 
tested :  yet  such  was  the  loose  intermixture  of  the  German  tribes,  that  we  find, 
in  a  subsequent  period,  the  law  of  the  Angli  and  Warini  of  Germany  (Linden- 
brog.  Codex,  p.  479-486). 

149  See  Dr.  Henry's  useful  and  laborious  History  of  Great  Britain,  vol.  ii.  p. 
388. 

160  u  Quicquid  "  (says  John  of  Tinemouth)  "  inter  Tynam  et  Tesam  fluvios  ex- 
titit,  sola  eremi  vastitudo  tunc  temporis  fuit,  et  idcirco  nullius  ditioni  servivit,  eo 
quod  sola  indomitorura  et  silvestrium  animalium  spelunca  et  habitatio  fuit "  (apud 
Carte,  vol.  i.  p.  195).  From  Bishop  Nicholson  (English  Historical  Library,  p.  65, 
98)  I  understand  that  fair  copies  of  John  of  Tinemouth's  ample  collections  are 
preserved  in  the  libraries  of  Oxford,  Lambeth.  etQ 


A.D.  455-582.]  SERVITUDE  IN  BRITAIN.  81 

lish  colonies ;  but  neither  reason  nor  facts  can  justify  the  un- 
natural supposition  that  the  Saxons  of  Britain  remained  alone 
in  the  desert  which  they  had  subdued.  After  the  sanguinary 
barbarians  had  secured  their  dominion  and  gratified  their  re- 
venge, it  was  their  interest  to  preserve  the  peasants,  as  well 
as  the  cattle,  of  the  unresisting  country.  In  each  successive 
revolution,  the  patient  herd  becomes  the  property  of  its  new 
masters;  and  the  salutary  compact  of  food  and  labor  is  silent- 
ly ratified  by  their  mutual  necessities.  Wilfrid,  the  apostle 
of  Sussex,161  accepted  from  his  royal  convert  the  gift  of  the 
peninsula  of  Selsey,  near  Chichester,  with  the  persons  and 
property  of  its  inhabitants,  who  then  amounted  to  eighty-sev- 
en families.  He  released  them  at  once  from  spiritual  and 
temporal  bondage ;  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  slaves  of  both 
sexes  were  baptized  by  their  indulgent  master.  The  kingdom 
of  Sussex,  which  spread  from  the  sea  to  the  Thames,  contained 
seven  thousand  families :  twelve  hundred  were  ascribed  to  the 
Isle  of  Wight ;  and,  if  we  multiply  this  vague  computation, 
it  may  seem  probable  that  England  was  cultivated  by  a  mill- 
ion of  servants,  or  villains,  who  were  attached  to  the  estates 
of  their  arbitrary  landlords.  The  indigent  barbarians  were 
often  tempted  to  sell  their  children  or  themselves  into  perpet- 
ual, and  even  foreign,  bondage  ;1M  yet  the  special  exemptions 
which  were  granted  to  national  slaves163  sufficiently  declare 
that  they  were  much  less  numerous  than  the  strangers  and 
captives  who  had  lost  their  liberty,  or  changed  their  masters, 
by  the  accidents  of  war.  When  time  and  religion  had  miti- 
gated the  fierce  spirit  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  laws  encour- 
aged the  frequent  practice  of  manumission ;  and  their  sub- 
jects, of  Welsh  or  Cambrian  extraction,  assumed  the  respecta- 
ble station  of  inferior  freemen,  possessed  of  lands,  and  entitled 

161  See  the  mission  of  Wilfrid,  etc.,  in  Bede,  Hist.  Eccles.  1.  iv.  c.  13,  16,  p.  155, 
156,  159. 

152  From  the  concurrent  testimony  of  Bede  (1.  ii.  c.  1,  p.  78)  and  William  of 
Malmesbury  (1.  iii.  p.  102),  it  appears  that  the  Anglo-Saxons,  from  the  first  to  thg 
last  age,  persisted  in  this  unnatural  practice.  Their  youths  were  publicly  sold  in 
the  market  of  Rome. 

163  According  to  the  laws  of  Ina,  they  could  not  be  lawfully  sold  beyond  the 
seas. 

IY.— 6 


82  MANNERS  OF  THE  BRITONS.    [Ch.  XXXVUI 

to  the  rights  of  civil  society.161  Such  gentle  treatment  might 
secure  the  allegiance  of  a  fierce  people,  who  had  been  recent- 
ly subdued  on  the  confines  of  Wales  and  Cornwall.  The  sage 
In  a,  the  legislator  of  Wessex,  united  the  two  nations  in  the 
bands  of  domestic  alliance;  and  four  British  lords  of  Som- 
ersetshire may  be  honorably  distinguished  in  the  court  of  a 
Saxon  monarch.165 

The  independent  Britons  appear  to  have  relapsed  into  the 
state  of  original  barbarism  from  whence  they  had  been  im- 
Manuersof  perfectly  reclaimed.  Separated  by  their  enemiea 
the  Britons.  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  they  soon  became  an 
object  of  scandal  and  abhorrence  to  the  Catholic  world.168 
Christianity  was  still  professed  in  the  mountains  of  Wales ; 
but  the  rude  schismatics,  in  the  form  of  the  clerical  tonsure, 
and  in  the  day  of  the  celebration  of  Easter,  obstinately  resist- 
ed the  imperious  mandates  of  the  Roman  pontiffs.  The  use 
of  the  Latin  language  was  insensibly  abolished,  and  the  Brit- 
ons were  deprived  of  the  arts  and  learning  which  Italy  com- 
municated to  her  Saxon  proselytes.  In  Wales  and  Armori- 
ca,  the  Celtic  tongue,  the  native  idiom  of  the  West,  was  pre- 
served and  propagated ;  and  the  Bards,  who  had  been  the 
companions  of  the  Druids,  were  still  protected,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  by  the  laws  of  Elizabeth.  Their  chief,  a  re- 
spectable officer  of  the  courts  of  Pengwern,  or  Aberfraw,  or 
Caermarthen,  accompanied  the  king's  servants  to  war :  the 
monarchy  of  the  Britons,  which  he  sung  in  the  front  of  bat- 
tle, excited  their  courage  and  justified  their  depredations ; 
and  the  songster  claimed  for  his  legitimate  prize  the  fairest 


154  The  life  of  a  Wallus,  or  Cambricus,  homo,  who  possessed  a  hyde  of  land,  in 
fixed  at  120  shillings,  by  the  same  laws  (of  Ina,  tit.  xxxii.  in  Leg.  Anglo-Saxon. 
p.  20)  which  allowed  200  shillings  for  a  free  Saxon,  and  1200  for  a  Thane  (see 
likewise  Leg.  Anglo-Saxon,  p.  71).  We  may  observe  that  these  legislators,  the 
West-Saxons  and  Mercians,  continued  their  British  conquests  after  they  became 
Christians.  The  laws  of  the  four  kings  of  Kent  do  not  condescend  to  notice  th& 
existence  of  any  subject  Britons. 

166  See  Carte's  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  278. 

166  At  the  conclusion  of  his  history  (a.d.  731),  Bede  describes  the  ecclesiastical 
6tate  of  the  island,  and  censures  the  implacable,  though  impotent,  hatred  of  the 
Britons  against  the  English  nation  and  the  Catholic  Church  (1.  v.  c.  23,  p.  219). 


A.D.  455-582.]  MANNERS  OF  THE  BRITONS.  83 

heifer  of  the  spoil.  His  subordinate  ministers,  the  masters 
and  disciples  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music,  visited,  in  their 
respective  circuits,  the  royal,  the  noble,  and  the  Plebeian 
houses ;  and  the  public  poverty,  almost  exhausted  by  the  cler- 
gy, was  oppressed  by  the  importunate  demands  of  the  bards. 
Their  rank  and  merit  were  ascertained  by  solemn  trials,  and 
the  strong  belief  of  supernatural  inspiration  exalted  the  fancy 
of  the  poet  and  of  his  audience.1"  The  last  retreats  of  Celtic 
freedom,  the  extreme  territories  of  Gaul  and  Britain,  were 
less  adapted  to  agriculture  than  to  pasturage :  the  wealth  of 
the  Britons  consisted  in  their  flocks  and  herds ;  milk  and  flesh 
were  their  ordinary  food;  and  bread  was  sometimes  esteemed, 
or  rejected,  as  a  foreign  luxury.  Liberty  had  peopled  the 
mountains  of  Wales  and  the  morasses  of  Armorica :  but  their 
populousness  has  been  maliciously  ascribed  to  the  loose  prac- 
tice of  polygamy ;  and  the  houses  of  these  licentious  barba- 
rians have  been  supposed  to  contain  ten  wives,  and  perhaps 
fifty  children.158  Their  disposition  was  rash  and  choleric : 
they  were  bold  in  action  and  in  speech  ;159  and  as  they  were 
ignorant  of  the  arts  of  peace,  they  alternately  indulged  their 
passions  in  foreign  and  domestic  war.  The  cavalry  of  Ar- 
morica, the  spearmen  of  Gwent,  and  the  archers  of  Merioneth, 
were  equally  formidable ;  but  their  poverty  could  seldom  pro- 
cure either  shields  or  helmets ;  and  the  inconvenient  weight 
would  have  retarded  the  speed  and  agility  of  their  desultory 
operations.  One  of  the  greatest  of  the  English  monarchs  was 
requested  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  a  Greek  emperor  con- 

157  Mr.  Pennant's  Tour  in  Wales  (p.  426-449)  has  furnished  me  with  a  curious 
and  interesting  account  of  the  Welsh  bards.  In  the  year  1568  a  session  was  held 
at  Caerwys  by  the  special  command  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  regular  degrees  in 
vocal  and  instrumental  music  were  conferred  on  fifty-five  minstrels.  The  priza 
(a  silver  harp)  was  adjudged  by  the  Mostyn  family. 

158  "  Regio  longe  lateque  diffusa,  milite,  magis  quam  credibile  sit,  referta.  Par- 
tibus  equidem  in  illis  miles  unus  quinquaginta  generat,  sortitus  more  barbaro  de- 
nas  aut  amplius  uxores."  This  reproach  of  William  of  Poitiers  (in  the  Histori- 
ans of  France,  torn.  xi.  p.  88)  is  disclaimed  by  the  Benedictine  editors. 

159  Giraldus  Cambrensis  confines  this  gift  of  bold  and  ready  eloquence  to  the 
Romans,  the  French,  and  the  Britons.  The  malicious  Welshman  insinuates  that 
the  English  taciturnity  might  possibly  be  the  effect  of  their  servitude  under  the 
Normans. 


84  OBSCUEE  STATE  OF  BEITATN.         [Ch.  XXXVIIL 

cerning  the  state  of  Britain ;  and  Henry  II.  could  assert,  from 
his  personal  experience,  that  "Wales  was  inhabited  by  a  race 
of  naked  warriors,  who  encountered,  without  fear,  the  defen- 
sive armor  of  their  enemies.180 

By  the  revolution  of  Britain  the  limits  of  science  as  well  as 

of  empire  were  contracted.     The  dark  cloud  which  had  been 

cleared  by  the  Phoenician  discoveries,  and  finallv 

Obscure  or  n     -i  i         i  t>  n  •  i     i  -i 

fabulous  state  dispelled  by  the  arms  or  Caesar,  again  settled  on  the 

ofBritain.  ,    r  „    «(         . .  .         .  n         '     & 

shores  of  the  Atlantic,  and  a  Koman  province  was 
again  lost  among  the  fabulous  Islands  of  the  Ocean.  One 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  reign  of  Honorius,  the 
gravest  historian  of  the  times1"  describes  the  wonders  of  a 
remote  isle,  whose  eastern  and  western  parts  are  divided  by 
an  antique  wall,  the  boundary  of  life  and  death,  or,  more 
properly,  of  truth  and  fiction.     The  east  is  a  fair  country,  in- 

160  The  picture  of  Welsh  and  Arraorican  manners  is  drawn  from  Giraldus  (De- 
8cript.  Cambria?,  c.  6-15,  inter  Script.  Camden,  p.  886-891)  and  the  authors  quoted 
by  the  Abbe  de  Vertot  (Hist.  Critique,  torn.  ii.  p.  259-266). 

161  See  Procopius  de  Bell.  Gothic.  1.  iv.  c.  20,  p.  620-625  [edit.  Paris ;  torn.  ii. 
p.  559  seq.  edit.  Bonn].  The  Greek  historian  is  himself  so  confounded  by  the 
wonders  which  he  relates,  that  he  weakly  attempts  to  distinguish  the  islands  of 
Brittia  and  Britain,  which  he  has  identified  by  so  many  inseparable  circum~ 
stances.* 

a  Notwithstanding  Gibbon's  identification  of  Brittia  and  Britannia,  in  which  he 
has  been  followed  by  Mr.  Macaulay  (Hist,  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  5),  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned whether  they  are  not  two  different  islands.  Procopius,  after  speaking  of 
the  Varni,  whom  he  describes  as  dwelling  on  both  sides  of  the  river  Rhine,  as  far 
as  the  Northern  Ocean,  then  proceeds  to  say  that  in  this  ocean  lies  Brittia,  200 
stadia  opposite  the  mouths  of  the  Rhine,  and  between  Britannia  and  the  island  of 
Thule ;  and  that  it  is  inhabited  by  the  Frisians,  the  Angles,  and  the  Britons.  On 
this  statement  we  may  remark  that  Procopius  has  almost  certainly  made  a  mis- 
take in  placing  the  Varni  on  the  Rhine,  for  which  we  ought  probably  to  substitute 
the  Elbe  (see  next  note) ;  and  that  in  that  case  his  fabulous  Brittia  is  probably  the 
same  as  the  holy  island  of  the  Germania  of  Tacitus  (c.  40),  which  was  visited  by 
the  Angli,  Varini,  and  other  tribes.  This  holy  island  has  been  identified  with 
Heligoland  or  Rugen ;  but  it  is  probable  that  it  was  neither  the  one  nor  the  other, 
but  an  island  made  out  of  a  mixture  of  attributes  of  the  two.  Heligoland  was  a 
holy  island,  almost  certainly  peopled  by  the  Germanic  tribes  of  the  Angles  and 
Frisians;  while  Rugen  was  the  holy  island  of  the  Slavonic  Varini  (Varni),  who 
were  near  neighbors  of  the  Angles.  The  name  Brittia  perhaps  represents  the 
Slavonic  Prussia,  for  the  eponymous  hero  of  the  ancient  Prussians  bore  the  name 
of  Bruteus.  If,  then,  the  holy  island  of  the  Germans  and  that  of  the  Slavonians 
tvere  thus  confounded,  we  can  explain  the  assertion  of  Procopius  that  Brittia  was 
inhabited  by  the  Frisians,  Angles,  and  the  Britons,  the  two  former  being  a  Ger- 
man, and  the  latter  a  Slavonic  race.  See  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Roman  Ge- 
ography, vol.  i.  p.  430  seq. — S. 


M>.  455-582.]  OBSCURE  STATE  OF  BRITAIN.  85 

habited  by  a  civilized  people  :  the  air  is  healthy,  the  waters 
are  pure  and  plentiful,  and  the  earth  yields  her  regular  and 
fruitful  increase.  In  the  west,  beyond  the  wall,  the  air  is 
infectious  and  mortal ;  the  ground  is  covered  with  serpents ; 
and  this  dreary  solitude  is  the  region  of  departed  spirits,  who 
are  transported  from  the  opposite  shores  in  substantial  boats 
and  by  living  rowers.  Some  families  of  fishermen,  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Franks,  are  excused  from  tribute,  in  consideration 
of  the  mysterious  office  which  is  performed  by  these  Charons 
of  the  ocean.  Each  in  his  turn  is  summoned,  at  the  hour 
of  midnight,  to  hear  the  voices,  and  even  the  names,  of  the 
ghosts  :  he  is  sensible  of  their  weight,  and  he  feels  himself 
impelled  by  an  unknown  but  irresistible  power.  After  this 
dream  of  fancy,  we  read  with  astonishment  that  the  name  of 
this  island  is  Brittia  /  that  it  lies  in  the  ocean,  against  the 
mouth  of  the  Rhine,  and  less  than  thirty  miles  from  the  con 
tinent ;  that  it  is  possessed  by  three  nations,  the  Frisians,  the 
Angles,  and  the  Britons;  and  that  some  Angles  had  appear- 
ed at  Constantinople  in  the  train  of  the  French  ambassadors. 
From  these  ambassadors  Procopius  might  be  informed  of  a 
singular,  though  not  improbable,  adventure,  which  announces 
the  spirit,  rather  than  the  delicacy,  of  an  English  heroine. 
She  had  been  betrothed  to  Radiger,  king  of  the  Yarni,  a  tribe 
of  Germans  who  touched  the  ocean  and  the  Rhine  ;a  but  the 
perfidious  lover  was  tempted,  by  motives  of  policy,  to  pre- 
fer his  father's  widow,  the  sister  of  Theodebert,  king  of  the 
Franks.162     The  forsaken  princess  of  the  Angles,  instead  of 


162  Theodebert,  grandson  of  Clovis  and  King  of  Austrasia,  was  the  most  power- 
ful and  warlike  prince  of  the  age ;  and  this  remarkable  adventure  may  be  placed 
between  the  years  534  and  547,  the  extreme  terms  of  his  reign.  His  sister  Theu- 
dechildis  retired  to  Sens,  where  she  founded  monasteries  and  distributed  alms  (see 
the  notes  of  the  Benedictine  editors,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  216).      If  we  may  credit  the 


*  The  Varni,  called  Varini  by  Pliny  (iv.  14,  s.  28)  and  Tacitus  (Germ.  c.  40), 
and  Ovipovvoi  by  Ptolemy  (ii.  11,  §  17),  originally  dwelt  upon  the  Elbe ;  and  they 
appear  to  have  occupied  the  same  settlements  about  a.d.  512  (Procop.  Bell.  Goth. 
ii.  15).  Hence  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  Procopius  was  mistaken  in  saying 
(Bell.  Goth.  iv.  20)  that  the  Varni  touched  the  Rhine,  and  that  for  this  river  we 
ought  to  substitute  the  Elbe.  See  Zeuss,  Die  Deutschen  und  die  Nachbarstamme, 
p.  360  seq,.— S. 


86  FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE.     [Ch.  XXXVIII 

bewailing,  revenged  her  disgrace.  Her  warlike  subjects  are 
said  to  have  been  ignorant  of  the  use,  and  even  of  the  form, 
of  a  horse ;  but  she  boldly  sailed  from  Britain  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Rhine,  with  a  fleet  of  four  hundred  ships  and  an  army 
of  one  hundred  thousand  men.  After  the  loss  of  a  battle  the 
captive  Radiger  implored  the  mercy  of  his  victorious  bride, 
who  generously  pardoned  his  offence,  dismissed  her  rival,  and 
compelled  the  king  of  the  Varni  to  discharge  with  honor  and 
fidelity  the  duties  of  a  husband.163  This  gallant  exploit  ap- 
pears to  be  the  last  naval  enterprise  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 
The  arts  of  navigation,  by  which  they  had  acquired  the  em- 
pire of  Britain  and  of  the  sea,  were  soon  neglected  by  the 
indolent  barbarians,  who  supinely  renounced  all  the  commer- 
cial advantages  of  their  insular  situation.  Seven  independent 
kingdoms  were  agitated  by  perpetual  discord ;  and  the  Brit- 
ish world  was  seldom  connected,  either  in  peace  or  war,  with 
the  nations  of  the  Continent.164 

I  have  now  accomplished  the  laborious  narrative  of  the  de- 
cline and  fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  from  the  fortunate  age 
Pali  of  the  °^  Trajan  and  the  Antonines  to  its  total  extinction 
jrirein  the"  m  ^ie  West,  about  five  centuries  after  the  Christian 
West-  era.     At  that  unhappy  period  the  Saxons  fiercely 

struggled  with  the  natives  for  the  possession  of  Britain :  Gaul 
and  Spain  were  divided  between  the  powerful  monarchies  of 
the  Franks  and  Yisigoths  and  the  dependent  kingdoms  of  the 
Suevi  and  Burgundians :  Africa  was  exposed  to  the  cruel  per- 
secution of  the  Yandals  and  the  savage  insults  of  the  Moors : 

praises  of  Fortunatus  (1.  vi.  carta.  5,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  507),  Radiger  was  deprived  of 
a  most  valuable  wife. 

163  pernaps  she  was  the  sister  of  one  of  the  princes  or  chiefs  of  the  Angles  who 
landed,  in  527  and  the  following  years,  between  the  Humber  and  the  Thames,  and 
gradually  founded  the  kingdoms  of  East  Anglia  and  Mercia.  The  English  writers 
are  ignorant  of  her  name  and  existence ;  but  Procopius  may  have  suggested  to 
Mr.  Rowe  the  character  and  situation  of  Rodogune  in  the  tragedy  of  the  Royal 
Convert. 

164  In  the  copious  history  of  Gregory  of  Tours  we  cannot  find  any  traces  of  hos- 
tile or  friendly  intercourse  between  France  and  England,  except  in  the  marriage 
of  the  daughter  of  Caribert,  King  of  Paris,  quam  in  Cantia  regis  cujusdam  Alius 
matrimonio  copulavit  (1.  ix.  c.  26,  in  torn.  ii.  p.  348).  The  Bishop  of  Toiuv»  ended 
his  history  and  his  life  almost  immediately  before  the  conversion  of  Kern 


a.d.  455-582.]       FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE.  8? 

Rome  and  Italy,  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  were  af- 
flicted by  an  army  of  barbarian  mercenaries,  whose  lawless 
tyranny  was  succeeded  by  the  reign  of  Theodoric  the  Ostro- 
goth. All  the  subjects  of  the  empire,  who,  by  the  use  of 
the  Latin  language,  more  particularly  deserved  the  name  and 
privileges  of  Romans,  were  oppressed  by  the  disgrace  and  ca- 
lamities of  foreign  conquest ;  and  the  victorious  nations  of 
Germany  established  a  new  system  of  manners  and  govern- 
ment in  the  western  countries  of  Europe.  The  majesty  of 
Rome  was  faintly  represented  by  the  princes  of  Constantino- 
ple, the  feeble  and  imaginary  successors  of  Augustus.  Yet 
they  continued  to  reign  over  the  East,  from  the  Danube  to 
the  Nile  and  Tigris ;  the  Gothic  and  Yandal  kingdoms  of  It- 
aly and  Africa  were  subverted  by  the  arms  of  Justinian ;  and 
the  history  of  the  Greek  emperors  may  still  afford  a  long  se- 
ries of  instructive  lessons  and  interesting  revolutions. 


88       GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL 


GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL  OF  THE  ROMAN  EM. 
PIRE  IN  THE  WEST. 

The  Greeks,  after  their  country  had  been  reduced  into  a 
province,  imputed  the  triumphs  of  Rome,  not  to  the  merit, 
but  to  the  fortune,  of  the  republic.  The  inconstant  goddess, 
who  so  blindly  distributes  and  resumes  her  favors,  had  now 
consented-  (such  was  the  language  of  envious  flattery)  to  re- 
sign her  wings,  to  descend  from  her  globe,  and  to  fix  her  firm 
and  immutable  throne  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber.1  A  wiser 
Greek,  who  has  composed,  with  a  philosophic  spirit,  the  mem- 
orable history  of  his  own  times,  deprived  his  countrymen  of 
this  vain  and  delusive  comfort,  by  opening  to  their  view  the 
deep  foundations  of  the  greatness  of  Rome.8  The  fidelity  of 
the  citizens  to  each  other  and  to  the  State  was  confirmed  by 
the  habits  of  education  and  the  prejudices  of  religion.  Hon- 
or, as  well  as  virtue,  was  the  principle  of  the  republic ;  the 
ambitious  citizens  labored  to  deserve  the  solemn  glories  of  a 
triumph ;  and  the  ardor  of  the  Roman  youth  was  kindled  into 
active  emulation  as  often  as  they  beheld  the  domestic  images 
of  their  ancestors.8  The  temperate  struggles  of  the  Patricians 
and  Plebeians  had  finally  established  the  firm  and  equal  bal- 
ance of  the  constitution,  which  united  the  freedom  of  popu- 
lar assemblies  with  the  authority  and  wisdom  of  a  senate  and 
the  executive  powers  of  a  regal  magistrate.  "When  the  con- 
sul displayed  the  standard  of  the  republic,  each  citizen  bound 


1  Such  are  the  figurative  expressions  of  Plutarch  (Opera,  torn.  ii.  p.  318,  edit. 
Wechel  [Frankf.  1620]),  to  whom,  on  the  faith  of  his  son  Lamprias  (Fabricius, 
Bibliot.  Graac.  torn.  iii.  p.  341),  I  shall  holdly  impute  the  malicious  declamation 
■Kepi  ti)q  'Pw/iaiwj/  rvxVG-  The  same  opinions  had  prevailed  among  the  Greeks 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Plutarch  ;  and  to  confute  them  is  the  professed 
intention  of  Polybius  (Hist.  1.  i.  [c.  63]  p.  90,  edit.  Gronov.  Amstel.  1670). 

2  See  the  inestimable  remains  of  the  sixth  book  of  Polybius,  and  many  other 
parts  of  his  general  history,  particularly  a  digression  in  the  seventeenth  book 
[1.  xviii.  c.  12-15],  in  which  he  compares  the  phalanx  and  the  legion. 

3  Sallust,  de  Bell.  Jugurthin.  c.  4.  Such  were  the  generous  professions  of  P. 
Scipio  and  Q.  Maximus.  The  Latin  historian  had  read,  and  most  probably  tran« 
Bcribes,  Polybius,  their  contemporary  and  friend. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST.  89 

himself,  by  the  obligation  of  an  oath,  to  draw  his  sword  in 
the  cause  of  his  country  till  he  had  discharged  the  sacred 
duty  by  a  military  service  of  ten  years.  This  wise  institu- 
tion continually  poured  into  the  field  the  rising  generations 
of  freemen  and  soldiers;  and  their  numbers  were  reinforced 
by  the  warlike  and  populous  states  of  Italy,  who,  after  a  brave 
resistance,  had  yielded  to  the  valor  and  embraced  the  alliance 
of  the  Romans.  The  sage  historian,  who  excited  the  virtue 
of  the  younger  Scipio  and  beheld  the  ruin  of  Carthage,4  has 
accurately  described  their  military  system  ;  their  levies,  arms, 
exercises,  subordination,  marches,  encampments ;  and  the  in- 
vincible legion,  superior  in  active  strength  to  the  Macedonian 
phalanx  of  Philip  and  Alexander.  From  these  institutions 
of  peace  and  war  Polybius  has  deduced  the  spirit  and  success 
of  a  people  incapable  of  fear  and  impatient  of  repose.  The 
ambitious  design  of  conquest,  which  might  have  been  defeat- 
ed by  the  seasonable  conspiracy  of  mankind,  was  attempted 
and  achieved ;  and  the  perpetual  violation  of  justice  was  main- 
tained by  the  political  virtues  of  prudence  and  courage.  The 
arms  of  the  republic,  sometimes  vanquished  in  battle,  always 
victorious  in  war,  advanced  with  rapid  steps  to  the  Euphra- 
tes, the  Danube,  the  Ehine,  and  the  Ocean ;  and  the  images 
of  gold,  or  silver,  or  brass,  that  might  serve  to  represent  the 
nations  and  their  kings,  were  successively  broken  by  the  iron 
monarchy  of  Rome.6 

The  rise  of  a  city,  which  swelled  into  an  empire,  may  de- 
serve, as  a  singular  prodigy,  the  reflection  of  a  philosophic 

4  While  Carthage  was  in  flames  Scipio  repeated  two  lines  of  the  Iliad,  which 
express  the  destruction  of  Troy,  acknowledging  to  Polybius,  his  friend  and  pre- 
ceptor (Polyb.  [Fragm.  1.  xxxix.  sub  fin.]  in  Excerpt,  de  Virtut.  et  Vit.  torn.  ii.  p. 
1455-1465),  that  while  he  recollected  the  vicissitudes  of  human  affairs  he  inward- 
ly applied  them  to  the  future  calamities  of  Rome  (Appian.  in  Libycis  [1.  viii.  e. 
132],  p.  136,  edit.  Toll.). 

5  See  Daniel  ii.  31-40.  "And  the  fourth  kingdom  shall  be  strong  as  iron; 
forasmuch  as  iron  breaketh  in  pieces  and  subdueth  all  things."  The  remainder 
of  the  prophecy  (the  mixture  of  iron  and  clay)  was  accomplished,  according  to  St. 
Jerom,  in  his  own  time.  Sicut  enim  in  principio  nihil  Romano  Imperio  fortius 
et  durius,  ita  in  fine  rerum  nihil  imbecillius:  quum  et  in  bellis  civilibus  et  ad- 
versus  diversas  nationes,  aliarum  gentium  barbararura  auxilio  iudigemus  (Opera, 
torn.  t.  p.  572). 


90  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL 

mind.  But  the  decline  of  Rome  was  the  natural  and  inevita* 
ble  effect  of  immoderate  greatness.  Prosperity  ripened  the 
principle  of  decay;  the  causes  of  destruction  multiplied  with 
the  extent  of  conquest ;  aud  as  soon  as  time  or  accident  had 
removed  the  artificial  supports,  the  stupendous  fabric  yielded 
to  the  pressure  of  its  own  weight.  The  story  of  its  ruin  i? 
simple  and  obvious ;  and  instead  of  inquiring  why  the  Roman 
empire  was  destroyed,  we  should  rather  be  surprised  that  it 
had  subsisted  so  long.  The  victorious  legions,  who,  in  distant 
wars,  acquired  the  vices  of  strangers  and  mercenaries,  first  op- 
pressed the  freedom  of  the  republic,  and  afterwards  violated 
the  majesty  of  the  purple.  The  emperors,  anxious  for  their 
personal  safety  and  the  public  peace,  were  reduced  to  the  base 
expedient  of  corrupting  the  discipline  which  rendered  them 
alike  formidable  to  their  sovereign  and  to  the  enemy ;  the 
vigor  of  the  military  government  was  relaxed  and  finally  dis- 
solved by  the  partial  institutions  of  Constantine ;  and  the 
Roman  world  was  overwhelmed  by  a  deluge  of  barbarians. 

The  decay  of  Rome  has  been  frequently  ascribed  to  the 
translation  of  the  seat  of  empire ;  but  this  history  has  already 
shown  that  the  powers  of  government  were  divided  rather 
than  removed.  The  throne  of  Constantinople  was  erected  in 
the  East ;  while  the  West  was  still  possessed  by  a  series  of 
emperors  who  held  their  residence  in  Italy,  and  claimed  their 
equal  inheritance  of  the  legions  and  provinces.  This  danger- 
ous novelty  impaired  the  strength  and  fomented  the  vices  of 
a  double  reign  :  the  instruments  of  an  oppressive  and  arbi- 
trary system  were  multiplied ;  and  a  vain  emulation  of  lux- 
ury, not  of  merit,  was  introduced  and  supported  between  the 
degenerate  successors  of  Theodosius.  Extreme  distress,  which 
unites  the  virtue  of  a  free  people,  embitters  the  factions  of  a 
declining  monarchy.  The  hostile  favorites  of  Arcadius  and 
Honorius  betrayed  the  republic  to  its  common  enemies ;  and 
the  Byzantine  court  beheld  with  indifference,  perhaps  with 
pleasure,  the  disgrace  of  Rome,  the  misfortunes  of  Italy,  and 
the  loss  of  the  West.  Under  the  succeeding  reigns  the  alli- 
ance of  the  two  empires  was  restored  ;  but  the  aid  of  the  Ori- 
ental Romans  was  tardy,  doubtful,  and  ineffectual ;  and  the 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST.  91 

national  schism  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins  was  enlarged  by  the 
perpetual  difference  of  language  and  manners,  of  interests, 
and  even  of  religion.  Yet  the  salutary  event  approved  in 
some  measure  the  judgment  of  Constantine.  During  a  long 
period  of  decay  his  impregnable  city  repelled  the  victorious 
armies  of  barbarians,  protected  the  wealth  of  Asia,  and  com- 
manded, both  in  peace  and  war,  the  important  straits  which 
connect  the  Euxine  and  Mediterranean  seas.  The  foundation 
of  Constantinople  more  essentially  contributed  to  the  preser- 
vation of  the  East  than  to  the  ruin  of  the  West. 

As  the  happiness  of  a  future  life  is  the  great  object  of  re- 
ligion, we  may  hear  without  surprise  or  scandal  that  the  intro- 
duction, or  at  least  the  abuse,  of  Christianity,  had  some  influ- 
ence on  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  empire.  The 
clergy  successfully  preached  the  doctrines  of  patience  and 
pusillanimity  ;  the  active  virtues  of  society  were  discouraged  ; 
and  the  last  remains  of  military  spirit  were  buried  in  the 
cloister :  a  large  portion  of  public  and  private  wealth  was  con- 
secrated to  the  specious  demands  of  charity  and  devotion ; 
and  the  soldiers'  pay  was  lavished  on  the  useless  multitudes 
of  both  sexes  who  could  only  plead  the  merits  of  abstinence 
and  chastity.3.  Faith,  zeal,  curiosity,  and  the  more  earthly 
passions  of  malice  and  ambition,  kindled  the  flame  of  theolog- 
ical discord ;  the  Church,  and  even  the  State,  were  distracted 
by  religious  factions,  whose  conflicts  were  sometimes  bloody 
and  always  implacable ;  the  attention  of  the  emperors  was  di- 
verted from  camps  to  synods ;  the  Roman  world  was  oppress- 
ed by  a  new  species  of  tyranny  ;  and  the  persecuted  sects  be- 
came the  secret  enemies  of  their  country.  Yet  party  spirit, 
however  pernicious  or  absurd,  is  a  principle  of  union  as  well 
as  of  dissension.  The  bishops,  from  eighteen  hundred  pul- 
pits, inculcated  the  duty  of  passive  obedience  to  a  lawful  and 
orthodox  sovereign ;  their  frequent  assemblies  and  perpetual 
correspondence  maintained  the  communion  of  distant  church- 


*  It  might  be  a  curious  speculation  how  far  the  purer  morals  of  the  genuine  and 
more  active  Christians  may  have  compensated,  in  the  population  of  the  Roman 
empire,  for  the  secession  of  such  numbers  into  inactive  and  unproductive  celiba- 
cy.— M. 


92  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL 

es ;  and  the  benevolent  temper  of  the  Gospel  was  strengthen- 
ed, though  confined,  by  the  spiritual  alliance  of  the  Catholics. 
The  sacred  indolence  of  the  monks  was  devoutly  embraced  by 
a  servile  and  effeminate  age ;  but  if  superstition  had  not  af- 
forded a  decent  retreat,  the  same  vices  would  have  tempt- 
ed the  unworthy  Romans  to  desert,  from  baser  motives,  the 
standard  of  the  republic.  Religious  precepts  are  easily  obey- 
ed which  indulge  and  sanctify  the  natural  inclinations  of  their 
votaries ;  but  the  pure  and  genuine  influence  of  Christianity 
may  be  traced  in  its  beneficial,  though  imperfect,  effects  on 
the  barbarian  proselytes  of  the  North.  If  the  decline  of  the 
Roman  empire  was  hastened  by  the  conversion  of  Constan- 
tine,  his  victorious  religion  broke  the  violence  of  the  fall,  and 
mollified  the  ferocious  temper  of  the  conquerors. 

This  awful  revolution  may  be  usefully  applied  to  the  in- 
struction of  the  present  age.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  patriot  to 
prefer  and  promote  the  exclusive  interest  and  glory  of  hia 
native  country :  but  a  philosopher  may  be  permitted  to  en- 
large his  views,  and  to  consider  Europe  as  one  great  republic, 
whose  various  inhabitants  have  attained  almost  the  same  level 
of  politeness  and  cultivation.  The  balance  of  power  will 
continue  to  fluctuate,  and  the  prosperity  of  our  own  or  the 
neighboring  kingdoms  may  be  alternately  exalted  or  depress- 
ed ;  but  these  partial  events  cannot  essentially  injure  our  gen- 
eral state  of  happiness,  the  system  of  arts,  and  laws,  and  man- 
ners, which  so  advantageously  distinguish,  above  the  rest  of 
mankind,  the  Europeans  and  their  colonies.  The  savage  na- 
tions of  the  globe  are  the  common  enemies  of  civilized  socie- 
ty ;  and  we  may  inquire,  with  anxious  curiosity,  whether  Eu- 
rope is  still  threatened  with  a  repetition  of  those  calamities 
which  formerly  oppressed  the  arms  and  institutions  of  Rome. 
Perhaps  the  same  reflections  will  illustrate  the  fall  of  that 
mighty  empire,  and  explain  the  probable  causes  of  our  actual 
security. 

I.  The  Romans  were  ignorant  of  the  extent  of  their  dan- 
ger and  the  number  of  their  enemies.  Beyond  the  Rhine 
and  Danube  the  northern  countries  of  Europe  and  Asia  were 
filled  with  innumerable  tribes  of  hunters  and  shepherds,  poor, 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST.  93 

voracious,  and  turbulent ;  bold  in  arms,  and  impatient  to  rav- 
ish the  fruits  of  industry.  The  barbarian  world  was  agitated 
by  the  rapid  impulse  of  war ;  and  the  peace  of  Gaul  or  Italy 
was  shaken  by  the  distant  revolutions  of  China.  The  Huns, 
who  fled  before  a  victorious  enemy,  directed  their  march  to- 
wards the  West ;  and  the  torrent  was  swelled  by  the  gradual 
accession  of  captives  and  allies.  The  flying  tribes  who  yield- 
ed to  the  Huns  assumed  in  their  turn  the  spirit  of  conquest ; 
the  endless  column  of  barbarians  pressed  on  the  Koman  em- 
pire with  accumulated  weight ;  and,  if  the  foremost  were  de- 
stroyed, the  vacant  space  was  instantly  replenished  by  new 
assailants.  Such  formidable  emigrations  no  longer  issue  from 
the  North ;  and  the  long  repose,  which  has  been  imputed  to 
the  decrease  of  population,  is  the  happy  consequence  of  the 
progress  of  arts  and  agriculture.  Instead  of  some  rude  vil- 
lages thinly  scattered  among  its  woods  and  morasses,  Germa- 
ny now  produces  a  list  of  two  thousand  three  hundred  walled 
towns :  the  Christian  kingdoms  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  and 
Poland  have  been  successively  established ;  and  the  Hanse 
merchants,  with  the  Teutonic  knights,  have  extended  their 
colonies  along  the  coast  of  the  Baltic  as  far  as  the  Gulf  of 
Finland.  From  the  Gulf  of  Finland  to  the  Eastern  Ocean, 
Russia  now  assumes  the  form  of  a  powerful  and  civilized 
empire.  The  plough,  the  loom,  and  the  forge  are  introduced 
on  the  banks  of  the  Yolga,  the  Oby,  and  the  Lena ;  and  the 
fiercest  of  the  Tartar  hordes  have  been  taught  to  tremble  and 
obey.  The  reign  of  independent  barbarism  is  now  contract- 
ed to  a  narrow  span  ;  and  the  remnant  of  Calmucks  or  Uz- 
becks,  whose  forces  may  be  almost  numbered,  cannot  serious- 
ly excite  the  apprehensions  of  the  great  republic  of  Europe.8 
Yet  this  apparent  security  should  not  tempt  us  to  forget  that 


6  The  French  and  English  editors  of  the  Genealogical  History  of  the  Tartars 
have  subjoined  a  curious,  though  imperfect,  description  of  their  present  state.  We 
might  question  the  independence  of  the  Calmucks,  or  Eluths,  since  they  have  been 
recently  vanquished  by  the  Chinese,  who,  in  the  year  1759,  subdued  the  lesser 
Bucharia,  and  advanced  into  the  country  of  Badakshan,  near  the  sources  of  the 
Oxus  (Memoires  sur  les  Chinois,  torn.  i.  p.  825-400).  But  these  conquests  are 
precarious,  nor  will  I  venture  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  Chinese  empire. 


94  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL 

new  enemies  and  unknown  dangers  may  possibly  arise  from 
some  obscure  people,  scarcely  visible  in  the  map  of  the  world. 
The  Arabs  or  Saracens,  who  spread  their  conquests  from  India 
to  Spain,  had  languished  in  poverty  and  contempt  till  Mahom- 
et breathed  into  those  savage  bodies  the  soul  of  enthusiasm. 

II.  The  empire  of  Rome  was  firmly  established  by  the  sin- 
gular and  perfect  coalition  of  its  members.  The  subject  na- 
tions, resigning  the  hope  and  even  the  wish  of  independence, 
embraced  the  character  of  Roman  citizens ;  and  the  proviuces 
of  the  "West  were  reluctantly  torn  by  the  barbarians  from 
the  bosom  of  their  mother  country.7  But  this  union  was  pur- 
chased by  the  loss  of  national  freedom  and  military  spirit ; 
and  the  servile  provinces,  destitute  of  life  and  motion,  expect- 
ed their  safety  from  the  mercenary  troops  aud  governors  who 
were  directed  by  the  orders  of  a  distant  court.  The  happi- 
ness of  a  hundred  millions  depended  on  the  personal  merit 
of  one  or  two  men,  perhaps  children,  whose  minds  were  cor- 
rupted by  education,  luxury,  and  despotic  power.  The  deep- 
est wounds  were  inflicted  on  the  empire  during  the  minori- 
ties of  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  Theodosius ;  and,  after  those 
incapable  princes  seemed  to  attain  the  age  of  manhood,  they 
abandoned  the  Church  to  the  bishops,  the  State  to  the  eu- 
nuchs, and  the  provinces  to  the  barbarians.  Europe  is  now 
divided  into  twelve  powerful,  though  unequal  kingdoms,  three 
respectable  commonwealths,  and  a  variety  of  smaller,  though 
independent  states :  the  chances  of  royal  and  ministerial  tal- 
ents are  multiplied,  at  least,  with  the  number  of  its  rulers ; 
and  a  Julian  or  Semiramis  may  reign  in  the  North,  while 
Arcadius  and  Honorius  again  slumber  on  the  thrones  of  the 
South.3,     The  abuses  of  tyranny  are  restrained  by  the  mutual 

7  The  prudent  reader  will  determine  how  far  this  general  proposition  is  weaken- 
ed by  the  revolt  of  the  Isaurians,  the  independence  of  Britain  and  Armorica,  the 
Moorish  tribes,  or  the  Bagaudse  of  Gaul  and  Spain  (vol.  i.  p.  414,  vol.  iv.  p.  130, 
178, 252).  

*  In  the  first  4to  edition  Gibbon  wrote:  "A  Julian  or  Semiramis  may  reign  in 
the  North,  while  Arcadius  and  Honorius  slumber  on  the  thrones  of  the  House  of 
Bourbon."  By  Julian  and  Semiramis  Gibbon  clearly  alluded  to  Frederic  of  Prus- 
sia and  Catherine  of  Russia ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  paragraph  he  appears  to 
have  as  clearly  alluded  to  the  French  aud  Spanish  Bourbons.    We  learn  from  Gib- 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST.  95 

influence  of  fear  and  shame ;  republics  have  acquired  order 
and  stability ;  monarchies  have  imbibed  the  principles  of 
freedom,  or,  at  least,  of  moderation ;  and  some  sense  of  lienor 
and  justice  is  introduced  into  the  most  defective  constitutions 
by  the  general  manners  of  the  times.  In  peace,  the  progress 
of  knowledge  and  industry  is  accelerated  by  the  emulation  of 
so  many  active  rivals :  in  war,  the  European  forces  are  ex- 
ercised by  temperate  and  undecisive  contests.  If  a  savage 
conqueror  should  issue  from  the  deserts  of  Tartary,  he  must 
repeatedly  vanquish  the  robust  peasants  of  Russia,  the  numer- 
ous armies  of  Germany,  the  gallant  nobles  of  France,  and  the 
intrepid  freemen  of  Britain  ;  who,  perhaps,  might  confederate 
for  their  common  defence.  Should  the  victorious  barbarians 
carry  slavery  and  desolation  as  far  as  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  ten 
thousand  vessels  would  transport  beyond  their  pursuit  the 
remains  of  civilized  society;  and  Europe  would  revive  and 
flourish  in  the  American  world,  which  is  already  filled  with 
her  colonies  and  institutions.8 

8  America  now  contains  about  six  millions  of  European  blood  and  descent ;  and 
their  numbers,  at  least  in  the  North,  are  continually  increasing.  Whatever  may 
be  the  changes  of  their  political  situation,  they  must  preserve  the  manners  of  Eu- 
rope ;  and  we  may  reflect  with  some  pleasure  that  the  English  language  will  prob- 
ably be  diffused  over  an  immense  and  populous  continent. 


bon's  Memoirs  (see  vol.  i.  p.  183)  that  the  passage  was  so  understood  by  Louis 

XVI.,  who  expressed  his  resentment  to  the  Prince  of  B [Prince  de  Beau- 

veau],  frcrn  whom  the  intelligence  was  conveyed  to  the  author.  Gibbon  then  goes 
on  to  say:  "I  shall  neither  disclaim  the  allusion  nor  examine  the  likeness;  but 
the  situation  of  the  late  King  of  France  excludes  all  suspicion  of  flattery;  and  I 
am  ready  to  declare  that  the  concluding  observations  of  my  third  volume  [4to] 
were  written  before  his  accession  to  the  throne. "  This  note  in  the  Memoirs  was 
apparently  written  in  1792,  after  the  abolition  of  monarchy  in  France  and  before 
the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.  A  learned  writer  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine 
(November,  1839)  charges  Gibbon  with  at  least  an  error  of  memory  in  stating  that 
the  concluding  observations  of  the  third  4to  volume  were  written  before  the  ac- 
cession of  Louis  XVI.  to  the  throne,  on  the  ground  that  the  third  4to  volume  was 
published  in  1781,  while  Louis  XVI.  ascended  the  throne  in  1771,  two  years  be- 
fore the  publication  of  even  the  first  volume  of  the  History.  But  there  is  no  suf- 
ficient reason  for  disbelieving  the  statement  of  Gibbon ;  we  know  from  his  Me- 
moirs that  the  first  draft  of  his  History  was  in  existence  some  years  before  the 
publication  of  the  first  volume ;  and  the  paragraph  in  question  may  have  origi- 
nally alluded  to  Louis  XV.,  but  was  allowed  by  the  author  to  remain,  as  it  was 
equally  applicable  to  his  successor,  Louis  XVI.  After  the  misfortunes  of  the  lat- 
ter monarch,  Gibbon  rendered  the  paragraph  more  indefinite  by  altering  "the 
thrones  of  the  House  of  Bourbon  "  into  "  the  thrones  of  the  South,"  which  might 
thus  be  applied  to  the  Spanish  and  Neapolitan  thrones. — S. 


96  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL 

III.  Cold,  poverty,  and  a  life  of  danger  and  fatigue  fortify 
the  strength  and  courage  of  barbarians.  In  every  age  they 
have  oppressed  the  polite  and  peaceful  nations  of  China,  In- 
dia, and  Persia,  who  neglected,  and  still  neglect,  to  counter- 
balance these  natural  powers  by  the  resources  of  military  art. 
The  warlike  states  of  antiquity,  Greece,  Macedonia,  and  Rome 
educated  a  race  of  soldiers ;  exercised  their  bodies,  disciplined 
their  courage,  multiplied  their  forces  by  regular  evolutions, 
and  converted  the  iron  which  they  possessed  into  strong  and 
serviceable  weapons.  But  this  superiority  insensibly  declined 
with  their  laws  and  manners :  and  the  feeble  policy  of  Con- 
stantine  and  his  successors  armed  and  instructed,  for  the  ruin 
of  the  empire,  the  rude  valor  of  the  barbarian  mercenaries. 
The  military  art  has  been  changed  by  the  invention  of  gun- 
powder, which  enables  man  to  command  the  two  most  pow- 
erful agents  of  nature,  air  and  fire.  Mathematics,  chemistry, 
mechanics,  architecture,  have  been  applied  to  the  service  of 
war ;  and  the  adverse  parties  oppose  to  each  other  the  most 
elaborate  modes  of  attack  and  of  defence.  Historians  may 
indignantly  observe  that  the  preparations  of  a  siege  would 
found  and  maintain  a  flourishing  colony  ;9  yet  we  cannot  be 
displeased  that  the  subversion  of  a  city  should  be  a  work  of 
cost  and  difficulty,  or  that  an  industrious  people  should  be 
protected  by  those  arts  which  survive  and  supply  the  decay 
of  military  virtue.  Cannon  and  fortifications  now  form  an 
impregnable  barrier  against  the  Tartar  horse ;  arid  Europe  is 
secure  from  any  future  irruption  of  barbarians ;  since,  before 
they  can  conquer,  they  must  cease  to  be  barbarous.  Their 
gradual  advances  in  the  science  of  war  would  always  be  ac- 
companied, as  we  may  learn  from  the  example  of  Russia,  with 

9  On  avoit  fait  venir  (for  the  siege  of  Turin)  140  pieces  de  canon ;  et  il  est  & 
remarquer  que  chaque  gros  canon  monte  revient  k  environ  2000  e'cus :  il  y  avoit 
100,000  boulets ;  106,000  cartouches  d'une  facon,  et  300,000  d'une  autre ;  21,000 
bombes;  27,700  grenades,  15,000  sacs  k  terre,  30,000  instruments  pour  la  pion- 
nage;  1,200,000  livres  de  pondre.  Ajoutez  a-  ces  munitions  le  plomb,  le  fer,  et  le 
fer-blanc,  les  cordages,  tout  ce  qui  sert  aux  mineurs,  le  souphre,  le  salpetre,  les 
outils  de  toute  espece.  II  est  certain  que  les  frais  de  tous  ces  preparatifs  de  de- 
struction suffiroient  pour  fonder  et  pour  faire  fleurir  la  plus  nombreuse  colonic— 
Voltaire,  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.  ch.  xx.  in  his  Works,  torn.  xi.  p.  391. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST.  97 

a  proportionable  improvement  in  the  arts  of  peace  anu  civil 
policy ;  and  they  themselves  must  deserve  a  place  among  the 
polished  nations  whom  they  subdue. 

Should  these  speculations  be  found  doubtful  or  fallacious, 
there  still  remains  a  more  humble  source  of  comfort  and 
hope.  The  discoveries  of  ancient  and  modern  navigators, 
and  the  domestic  history  or  tradition  of  the  most  enlightened 
nations,  represent  the  human  savage  naked  both  in  mind  and 
body,  and  destitute  of  laws,  of  arts,  of  ideas,  and  almost  of 
language.10  From  this  abject  condition,  perhaps  the  primi- 
tive and  universal  state  of  man,  he  has  gradually  arisen  to 
command  the  animals,  to  fertilize  the  earth,  to  traverse  the 
ocean,  and  to  measure  the  heavens.  His  progress  in  the  im- 
provement and  exercise  of  his  mental  and  corporeal  facul- 
ties" has  been  irregular  and  various;  infinitely  slow  in  the 
beginning,  and  increasing  by  degrees  with  redoubled  veloci- 
ty :  ages  of  laborious  ascent  have  been  followed  by  a  moment 
of  rapid  downfall ;  and  the  several  climates  of  the  globe  have 
felt  the  vicissitudes  of  light  and  darkness.  Yet  the  experi- 
ence of  four  thousand  years  should  enlarge  our  hopes  and 
diminish  our  apprehensions:  we  cannot  determine  to  what 
height  the  human  species  may  aspire  in  their  advances  to- 
wards perfection  ;  but  it  may  safely  be  presumed  that  no  peo- 
ple, unless  the  face  of  nature  is  changed,  will  relapse  into 
their  original  barbarism.  The  improvements  of  society  may 
be  viewed  under  a  threefold  aspect.  1.  The  poet  or  philoso- 
pher illustrates  his  age  and  country  by  the  efforts  of  a  single 
mind ;  but  these  superior  powers  of  reason  or  fancy  are  rare 

:o  It  would  be  an  easy,  though  tedious,  task  to  produce  the  authorities  of  poets, 
philosophers,  and  historians.  I  shall  therefore  content  myself  with  appealing  to 
the  decisive  and  authentic  testimony  of  Diodorus  Siculus  (torn.  i.  1.  i.  p.  11,  12, 1. 
iii.  [c.  14  seq.]  p.  184,  etc.,  edit.  Wesseling).  The  Ichthyophagi,who  in  his  time 
wandered  along  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  can  only  be  compared  to  the  natives  of 
New  Holland  (Dampier's  Voyages,  vol.  i.  p.  464-469).  Fancy,  or  perhaps  reason, 
may  still  suppose  an  extreme  and  absolute  state  of  nature  far  below  the  level  of 
these  savages,  who  had  acquired  some  arts  and  instruments. 

11  See  the  learned  and  rational  work  of  the  President  Goguet,  de  VOrigine  dea 
Loix,  des  Arts,  et  des  Sciences.  He  traces  from  facts  or  conjectures  (torn.  i.  p. 
1 47-337,  edit.  12mo)  the  first  and  most  difficult  steps  of  human  invention. 

IV.— 7 


98  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  FALL 

and  spontaneous  productions ;  and  the  genius  of  Homer,  01 
Cicero,  or  Newton  would  excite  less  admiration  if  they  could 
be  created  by  the  will  of  a  prince  or  the  lessons  of  a  precep- 
tor. 2.  The  benefits  of  law  and  policy,  of  trade  and  manu- 
factures, of  arts  and  sciences,  are  more  solid  and  permanent ; 
and  many  individuals  may  be  qualified,  by  education  and  dis- 
cipline, to  promote,  in  their  respective  stations,  the  interest  of 
the  community.  But  this  general  order  is  the  effect  of  skill 
and  labor;  and  the  complex  machinery  may  be  decayed  by 
time  or  injured  by  violence.  3.  Fortunately  for  mankind, 
the  more  useful,  or,  at  least,  more  necessary,  arts  can  be  per- 
formed without  superior  talents  or  national  subordination  ; 
without  the  powers  of  one  or  the  union  of  many.  Each  vil- 
lage, each  family,  each  individual,  must  always  possess  both 
ability  and  inclination  to  perpetuate  the  use  of  fire12  and  of 
metals ;  the  propagation  and  service  of  domestic  animals ;  the 
methods  of  hunting  and  fishing;  the  rudiments  of  naviga- 
tion ;  the  imperfect  cultivation  of  corn  or  other  nutritive 
grain  ;  and  the  simple  practice  of  the  mechanic  trades.  Pri- 
vate genius  and  public  industry  may  be  extirpated ;  but  these 
hardy  plants  survive  the  tempest,  and  strike  an  everlasting 
root  into  the  most  unfavorable  soil.  The  splendid  days  of 
Augustus  and  Trajan  were  eclipsed  by  a  cloud  of  ignorance ; 
and  the  barbarians  subverted  the  laws  and  palaces  of  Rome. 
But  the  scythe,  the  invention  or  emblem  of  Saturn,13  still  con- 
tinued annually  to  mow  the  harvests  of  Italy ;  and  the  hu- 
man feasts  of  the  Lsestrigons14  have  never  been  renewed  on 
the  coast  of  Campania. 

12  It  is  certain,  however  strange,  that  many  nations  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
use  of  fire.  Even  the  ingenious  natives  of  Otaheite,  who  are  destitute  of  metals, 
have  not  invented  any  earthen  vessels  capable  of  sustaining  the  action  of  fire  and 
of  communicating  the  heat  to  the  liquids  which  they  contain. 

13  Plutarch.  Qusest.  Rom.  in  torn.  ii.  p.  275  [torn.  vii.  p.  112,  edit.  Reiske]. 
Macrob.  Saturnal.  1.  i.  c.  7,  p.  152,  edit.  London.  The  arrival  of  Saturn  (of  his 
religious  worship)  in  a  ship  may  indicate  that  the  savage  coast  of  Latium  was 
first  discovered  and  civilized  by  the  Phoenicians. 

14  In  the  ninth  and  tenth  books  of  the  Odyssey,  Homer  has  embellished  the 
tales  of  fearful  and  credulous  sailors  who  transformed  the  cannibals  of  Italy  and 
Sicily  into  monstrous  giants. 


OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  WEST.  99 

Since  the  first  discovery  of  tlie  arts,  war,  commerce,  and  re- 
ligious zeal  have  diffused  among  the  savages  of  the  Old  and 
New  World  these  inestimable  gifts:  they  have  been  succes- 
sively propagated ;  they  can  never  be  lost.  We  may  therefore 
acquiesce  in  the  pleasing  conclusion  that  every  age  of  the 
world  has  increased  and  still  increases  the  real  wealth,  the 
happiness,  tlio  knowledge,  and  perhaps  the  virtue,  of  the  hu- 
man race.16 


u  The  merit  of  discovery  has  too  often  been  stained  with  avarice,  cruelty,  and 
fanaticism  ;  and  the  intercourse  of  nations  has  produced  the  communication  of  dis 
ease  and  prejudice.  A  singular  exception  is  due  to  the  virtue  of  our  own  times 
and  country.  The  five  great  voyages,  successively  undertaken  by  the  command 
of  his  present  Majesty,  were  inspired  by  the  pure  and  generous  love  of  science  and 
of  mankind.  The  same  prince,  adapting  his  benefactions  to  the  different  stages 
of  society,  has  founded  a  school  of  painting  in  his  capital,  and  has  introduced  into 
the  islands  of  the  (Douth  Sea  the  vegetables  and  animals  most  useful  to  bumau 


100  BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  I.Ch.  XXXEX. 


CHAPTEE  XXXIX. 

Zeno  and  Anastasius,  Emperors  of  the  East. — Birth,  Education,  and  first  Ex- 
ploits of  Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth. — His  Invasion  and  Conquest  of  Italy. — The 
Gothic  Kingdom  of  Italy. — State  of  the  West. — Military  and  Civil  Government. 
— The  Senator  Boethius. — Last  Acts  and  Death  of  Theodoric. 

After  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  West,  an  in- 
terval of  fifty  years,  till  the  memorable  reign  of  Justinian,  is 
faintly  marked  by  the  obscure  names  and  imperfect 
annals  of  Zeno,  Anastasius,  and  Justin,  who  succes- 
sively ascended  the  throne  of  Constantinople.  During  the 
same  period,  Italy  revived  and  flourished  under  the  govern- 
ment of  a  Gothic  king  who  might  have  deserved  a  statue 
among  the  best  and  bravest  of  the  ancient  Romans. 

Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth,  the  fourteenth  in  lineal  descent 
Birth  and  °f  the  r°yal  htae  of  the  Amali,1  was  born  in  the 
T^eoador?c.°f  neighborhood  of  Yienna2  two  years  after  the  death 
a.d.  455-475.  0£  Attila.  A  recent  victory  had  restored  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Ostrogoths ;  and  the  three  brothers,  Walamir, 

1  Jornandes  (de  Rebus  Geticis,  c.  13,  14,  p.  629,  630,  edit.  Grot.)  has  drawn 
the  pedigree  of  Theodoric  from  Gapt,  one  of  the  Arises  or  Demi-gods,  who  lived 
about  the  time  of  Domitian.  Cassiodorus,  the  first  who  celebrates  the  royal  race 
of  the  Amali  (Variar.  viii.  5,  ix.  25,  x.  2,  xi.  1),  reckons  the  grandson  of  Theodoric 
as  the  seventeenth  in  descent.  Peringsciold  (the  Swedish  commentator  of  Coch- 
Iceus,  Vit.  Theodoric.  p.  271,  etc.,  Stockholm,  1699)  labors  to  connect  this  genealogy 
with  the  legends  or  traditions  of  his  native  country.1 

2  More  correctly  on  the  banks  of  the  lake  Pelso  (Nieusiedler-see)  near  Carnum- 
tum,  almost  on  the  same  spot  where  Marcus  Antoninus  composed  his  Meditations 
(Jornandes,  c.  52,  p.  689.  Severin.  Pannonia  Illustrata,  p.  22.  Cellarius,  Geo- 
graph.  Antiq.  torn.  i.  p.  350). 


a  Amala  was  a  name  of  hereditary  sanctity  and  honor  among  the  Ostrogoths. 
It  enters  into  the  names  of  Amalaberga,  Amala  suintha(swinthei  means  strength), 
Amalafred,  Amalarich.  In  the  poem  of  the  Nibelungen,  written  three  hundred 
years  later,  the  Ostrogoths  are  called  the  Amilungen.  According  to  Wachter,  it 
means  unstained,  from  the  privative  a,  and  malo,  a  stain.  It  is  pure  Sanscrit, 
Amala,  immaculatus.     Schlegel,  Indische  Bibliothek.  1,  p.  233. — M, 


A.D.  455-475.]  OF  THEODORIC.  101 

Theodemir,  and  Widimir,  who  ruled  that  warlike  nation  with 
united  counsels,  had  separately  pitched  their  habitations  in 
the  fertile,  though  desolate,  province  of  Pannonia.  The  Huns 
still  threatened  their  revolted  subjects,  but  their  hasty  attack 
was  repelled  by  the  single  forces  of  Walamir,  and  the  news 
of  his  victory  reached  the  distant  camp  of  his  brother  in  the 
same  auspicious  moment  that  the  favorite  concubine  of  The- 
odemir was  delivered  of  a  son  and  heir.a  In  the  eighth  year 
of  his  age,  Theodoric  was  reluctantly  yielded  by  his  father 
to  the  public  interest,  as  the  pledge  of  an  alliance  which  Leo, 
Emperor  of  the  East,  had  consented  to  purchase  by  an  annual 
subsidy  of  three  hundred  pounds  of  gold.  The  royal  host- 
age was  educated  at  Constantinople  with  care  and  tenderness. 
His  body  was  formed  to  all  the  exercises  of  war,  his  mind  was 
expanded  by  the  habits  of  liberal  conversation  ;  he  frequent- 
ed the  schools  of  the  most  skilful  masters,  but  he  disdained 
or  neglected  the  arts  of  Greece ;  and  so  ignorant  did  he  al- 
ways remain  of  the  first  elements  of  science,  that  a  rude  mark 
was  contrived  to  represent  the  signature  of  the  illiterate  King 
of  Italy.3     As  soon  as  he  had  attained  the  age  of  eighteen  he 

3  The  four  first  letters  of  his  name  (0EOA)  were  inscribed  on  a  gold  plate, 
and  when  it  was  fixed  on  the  paper  the  king  drew  his  pen  through  the  intervals 
(Anonym.  Valesian.  ad  calcem  Amm-  Marcellin.  p.  722  [torn.  ii.  p.  313,  edit.  Bi- 


*  Genealogical  table  of  the  family  of  Theodoric : 


I                                                   I  1 
Walamir.                                 Theodemir  =  Erelieva.                                 Widerair, 
j ob.  473. 


Widemir. 


Theudimundus,  =  Theodoric  =     Audefleda,  Amalafreda, 


ob.  526. 


sister  or  daugh.      m.  Trasamuiidus, 
of  Clovis.        king  of  the  Vandals. 
I 


Theudegotha,       Ostrogotha,  Amalasuentha,   Theodahadus,       Amalaberga, 

m.  Alaric,     m.  Sigismundus,  ob.  534,               ob.  536.       m.  Hermenfredus, 

king  of  the        king  of  the  m.  Eutharicus. 
Visigoths,      Burgundians, 
ob.  507.            ob.  523. 

Amalaric,            Sigeric,  Athalaric, 

ob.  531.              ob.  522.  ob.  534. 

See  Clinton,  Fasti  Romani,  vol.  ii.  p.  143. 


102  THEODORIC.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

was  restored  to  the  wishes  of  the  Ostrogoths,  whom  the  em- 
peror aspired  to  gain  by  liberality  and  confidence.  "Walamir 
had  fallen  in  battle ;  the  youngest  of  the  brothers,  Widimir, 
had  led  away  into  Italy  and  Gaul  an  army  of  barbarians ;  and 
the  whole  nation  acknowledged  for  their  king  the  father  of 
Theodoric.  His  ferocious  subjects  admired  the  strength  and 
stature  of  their  young  prince,4  and  he  soon  convinced  them 
that  he  had  not  degenerated  from  the  valor  of  his  ancestors. 
At  the  head  of  six  thousand  volunteers  he  secretly  left  the 
camp  in  quest  of  adventures,  descended  the  Danube  as  far 
as  Singidunum,  or  Belgrade,  and  soon  returned  to  his  father 
with  the  spoils  of  a  Sarmatian  king  whom  he  had  vanquished 
and  slain.  Such  triumphs,  however,  were  productive  only  of 
fame,  and  the  invincible  Ostrogoths  were  reduced  to  extreme 
distress  by  the  want  of  clothing  and  food.  They  unanimous- 
ly resolved  to  desert  their  Pannonian  encampments,  and  bold- 
ly to  advance  into  the  warm  and  wealthy  neighborhood  of 
the  Byzantine  court,  which  already  maintained  in  pride  and 
luxury  so  many  bands  of  confederate  Goths.  After  proving, 
by  some  acts  of  hostility,  that  they  could  be  dangerous,  or  at 
least  troublesome,  enemies,  the  Ostrogoths  sold  at  a  high  price 
their  reconciliation  and  fidelity,  accepted  a  donative  of  lands 
and  money,  and  were  intrusted  with  the  defence  of  the  Lower 
Danube  under  the  command  of  Theodoric,  who  succeeded  af- 
ter his  father's  death  to  the  hereditary  throne  of  the  Amali.5  b 

pon.]).  This  authentic  fact,  with  the  testimony  of  Procopius,  or  at  least  of  the 
contemporary  Goths  (Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  2,  p.  312  [edit.  Paris;  torn.  ii.  p.  14,  edit. 
Bonn]),  far  outweighs  the  vague  praises  of  Ennodius  (Sirmond.  Opera,  torn.  i.  p. 
1596)  and  Theophanes  (Chronograph,  p.  112  [edit.  Par. ;  p.  202,  203,  edit.  Bonn]).1 

4  Statura  est  quas  resignet  proceritate  regnantem  (Ennodius,  p.  1614).  The 
Bishop  of  Pavia  (I  mean  the  ecclesiastic  who  wished  to  be  a  bishop)  then  proceeds 
to  celebrate  the  complexion,  eyes,  hands,  etc.,  of  his  sovereign. 

6  The  state  of  the  Ostrogoths  and  the  first  years  of  Theodoric  are  found  in  Jor- 
nandes  (c.  52-56,  p.  689-696)  and  Malchus  (Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  78-80  [edit.  Par. ; 
p.  244-248,  edit.  Bonn]),  who  erroneously  styles  him  the  son  of  Walamir. 


a  Le  Beau  and  his  commentator,  M.  St.  Martin,  support,  though  with  no  very 
satisfactory  evidence,  the  opposite  opinion.  But  Lord  Mahon  (Life  of  Belisarius, 
p.  19)  urges  the  much  stronger  argument,  the  Byzantine  education  of  Theodoric. — M. 

b  Theodoric  began  to  reign  not  later  than  476,  when  he  was  about  twenty-two 
years  of  age.     Clinton,  Fast.  Rom.  vol.  ii.  p.  146. — S. 


A.D.  474-491.]  REIGN  OF  ZENO.  103 

A  hero,  descended  from  a  race  of  kings,  must  have  de- 
spised the  base  Isaurian  who  was  invested  with  the  Roman 
The  reign  purple,  without  any  endowments  of  mind  or  body, 
a!pZ474U9i,  without  any  advantages  of  royal  birth  or  superior 
F«b'.,Apni9;  qualifications.  After  the  failure  of  the  Theodo- 
sian  line,  the  choice  of  Pulcheria  and  of  the  senate  might  be 
justified  in  some  measure  by  the  characters  of  Marcian  and 
Leo ;  but  the  latter  of  these  princes  confirmed  and  dishonor- 
ed his  reign  by  the  perfidious  murder  of  Aspar  and  his  sons, 
who  too  rigorously  exacted  the  debt  of  gratitude  and  obedi- 
ence. The  inheritance  of  Leo  and  of  the  East  was  peaceably 
devolved  on  his  infant  grandson,  the  son  of  his  daughter  Ari- 
adne ;  and  her  Isaurian  husband,  the  fortunate  Trascalisseus, 
exchanged  that  barbarous  sound  for  the  Grecian  appellation 
of  Zeno.  After  the  decease  of  the  elder  Leo,  he  approached 
with  unnatural  respect  the  throne  of  his  son,  humbly  received 
as  a  gift  the  second  rank  in  the  empire,  and  soon  excited  the 
public  suspicion  on  the  sudden  and  premature  death  of  his 
young  colleague,  whose  life  could  no  longer  promote  the  suc- 
cess of  his  ambition.  But  the  palace  of  Constantinople  was 
ruled  by  female  influence  and  agitated  by  female  passions ; 
and  Yerina,  the  widow  of  Leo,  claiming  his  empire  as  her 
own,  pronounced  a  sentence  of  deposition  against  the  worth- 
less and  ungrateful  servant  on  whom  she  alone  had  bestowed 
the  sceptre  of  the  East."  As  soon  as  she  sounded  a  revolt  in 
the  ears  of  Zeno,  he  fled  with  precipitation  into  the  moun- 
tains of  Isauria ;  and  her  brother  Basiliscus,  already  infamous 
by  his  African  expedition,7  was  unanimously  proclaimed  by 
the  servile  senate.  But  the  reign  of  the  usurper  was  short 
and  turbulent.  Basiliscus  presumed  to  assassinate  the  lover 
of  his  sister ;  he  dared  to  offend  the  lover  of  his  wife,  the 
vain  and  insolent  Harmatius,  who,  in  the  midst  of  Asiatic  lux- 
ury, affected  the   dress,  the  demeanor,  and  the  surname  of 

6  Theophanes  (p.  Ill  [p.  200,  edit.  Bonn])  inserts  a  copy  of  her  sacred  letters 
to  the  provinces  ;  lore,  on  to  fiaoikeiov  rijierepov  tan  *  *  *  icai  on  irpoxnpV'Tl't1^a 
fiao-iXza  Tpao-KaXXiaalov,  etc.  Such  female  pretensions  would  have  astonished  the 
slaves  of  the  first  Caesars. 

'  See  vol.  iii.  p.  638  seq. 


104:  REIGN  OF  ANASTASIUS.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

Achilles.8  By  the  conspiracy  of  the  malcontents,  Zeno  was 
recalled  from  exile  ;  the  r.rmies,  the  capital,  the  person  of  Ba- 
siliscus,  were  betrayed ;  and  his  whole  family  was  condemned 
to  the  long  agony  of  cold  and  hunger  by  the  inhuman  con- 
queror, who  wanted  courage  to  encounter  or  to  forgive  his 
enemies.3  The  haughty  spirit  of  Yerina  was  still  incapable 
of  submission  or  repose.  She  provoked  the  enmity  of  a  fa- 
vorite general,  embraced  his  cause  as  soon  as  he  was  dis- 
graced, created  a  new  emperor  in  Syria  and  Egypt,b  raised  an 
army  of  seventy  thousand  men,  and  persisted  to  the  last  mo- 
ment of  her  life  in  a  fruitless  rebellion,  which,  according  to 
the  fashion  of  the  age,  had  been  predicted  by  Christian  her- 
mits and  Pagan  magicians.  While  the  East  was  afflicted  by 
the  passions  of  Yerina,  her  daughter  Ariadne  was  distinguish- 
ed by  the  female  virtues  of  mildness  and  fidelity ;  she  fol- 
lowed her  husband  in  his  exile,  and  after  his  restoration  she 
implored  his  clemency  in  favor  of  her  mother.  On  the  de- 
cease of  Zeno,  Ariadne,  the  daughter,  the  mother,  and  the 
widow  of  an  emperor,  gave  her  hand  and  the  im- 

tasius,  perial  title  to  Anastasius,  an  aged  domestic  of  the 

a.b.  491-518,     r  .  .  .,,.,.  , 

April  11,        palace,  who  survived  his  elevation  above  twenty- 

July8.  1  '  ,       .  .  .  ,,i 

seven  years,  and  whose  character  is  attested  by  the 
acclamation  of  the  people,  "  Reign  as  you  have  lived  !"9  c 

8  Suidas,  torn.  i.  p.  332,  333,  edit.  Kuster. 

9  The  contemporary  histories  of  Malchus  and  Candidus  are  lost ;  but  some  ex- 
tracts or  fragments  have  been  saved  by  Photius  (lxxviii.  lxxix.  p.  100-102  [p. 
54-56,  edit.  Bekk.]),  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus  (Excerpt.  Leg.  p.  78-97),  and 
in  various  articles  of  the  Lexicon  of  Suidas.  The  Chronicles  of  Marcellinns 
(Imago  Historian)  are  originals  for  the  reigns  of  Zeno  and  Anastasius ;  and  I 
must  acknowledge,  almost  for  the  last  time,  my  obligations  to  tlie  large  and  ac- 
curate collections  of  Tillemont  (Hist,  des  Emp.  torn.  vi.  p.  472-652). 


*  Joannes  Lydus  accuses  Zeno  of  timidity,  or,  rather,  of  cowardice :  he  pur- 
chased an  ignominious  peace  from  the  enemies  of  the  empire,  whom  he  dared  not 
meet  in  battle  ;  and  employed  his  whole  time  at  home  in  confiscations  and  execu- 
tions.    Lydus  de  Magist.  iii.  45,  p.  230  [p.  238,  edit.  Bonn]. — M. 

b  Named  Illus. — M. 

*  The  Panegyric  of  Procopius  of  Gaza  (edited  by  "Villoison  in  his  Anecdota 
Grteca,  and  reprinted  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Byzantine  historians  by  Niebuhr, 
in  the  same  vol.  with  Dexippus  and  Eunapius,  p.  488,  516)  was  unknown  to  Gib- 
bon. It  is  vague  and  pedantic,  and  contains  few  facts.  The  same  criticism  will 
apply  to  the  poetical  panegyric  of  Priscian,  edited  from  the  MS.  of  Bobbio  by 


A  p.  475-488.]   SERVICE  AND  REVOLT  OF  THEODORIC.  105 

Whatever  fear  or  affection  could  bestow  was  profusely  lav- 
ished by  Zeno  on  the  king  of  the  Ostrogoths;  the  rank  of 
Service  aud  patrician  and  consul,  the  command  of  the  Palatine 
Theododc.  troops,  an  equestrian  statue,  a  treasure  in  gold  aud 
a.d. 475-488.  silver  0f  many  thousand  pounds,  the  name  of  son, 
and  the  promise  of  a  rich  and  honorable  wife.  As  long  as 
Theodoric  condescended  to  serve,  he  supported  with  courage 
and  fidelity  the  cause  of  his  benefactor;  his  rapid  march  con- 
tributed to  the  restoration  of  Zeno  ;  and  in  the  second  revolt, 
the  Walamirs,  as  they  were  called,  pursued  and  pressed  the 
Asiatic  rebels,  till  they  left  an  easy  victory  to  the  imperial 
troops.10  But  the  faithful  servant  was  suddenly  converted 
into  a  formidable  enemy,  who  spread  the  flames  of  war  from 
Constantinople  to  the  Adriatic ;  many  flourishing  cities  were 
reduced  to  ashes,  and  the  agriculture  of  Thrace  was  almost 
extirpated  by  the  wanton  cruelty  of  the  Goths,  who  deprived 
their  captive  peasants  of  the  right  hand  that  guided  the 
plough.11  On  such  occasions  Theodoric  sustained  the  loud 
and  specious  reproach  of  disloyalty,  of  ingratitude,  and  of  in- 
satiate avarice,  which  could  be  only  excused  by  the  hard  ne- 
cessity of  his  situation.  He  reigned,  not  as  the  monarch, 
but  as  the  minister  of  a  ferocious  people,  whose  spirit  was 
unbroken  by  slavery,  and  impatient  of  real  or  imaginary  in- 
sults. Their  poverty  was  incurable,  since  the  most  liberal  do- 
natives were  soon  dissipated  in  wasteful  luxury,  and  the  most 

10  In  ipsis  congressionis  tuse  foribus  cessit  invasor,  cum  prof  ugo  per  te  sceptra 
redderentur  de  salute  dubitanti.  Ennodius  then  proceeds  (p.  1596,  1597,  torn.  i. 
Sirmond)  to  transport  his  hero  (on  a  flying  dragon?)  into  JEthiopia,  beyond  the 
tropic  of  Cancer.  The  evidence  of  the  Valesian  Fragment  (p.  71 7),  Liberatus 
(Brev.  Eutych.  c.  25.  p,  118),  and  Theophanes  (p.  112  [p.  203,  edit.  Bonn]),  is 
more  sober  and  rational. 

11  This  cruel  practice  is  specially  imputed  to  the  Triarian  Goths,  less  barbarous, 
as  it  should  seem,  than  the  Walamirs ;  but  the  son  of  Theodemir  is  charged  with 
the  ruin  of  many  Roman  cities  (Malchus,  Excerpt,  Leg.  p.  95  [edit.  Par. ;  p.  238, 
edit.  Bonn]).a  

Ang.Mai.  Priscian,  the  grammarian,  Niebuhr  argues  from  this  work,  must  have 
been  born  in  the  African,  not  in  either  of  the  Asiatic  Csesareas.  Pref.  p.  xi. — M. 
a  Malchus  does  not  say  that  the  Goths  cut  off  the  right  hand  of  the  peasants, 
but  that  they  cut  off  the  hands  of  the  Roman  general  Harmatius,  and  expelled  the 
husbandmen  from  the  country.  Gibbon  seems  to  have  misconstrued  this  passage. 
— S. 


106  SERVICES  AND  REVOLT  OF  THEODORIC.   [Cu.  XXXLX. 

fertile  estates  became  barren  in  their  hands;  they  despised, 
but  they  envied,  the  laborious  provincials ;  and  when  their 
subsistence  had  failed,  the  Ostrogoths  embraced  the  familiar 
resources  of  war  and  rapine.  It  had  been  the  wish  of  The- 
odoric  (such,  at  least,  was  his  declaration)  to  lead  a  peaceful, 
obscure,  obedient  life,  on  the  confines  of  Scythia,  till  the  By- 
zantine court,  by  splendid  and  fallacious  promises,  seduced 
him  to  attack  a  confederate  tribe  of  Goths,  who  had  been  en- 
gaged in  the  party  of  Basiliscus.  He  marched  from 
his  station  in  Msesia,  on  the  solemn  assurance  that 
before  he  reached  Adrianople  he  should  meet  a  plentiful 
convoy  of  provisions,  and  a  reinforcement  of  eight  thousand 
horse  and  thirty  thousand  foot,  while  the  legions  of  Asia 
were  encamped  at  Heraclea  to  second  his  operations.  These 
measures  were  disappointed  by  mutual  jealousy.  As  he  ad- 
vanced into  Thrace,  the  son  of  Theodemir  found  an  inhospi- 
table solitude,  and  his  Gothic  followers,  with  a  heavy  train  of 
horses,  of  mules,  and  of  wagons,  were  betrayed  by  their  guides 
among  the  rocks  and  precipices  of  Mount  Sondis,a  where  he 
was  assaulted  by  the  arms  and  invectives  of  Theodoric,  the 
son  of  Triarius.  From  a  neighboring  height  his  artful  rival 
harangued  the  camp  of  the  Wala?nirs,  and  branded  their  lead- 
er with  the  opprobrious  names  of  child,  of  madman,  of  per- 
jured traitor,  the  enemy  of  his  blood  and  nation.  "Are  you 
ignorant,"  exclaimed  the  son  of  Triarius,  "  that  it  is  the  con- 
stant policy  of  the  Romans  to  destroy  the  Goths  by  each  oth- 
er's swords  ?  Are  you  insensible  that  the  victor  in  this  un- 
natural contest  will  be  exposed,  and  justly  exposed,  to  their 
implacable  revenge  ?  Where  are  those  warriors,  my  kinsmen 
and  thy  own,  whose  widows  now  lament  that  their  lives  were 
sacrificed  to  thy  rash  ambition  ?  Where  is  the  wealth  which 
thy  soldiers  possessed  when  they  were  first  allured  from  their 
native  homes  to  enlist  under  thy  standard  ?     Each  of  them 

they  now  follow 


a  The  name  of  this  mountain,  which  is  found  only  in  this  passage,  is  probably 
corrupt.  We  ought  perhaps  to  read  Succi,  and  seek  the  mountain  near  Soneium, 
on  the  borders  of  Dacia  and  Thrace,  where  the  mountain-pass  was  loftiest.  Man- 
so,  Geschichte  des  Ost-Gothischen  Reiches,  p.  26.— S. 


a.d.481.]    HE  UNDEKTAKES  THE  CONQUEST  OF  ITALY.  107 

thee  on  foot,  like  slaves,  through  the  deserts  of  Thrace ;  those 
men  who  were  tempted  by  the  hope  of  measuring  gold  with 
a  bushel,  those  brave  men  who  are  as  free  and  as  noble  as 
thyself."  A  language  so  well  suited  to  the  temper  of  the 
Gotha  excited  clamor  and  discontent;  and  the  son  of  The- 
odemir,  apprehensive  of  being  left  alone,  was  compelled  to 
embrace  his  brethren,  and  to  imitate  the  example  of  Roman 
perfidy." 

In  every  state  of  his  fortune  the  prudence  and  firmness  of 
Theodoric  were  equally  conspicuous ;  whether  he  threatened 
He  under-  Constantinople  at  the  head  of  the  confederate  Goths, 
conquest  or  retreated  with  a  faithful  band  to  the  mountains 
Id.  479'.  and  sea -coast  of  Epirus.  At  length  the  acciden- 
a.d.  48i.  tal  death  of  the  son  of  Triarius13  destroyed  the  bal- 
ance which  the  Romans  had  been  so  anxious  to  preserve,  the 
whole  nation  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  Amali,  and 
the  Byzantine  court  subscribed  an  ignominious  and  oppressive 
treaty.14  The  senate  had  already  declared  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  choose  a  party  among  the  Goths,  since  the  public  was 
unequal  to  the  support  of  their  united  forces.  A  subsidy  of 
two  thousand  pounds  of  gold,  with  the  ample  pay  of  thirteen 
thousand  men,  were  required  for  the  least  considerable  of 
their  armies  ;15  and  the  Isaurians,  who  guarded  not  the  empire 
but  the  emperor,  enjoyed,  besides  the  privilege  of  rapine,  an 
annual  pension  of  five  thousand  pounds.    The  sagacious  mind 

12  Jornandes  (c.  56,  57,  p.  696)  displays  the  services  of  Theodoric,  confesses  his 
rewards,  but  dissembles  his  revolt,  of  which  such  curious  details  have  been  pre- 
served by  Malchus  (Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  78-97  [p.  244  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]).  Mar- 
cellinus,  a  domestic  of  Justinian,  under  whose  fourth  consulship  (a.d.  534)  he  com- 
posed his  Chronicle  (Scaliger,  Thesaurus  Temporum,  P.  ii.  p.  34-57),  betrays  hia 
prejudice  and  passion  :  in  [apud]  "Grseciam  debacchantem  *  *  *  Zenonis  munifi- 
centia  pene  pacatus  *  *  *  beneficiis  nunquam  satiatus,"etc.  [p.  368,  369,  and  370, 
edit.  Sirmond]. 

13  As  he  was  riding  in  his  own  camp  an  unruly  horse  threw  him  against  tha 
point  of  a  spear  which  hung  before  a  tent  or  was  fixed  on  a  wagon  (Marcellin.  in 
Chron.  Evagrius,  1.  iii.  c.  25). 

14  See  Malchus  (p.  91  [edit.  Par.  ;  p.  268,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Evagrius  (1.  iii. 
c.  35). 

15  Malchus,  p.  85  [p.  256,  edit.  Bonn].  In  a  single  action,  which  was  decided 
by  the  skill  and  discipline  of  Sabinian,  Theodoric  could  lose  5000  men. 


108  MAEOH  OP  THEODOKIC.  [Ch,  XXXIX. 

of  Theodoric  soon  perceived  that  he  was  odious  to  the  Ro- 
mans and  suspected  by  the  barbarians;  he  understood  the 
popular  murmur,  that  his  subjects  were  exposed  in  their  fro- 
zen huts  to  intolerable  hardships,  while  their  king  was  dis- 
solved in  the  luxury  of  Greece ;  and  he  prevented  the  painful 
alternative  of  encountering  the  Goths  as  the  champion,  or  of 
leading  them  to  the  field  as  the  enemy,  of  Zeno.  Embracing 
an  enterprise  worthy  of  his  courage  and  ambition,  Theodoric 
addressed  the  emperor  in  the  following  words :  "  Although 
your  servant  is  maintained  in  affluence  by  your  liberality, 
graciously  listen  to  the  wishes  of  my  heart !  Italy,  the  inher- 
itance of  your  predecessors,  and  Rome  itself,  the  head  and 
mistress  of  the  world,  now  fluctuate  under  the  violence  and 
oppression  of  Odoacer  the  mercenary.  Direct  me,  with  my 
national  troops,  to  march  against  the  tyrant.  If  I  fall,  you 
will  be  relieved  from  an  expensive  and  troublesome  friend ; 
if,  with  the  Divine  permission,  I  succeed,  I  shall  govern,  in 
your  name  and  to  your  glory,  the  Roman  senate  and  the 
part  of  the  republic  delivered  from  slavery  by  my  victorious 
arms."  The  proposal  of  Theodoric  was  accepted,  and  perhaps 
had  been  suggested,  by  the  Byzantine  court.  But  the  forms 
of  the  commission  or  grant  appear  to  have  been  expressed 
with  a  prudent  ambiguity,  which  might  be  explained  by  the 
event ;  and  it  was  left  doubtful  whether  the  conqueror  of 
Italy  should  reign  as  the  lieutenant,  the  vassal,  or  the  ally  of 
the  Emperor  of  the  East.16 

The  reputation  both  of  the  leader  and  of  the  war  diffused  a 

universal  ardor;  the  Walamirs  were  multiplied  by  the  Gothic 

swarms  already  engaged  in  the  service,  or  seated  in 

His  march.  .  „     ,  .  -.,,-,-,-, 

the  provinces,  of  the  empire ;  and  each  bold  bar- 
barian who  had  heard  of  the  wealth  and  beauty  of  Italy  was 
impatient  to  seek,  through  the  most  perilous  adventures,  the 
possession  of  such  enchanting  objects.  The  march  of  Theo- 
doric must  be  considered  as  the  emigration  of  an  entire  peo- 

16  Jornandes  (c.  57,  p.  696,  697)  has  abridged  the  great  history  of  Cassiodorus. 
See,  compare,  and  reconcile  Procopius  (Gothic  1.  i.  c.  i.),  the  Valesian  Fragment 
(p.  718  [ad  calcem  Amm.  Marc.  torn.  ii.  p.  306,  edit.  Bip.]),  Theophanes  (p.  113 
|~p.  203,  edit.  Bonn]),  and  Marcellinus  (in  Chron.). 


0..D.  489-490.]  DEFEATS  OF  ODOACER.  109 

pie;  the  wives  and  children  of  the  Goths,  their  aged  parents, 
and  most  precious  effects  were  carefully  transported ;  and 
some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  heavy  baggage  that  now  fol- 
lowed the  camp  by  the  loss  of  two  thousand  wagons  which 
had  been  sustained  in  a  single  action  in  the  war  of  Epirus. 
For  their  subsistence,  the  Goths  depended  on  the  magazines 
of  corn,  which  was  ground  in  portable  mills  by  the  hands  of 
their  women,  on  the  milk  and  flesh  of  their  flocks  and  herds, 
on  the  casual  produce  of  the  chase,  and  upon  the  contribu- 
tions which  they  might  impose  on  all  who  should  presume  to 
dispute  the  passage  or  to  refuse  their  friendly  assistance. 
Notwithstanding  these  precautions,  they  were  exposed  to  the 
danger,  and  almost  to  the  distress,  of  famine,  in  a  march  of 
seven  hundred  miles,  which  had  been  undertaken  in  the 
depth  of  a  rigorous  winter.  Since  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
power,  Dacia  and  Pannonia  no  longer  exhibited  the  rich 
prospect  of  populous  cities,  well-cultivated  fields,  and  conven- 
ient highways :  the  reign  of  barbarism  and  desolation  was 
restored ;  and  the  tribes  of  Bulgarians,  Gepidge,  and  Sarma- 
tians,  who  had  occupied  the  vacant  province,  were  prompted 
by  their  native  fierceness,  or  the  solicitations  of  Odoacer,  to 
resist  the  progress  of  his  enemy.  In  many  obscure  though 
bloody  battles  Theodoric  fought  and  vanquished ;  till  at 
length,  surmounting  every  obstacle  by  skilful  conduct  and 
persevering  courage,  he  descended  from  the  Julian  Alps,  and 
displayed  his  invincible  banners  on  the  confines  of  Italy." 

Odoacer,  a  rival  not  unworthy  of  his  arms,  had  already  oc- 
The  three  cupied  the  advantageous  and  well-known  post  of 
odoacer°f  tne  river  Sontius,  near  the  ruins  of  Aquileia,  at 
Aug.4!!'  tne  head  of  a  powerful  host,  whose  independent 
A^ifo,'  kings™  or  leaders  disdained  the  duties  of  subordina- 
Aug.n.  j.-on  an(j  ^e  pradence  0f  delays.  No  sooner  had 
Theodoric  granted  a  short   repose  and   refreshment  to  his 

17  Theodoric's  march  is  supplied  and  illustrated  by  Ennodius  (p.  1598-1602), 
when  the  bombast  of  the  oration  is  translated  into  the  language  of  common-sense. 

18  Tot  reges,  etc.  (Ennodius,  p.  1602).  We  must  recollect  how  much  the  royal 
title  was  multiplied  and  degraded,  and  that  the  mercenaries  of  Italy  were  the 
fragments  of  many  tribes  and  nations. 


110  DEFEATS  OF  ODOACER.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

wearied  cavalry,  than  he  boldly  attacked  the  fortifications  of 
the  enemy;  the  Ostrogoths  showed  more  ardor  to  acquire, 
than  the  mercenaries  to  defend,  the  lands  of  Italy,  and  the 
reward  of  the  first  victory  was  the  possession  of  the  Venetian 
province  as  far  as  the  walls  of  Verona.  In  the  neighborhood 
of  that  city,  on  the  steep  banks  of  the  rapid  Adige,  he  was 
opposed  by  a  new  army,  reinforced  in  its  numbers,  and  not 
impaired  in  its  courage :  the  contest  was  more  obstinate,  but 
the  event  was  still  more  decisive ;  Odoacer  fled  to  Ravenna, 
Theodoric  advanced  to  Milan,  and  the  vanquished  troops  sa- 
luted their  conqueror  with  loud  acclamations  of  respect  and 
fidelity.  But  their  want  either  of  constancy  or  of  faith  soon 
exposed  him  to  the  most  imminent  danger;  his  vanguard, 
with  several  Gothic  counts,  which  had  been  rashly  intrusted 
to  a  deserter,  was  betrayed  and  destroyed  near  Faenza  by  his 
double  treachery ;  Odoacer  again  appeared  master  of  the 
field,  and  the  invader,  strongly  intrenched  in  his  camp  of  Pa- 
via,  was  reduced  to  solicit  the  aid  of  a  kindred  nation,  the 
Visigoths  of  Gaul.  In  the  course  of  this  history  the  most 
voracious  appetite  for  war  will  be  abundantly  satiated ;  nor 
can  I  much  lament  that  our  dark  and  imperfect  materials  do 
not  afford  a  more  ample  narrative  of  the  distress  of  Italy,  and 
of  the  fierce  conflict  which  was  finally  decided  by  the  abili- 
ties, experience,  and  valor  of  the  Gothic  king.  Immediately 
before  the  battle  of  Verona  he  visited  the  tent  of  his  moth- 
er19 and  sister,  and  requested  that  on  a  day,  the  most  illustri- 
ous festival  of  his  life,  they  would  adorn  him  with  the  rich 
garments  which  they  had  worked  with  their  own  hands. 
"Our  glory,"  said  he,  "is  mutual  and  inseparable.  You  are 
known  to  the  world  as  the  mother  of  Theodoric,  and  it  be- 
comes me  to  prove  that  I  am  the  genuine  offspring  of  those 
heroes  from  whom  I  claim  my  descent."  The  wife  or  concu- 
bine of  Theodemir  was  inspired  with  the  spirit  of  the  Ger- 
man matrons,  who  esteemed  their  sons'  honor  far  above  their 
safety ;  and  it  is  reported  that  in  a  desperate  action,  when 

19  See  Ennodius,  p.  1603,1604.  Since  the  orator,  in  the  king's  presence,  could 
mention  and  praise  his  mother,  we  may  conclude  that  the  magnanimity  of  Theod« 
one  was  not  hurt  by  the  vulgar  reproaches  of  concubine  and  bastard. 


AJ>.  4930  DEATH  OF  ODOACER.  Ill 

Theodoric  himself  was  hurried  along  by  the  torrent  of  a  fly- 
ing crowd,  she  boldly  met  them  at  the  entrance  of  the  camp, 
and,  by  her  generous  reproaches,  drove  them  back  on  the 
swords  of  the  enemy.30 

From  the  Alps  to  the  extremity  of  Calabria,  Theodoric 

reigned  by  the  right  of  conquest:  the  Yandal  ambassadors 

.         surrendered  the  island  of  Sicily  as  a  lawful  ap- 

latiou  and      pendage  of  his  kingdom,  and  he  was  accepted  as 

a.d.493,         the  deliverer  of  Rome  by  the  senate  and  people, 

March  5.  ,  . 

who  had  shut  their  gates  against  the  flying  usurp- 
er.21  Ravenna  alone,  secure  in  the  fortifications  of  art  and 
nature,  still  sustained  a  siege  of  almost  three  years,  and  the 
daring  sallies  of  Odoacer  carried  slaughter  and  dismay  into 
the  Gothic  camp.  At  length,  destitute  of  provisions  and 
hopeless  of  relief,  that  unfortunate  monarch  yielded  to  the 
groans  of  his  subjects  and  the  clamors  of  his  soldiers.  A 
treaty  of  peace  was  negotiated  by  the  Bishop  of  Ravenna; 
the  Ostrogoths  were  admitted  into  the  city ;  and  the  hostile 
kings  consented,  under  the  sanction  of  an  oath,  to  rule  with 
equal  and  undivided  authority  the  provinces  of  Italy .b  The 
event  of  such  an  agreement  may  be  easily  foreseen.  After 
some  days  had  been  devoted  to  the  semblance  of  joy  and 
friendship,  Odoacer,  in  the  midst  of  a  solemn  banquet,  was 
stabbed  by  the  hand,  or  at  least  by  the  command,  of  his  rival. 
Secret  and  effectual  orders  had  been  previously  despatched ; 
the  faithless  and  rapacious  mercenaries  at  the  same  moment, 

80  This  anecdote  is  related  on  the  modem  but  respectable  authority  of  Sigo- 
nius  (Op.  torn.  i.  p.  580;  De  Occident.  Imp.  1.  xv.):  his  words  are  curious: 
"Would  you  return?"  etc.     She  presented  and  almost  displayed  the  original 


21  Hist.  Miscell.  1.  xv.,  a  Roman  history  from  Janus  to  the  ninth  century,  an 
Epitome  of  Eutropius,  Paulus  Diaconus,  and  Theophanes,  which  Muratori  has 
published  from  a  MS.  in  the  Ambrosian  library  (Script.  Rerum  Italicarum,  torn. 
i.  p.  100). 

a  The  authority  of  Sigonius  would  scarcely  have  weighed  with  Gibbon  except 
for  an  indecent  anecdote.  I  have  a  recollection  of  a  similar  story  in  some  of  the 
Italian  wars. — M. 

b  This  agreement  to  rule  jointly  is  mentioned  only  by  Procopius,  and  is  not 
noticed  by  Jornandes,  Cassiodorus,  or  the  Anonymous,  It  is  rejected  by  Till©* 
aaout.     See  Manso,  ut  supra,  p.  45. — S 


112  REIGN  OF  THEODORIC.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

and  without  resistance,  were  universally  massacred ;  and  the 
royalty  of  Theodoric  was  proclaimed  by  the  Goths,  with  the 
tardy,  reluctant,  ambiguous  consent  of  the  Emperor  of  the 
East.  The  design  of  a  conspiracy  was  imputed,  according  to 
the  usual  forms,  to  the  prostrate  tyrant,  but  his  innocence  and 
the  guilt  of  his  conqueror32  are  sufficiently  proved  by  the  ad- 
vantageous treaty  which  force  would  not  sincerely  have  grant- 
ed, nor  weakness  have  rashly  infringed.  The  jealousy  of 
power,  and  the  mischiefs  of  discord,  may  suggest  a  more  de^ 
cent  apology,  and  a  sentence  less  rigorous  may  be  pronounced 
against  a  crime  which  was  necessary  to  introduce 

Reieu  of  The-  . 

odoric,  king    into  Italy  a  generation  of  public  felicity.     The  liv- 

of Italy;  .  ,J         &,      ......      r  ,       .  J     ,  .       , 

a.d.493,  mg  author  ot  this  felicity  was  audaciously  praised 
a.d.526,  in  his  own  presence  by  sacred  and  profane  orators  ;2S 
but  history  (in  his  time  she  was  mute  and  inglori- 
ous) has  not  left  any  just  representation  of  the  events  which 
displayed,  or  of  the  defects  which  clouded,  the  virtues  of  The- 
odoric.24 One  record  of  his  fame,  the  volume  of  public  epis- 
tles composed  by  Cassiodorus  in  the  royal  name,  is  still  ex- 
tant, and  has  obtained  more  implicit  credit  than  it  seems  to 
deserve.25     They  exhibit  the  forms,  rather  than  the  substance, 

22  Procopius  (Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  i.)  approves  himself  an  impartial  sceptic ;  (petal  *  *  * 
SoXtptii  Tp6irn>  tKTEivt  [torn.  ii.  p.  10,  edit.  Bonn],  Cassiodorus  (in  Chron.)  and 
Ennodius  (p.  1605)  are  loyal  and  credulous,  and  the  testimony  of  the  Valesian 
Fragment  (p.  718  [Amm.  torn.  ii.  p.  307,  edit.  Bip.])  may  justify  their  belief. 
Marcellinus  spits  the  venom  of  a  Greek  subject — "Perjuriis  illectus,  interfec- 
tusque  est "  (in  Chron.  [anno  489]). 

23  The  sonorous  and  servile  oration  of  Ennodius  was  pronounced  at  Milan  or 
Ravenna  in  the  years  507  or  508  (Sirmond,  torn.  i.  p.  1615).  Two  or  three  years 
afterwards  the  orator  was  rewarded  with  the  bishopric  of  Pavia,  which  he  held  till 
his  death  in  the  year  521.  (Dupin,  Bibliot.  Eccles.  torn.  v.  p.  11-14.  See  Saxii 
Onomasticon,  torn.  ii.  p.  12.) 

24  Our  best  materials  are  occasional  hints  from  Procopius  and  the  Valesian 
Fragment,  which  was  discovered  by  Sirmond,  and  is  published  at  the  end  of  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus.  The  author's  name  is  unknown,  and  his  style  is  barbarous ; 
but  in  his  various  facts  he  exhibits  the  knowledge,  without  the  passions,  of  a  con- 
temporary. The  President  Montesquieu  had  formed  the  plan  of  an  history  of 
Theodoric,  which  at  a  distance  might  appear  a  rich  and  interesting  subject. 

25  The  best  edition  of  the  Variarum  Libri  xii.  is  that  of  Joh.  Garretius  (Roto- 
magi,  1679,  in  Opp.  Cassiodor.  2  vols,  in  fol);  but  they  deserved  and  required 
such  an  editor  as  the  Marquis  Scipio  Maffei,  who  thought  of  publishing  them  at 


a.d.  493-526.]  PARTITION  OF  LANDS.  xl3 

of  his  government ;  and  we  should  vainly  search  for  the  pure 
and  spontaneous  sentiments  of  the  barbarian  amidst  the  dec- 
lamation and  learning  of  a  sophist,  the  wishes  of  a  Roman 
senator,  the  precedents  of  office,  and  the  vague  professions 
which,  in  every  court  and  on  every  occasion,  compose  the  lan- 
guage of  discreet  ministers.  The  reputation  of  Theodoric 
may  repose  with  more  confidence  on  the  visible  peace  and 
prosperity  of  a  reign  of  thirty- three  years,  the  unanimous 
esteem  of  his  own  times,  and  the  memory  of  his  wisdom 
and  courage,  his  justice  and  humanity,  which  was  deeply  im- 
pressed on  the  minds  of  the  Goths  and  Italians. 

The  partition  of  the  lands  of  Italy,  of  which  Theodoric  as- 
signed the  third  part  to  his  soldiers,  is  honorably  arraigned  as 
Partition  *ne  so^e  injustice  of  his  life.a  And  even  this  act 
ofiande.  may  be  fairly  justified  by  the  example  of  Odoacer, 
the  rights  of  conquest,  the  true  interest  of  the  Italians,  and 
the  sacred  duty  of  subsisting  a  whole  people,  who,  on  the 
faith  of  his  promises,  had  transported  themselves  into  a  dis- 
tant land.28  Under  the  reign  of  Theodoric,  and  in  the  happy 
climate  of  Italy,  the  Goths  soon  multiplied  to  a  formidable 
host  of  two  hundred  thousand  men,27  and  the  whole  amount 
of  their  families  may  be  computed  by  the  ordinary  addition 
of  women  and  children.  Their  invasion  of  property,  a  part 
of  which  must  have  been  already  vacant,  was  disguised  by 
the  generous  but  improper  name  of  hospitality ;  these  unwel- 
come guests  were  irregularly  dispersed  over  the  face  of  Italy, 
and  the  lot  of  each  barbarian  was  adequate  to  his  birth  and 
office,  the   number   of  his  followers,  and  the   rustic  wealth 

Verona.  The  Barbara  Eleganza  (as  it  is  ingeniously  named  by  Tiraboschi)  is 
never  simple,  and  seldom  perspicuous. 

26  Procopins,  Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  i.  ;  Variarum,  ii.  Maffei  (Verona  Illustrata,  P.  i. 
p.  22S)  exaggerates  the  injustice  of  the  Goths,  whom  he  hated  as  an  Italian  noble. 
The  Plebeian  Muratori  crouches  under  their  oppression. 

21  Procopius,  Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  4,  21  [torn.  ii.  p.  295,  366,  edit.  Bonn].  Ennodius 
describes  (p.  1612, 1613)  the  military  arts  and  increasing  numbers  of  the  Goths. 


*  Compare  vol.  iii.  p.  662.  It  has  been  clearly  shown  by  Savigny  that  the 
Goths  retained  the  land-tax  and  the  capitation-tax  imposed  by  the  Roman  em- 
perors. Geschichte  des  Romischen  Rechts,  vol.  i.  p.  332  seq.,  2d  edit.  See  ed* 
itor's  note  on  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  312. — S. 

IV.— 8 


114:  SEPARATION  OF  GOTHS  AND  ITALIANS.    [Ch.  XXXIX. 

which  he  possessed  in  slaves  and  cattle.  The  distinctions  of 
noble  and  plebeian  were  acknowledged,48  but  the  lands  of  ev- 
ery freeman  were  exempt  from  taxes,a  and  he  enjoyed  the  in- 
estimable privilege  of  being  subject  only  to  the  laws  of  his 
country.28  Fashion,  and  even  convenience,  soon  persuaded 
the  conquerors  to  assume  the  more  elegant  dress  of  the  na- 
tives, but  they  still  persisted  in  the  use  of  their  mother- 
tongue;  and  their  contempt  for  the  Latin  schools  was  ap- 
plauded by  Theodoric  himself,  who  gratified  their  prejudices, 
or  his  own,  by  declaring  that  the  child  who  had  trembled  at 
a  rod  would  never  dare  to  look  upon  a  sword.30  Distress 
might  sometimes  provoke  the  indigent  Roman  to  assume  the 
ferocious  manners  which  were  insensibly  relinquished  by  the 


Separation 
the  Goths 
and  Italians. 


were  not  encouraged  by  the  policy  of  a  monarch 


who  perpetuated  the  separation  of  the  Italians  and 


Goths,  reserving  the  former  for  the  arts  of  peace, 
and  the  latter  for  the  service  of  war.  To  accomplish  this 
design,  he  studied  to  protect  his  industrious  subjects,  and  to 
moderate  the  violence,  without  enervating  the  valor,  of  his 
soldiers,  who  were  maintained  for  the  public  defence.  They 
held  their  lands  and  benefices  as  a  military  stipend :  at  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet  they  were  prepared  to  march  under  the 
conduct  of  their  provincial  officers,  and  the  whole  extent  of 


28  When  Theodoric  gave  his  sister  to  the  king  of  the  Vandals,  she  sailed  for 
Africa  with  a  guard  of  1000  noble  Goths,  each  of  whom  was  attended  by  five 
armed  followers  (Procop.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  8  [torn.  i.  p.  346,  edit.  Bonn]).  The 
Gothic  nobi'ity  must  have  been  as  numerous  as  brave. 

29  See  the  acknowledgment  of  Gothic  liberty  (Var.  v.  SO). 

30  Procopius,  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  2  [torn.  ii.  p.  14,  edit.  Bonn].  The  Roman  boys 
learned  the  language  (Var.  viii.  21)  of  the  Goths.  Their  general  ignorance  is  not 
d&stroved  by  the  exceptions  of  Amalasuntha,  a  female,  who  might  study  without 
shame,  or  of  Theodatus,  whose  learning  provoked  the  indignation  and  contempt 
of  his  countrymen. 

31  A  saying  of  Theodoric  was  founded  on  experience:  "Romanus  miser  imita- 
tur  Gothum;  et  utilis  (dives)  Gothus  imitatur  Romanum."  (See  the  Fragment 
and  Notes  of  Valesius,  p.  719  [Amm.  ii.  p.  308,  edit.  Bip.].) 


a  Manso  (p.  100)  quotes  two  passages  from  Cassiodorus  to  show  that  the  Goths 
ware  not  exempt  from  the  fiscal  clahns.     Cassiodor.  i.  19,  iv,  14. — M. 


A.D.  493-526.]       FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THEODORIC.  115 

Italy  was  distributed  into  the  several  quarters  of  a  well-reg 
ulated  camp.  The  service  of  the  palace  and  of  the  frontiers 
was  performed  by  choice  or  by  rotation,  and  each  extraordi- 
nary fatigue  was  recompensed  by  an  increase  of  pay  and  oc- 
casional donatives.  Theodoric  had  convinced  his  brave  com- 
panions that  empire  must  be  acquired  and  defended  by  the 
same  arts.  After  his  example,  they  strove  to  excel  in  the  use 
not  only  of  the  lance  and  sword,  the  instruments  of  their  vic- 
tories, but  of  the  missile  weapons,  which  they  were  too  much 
inclined  to  neglect :  and  the  lively  image  of  war  was  display- 
ed in  the  daily  exercise  and  annual  reviews  of  the  Gothic  cav- 
alry. A  firm  though  gentle  discipline  imposed  the  habits  of 
modesty,  obedience,  and  temperance  ;  and  the  Goths  were  in- 
structed to  spare  the  people,  to  reverence  the  laws,  to  under- 
stand the  duties  of  civil  society,  and  to  disclaim  the  barbarous 
license  of  judicial  combat  and  private  revenge.32 

Among  the  barbarians  of  the  West  the  victory  of  Theod- 
oric had  spread  a  general  alarm.  But  as  soon  as  it  appeared 
„    .  that  he  was  satisfied  with  conquest  and  desirous 

policy  of  of  peace,  terror  was  changed  into  respect,  and  they 
submitted  to  a  powerful  mediation,  which  was  uni- 
formly employed  for  the  best  purposes  of  reconciling  their 
quarrels  and  civilizing  their  manners.33  The  ambassadors  who 
resorted  to  Ravenna  from  the  most  distant  countries  of  Eu- 
rope admired  his  wisdom,  magnificence,34  and  courtesy ;  and 
if  he  sometimes  accepted  either  slaves  or  arms,  white  horses 
or  strange  animals,  the  gift  of  a  sundial,  a  water- clock,  or  a 
musician,  admonished  even  the  princes  of  Gaul  of  the  supe- 

32  The  view  of  the  military  establishment  of  the  Goths  in  Italy  is  collected  from 
the  Epistles  of  Cassiodorus  (Var.  i.  24,  40 ;  iii.  3,  24,  48  ;  iv„  13,  14 ;  v.  26,  27; 
viii.  3,  4,  25).  They  are  illustrated  by  the  learned  Mascou  (Hist,  of  the  Germans, 
1.  xi.  40-44  ;  Annotation  xiv.).a 

33  See  the  clearness  and  vigor  of  his  negotiations  in  Ennodius  (p.  1607)  and 
Cassiodorus  (Var.  iii.  1,  2,  3,  4 ;  iv.  13  ;  v.  43,  44),  who  gives  the  different  styles 
of  friendship,  counsel,  expostulation,  etc. 

34  Even  of  his  table  (Var.  vi.  9)  and  palace  (vii.  5).  The  admiration  of  strangers 
is  represented  as  the  most  rational  motive  to  justify  these  vain  expenses,  and  to 
stimulate  the  diligence  of  the  officers  to  whom  these  provinces  were  intrusted. 


Compare  Manso,  Geschichte  des  Ost-Gothischen  Keiches,  p.  114. — M. 


116  FOEEIGN  POLICY  OF  THEODOEIC.        [Ch.  XXXIX. 

rior  art  and  industry  of  his  Italian  subjects.  His  domestic 
alliances,35  a  wife,  two  daughters,  a  sister,  and  a  niece,  united 
the  family  of  Theodoric  with  the  kings  of  the  Franks,  the 
Burgundians,  the  Yisigoths,  the  Yandals,  and  the  Thuringi- 
ans,  and  contributed  to  maintain  the  harmony,  or  at  least  the 
balance,  of  the  great  republic  of  the  "West.36  It  is  difficult,  in 
the  dark  forests  of  Germany  and  Poland,  to  pursue  the  emi- 
grations of  the  Heruli,  a  fierce  people  who  disdained  the  use 
of  armor,  and  who  condemned  their  widows  and  aged  parents 
not  to  survive  the  loss  of  their  husbands  or  the  decay  of  their 
strength.37  The  king  of  these  savage  warriors  solicited  the 
friendship  of  Theodoric,  and  was  elevated  to  the  rank  of  his 
son,  according  to  the  barbaric  rites  of  a  military  adoption.38 

35  See  the  public  and  private  alliances  of  the  Gothic  monarch,  with  the  Burgun- 
dians (Var.  i.  45,  46),  with  the  Franks  (ii.  40),  with  the  Thuringians  (iv.  1),  and 
with  the  Vandals  (v.  1)  ;  each  of  these  epistles  affords  some  curious  knowledge  of 
the  policy  and  manners  of  the  barbarians. 

36  His  political  system  may  be  observed  in  Cassiodorus  (Var.  iv.  1,  ix.  1),  Jor- 
nandes  (c.  58,  p.  698,  699),  and  the  Valesian  Fragment  (p.  720,  721  [Amm. 
torn.  ii.  p.  311,  edit.  Bip.]).  Peace,  honorable  peace,  was  the  constant  aim  of 
Theodoric. 

37  The  curious  reader  may  contemplate  the  Heruli  of  Procopius  (Goth.  I.  ii.  c. 
14),  and  the  patient  reader  may  plunge  into  the  dark  and  minute  researches  of  M. 
de  Buat  (Hist,  des  Peuples  Anciens,  torn.  ix.  p.  348-396).a 

38  Variarum,  iv.  2.     The  spirit  and  forms  of  this  martial  institution  are  noticed 


a  The  ethnological  relations  of  the  Heruli  are  uncertain,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
determine  their  original  abodes.  They  are  found  at  different  periods  in  almost 
every  part  of  Europe ;  they  appear  on  the  Dniester  and  the  Khine,  they  plunder 
Greece  and  Spain,  and  march  into  Italy  and  Scandinavia.  Various  etymologies 
of  their  name  have  been  proposed  :  some  derive  it  from  heru  (gladius),  against 
which  it  is  urged  that  their  name  as  frequently  appears  without  a  guttural  in  the 
form  of  Eruli ;  others  connect  it  with  eorl  or  iarl  (comes,  nobilis)  ;  while  Seha- 
farik  regards  the  Heruli  as  descendants  of  the  Hirri,  and  their  name  as  a  diminu- 
tive of  the  latter.  Zeuss  supposes  that  they  originally  dwelt  on  the  southwest 
shores  of  the  Baltic,  and  that  they  were  the  same  people  as  the  Suardones  of  Tac- 
itus (Germ.  c.  40)  and  the  QapoSeivoi  of  Ptolemy  (ii.  11,  §  13).  But  all  these  are 
at  the  best  but  ingenious  speculations,  which  cannot  lead  to  any  satisfactory  re- 
sult. The  Heruli  are  first  mentioned  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  when  they 
accompany  the  Goths  in  their  expeditions  on  the  Euxine  in  the  reigns  of  Claudius 
and  Gallienus.  Hence  it  has  been  supposed  that  they  were  Germans ;  but  this  is 
not  conclusive,  as  Slavonic  tribes  seem  to  have  taken  part  in  the  Gothic  expedi- 
tions. The  names  of  their  leaders,  however,  are  German,  which  is,  strictly  speak- 
ing, the  only  evidence  we  have  upon  the  point.  See  Zeuss,  Die  Deutschen  und 
die  Nachharstamme,  p.  476  ;  Latham,  The  Germania  of  Tacitus,  Epil.  p.  xciv.  { 
Schafarik,  Slawische  Alterthiimer,  vol.  i.  p.  436. — S. 


A.D.  493-526.]       FOREIGN  POLICY  OF  THEODORIC.  11? 

From  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  the  ^Estians  or  Livonians  laid 
their  offerings  of  native  amber39  at  the  feet  of  a  prince  whose 
fame  had  excited  them  to  undertake  an  unknown  and  dan- 
gerous journey  of  fifteen  hundred  miles.  With  the  country" 
from  whence  the  Gothic  nation  derived  their  origin  he  main- 
tained a  frequent  and  friendly  correspondence :  the  Italians 
were  clothed  in  the  rich  sables41  of  Sweden ;  and  one  of  its 
sovereigns,  after  a  voluntary  or  reluctant  abdication,  found  an 
hospitable  retreat  in  the  palace  of  Ravenna.  He  had  reigned 
over  one  of  the  thirteen  populous  tribes  who  cultivated  a 
small  portion  of  the  great  island  or  peninsula  of  Scandinavia, 
to  which  the  vague  appellation  of  Thule  has  been  sometimes 
applied.  That  northern  region  was  peopled,  or  had  been  ex- 
plored, as  high  as  the  sixty-eighth  degree  of  latitude,  where 
the  natives  of  the  polar  circle  enjoy  and  lose  the  presence  of 
the  sun  at  each  summer  and  winter  solstice  during  an  equal 
period  of  forty  days.42  The  long  night  of  his  absence  or  death 
was  the  mournful  season  of  distress  and  anxiety,  till  the  mes- 
sengers, who  had  been  sent  to  the  mountain-tops,  descried  the 


by  Cassiodorus ;  but  he  seems  to  have  only  translated  the  sentiments  of  the  Gothic 
king  into  the  language  of  Roman  eloquence. 

39  Cassiodorus,  who  quotes  Tacitus  to  the  iEstians,  the  unlettered  savages  of 
the  Baltic  (Var.  v.  2),  describes  the  amber  for  which  their  shores  have  ever  been 
famous  as  the  gum  of  a  tree  hardened  by  the  sun  and  purified  and  wafted  by  tho 
waves.  When  that  singular  substance  is  analyzed  by  the  chemists,  it  yields  a  veg- 
etable oil  and  a  mineral  acid. 

40  Scanzia,  or  Thule,  is  described  by  Jornandes  (c.  3,  p.  610-613)  and  Procopi- 
ns  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  15).  Neither  the  Goth  nor  the  Greek  had  visited  the  country : 
ooth  had  conversed  with  the  natives  in  their  exile  at  Ravenna  or  Constantinople. 

41  Saphirinas  pelles.  In  the  time  of  Jornandes  they  inhabited  Suethans,  the 
proper  Sweden ;  but  that  beautiful  race  of  animals  has  gradually  been  driven  into 
the  eastern  parts  of  Siberia.  See  Buffon  (Hist.  Nat.  torn.  xiii.  p.  309-313,  quarto 
edition) ;  Pennant  (System  of  Quadrupeds,  vol.  i.  p.  322-328) ;  Gmelin  (Hist.  Ge'n. 
des  Voyages,  torn,  xviii.  p.  257,  258) ;  and  Levesque  (Hist,  de  Russie,  torn.  v.  p. 
165, 166,  514,  515). 

42  In  the  system  or  romance  of  M.  Bailly  (Lettres  sur  les  Sciences  et  sur  l'At- 
lantide,  torn.  i.  p.  249-256 ;  torn.  ii.  p.  114-139)  the  phoenix  of  the  Edda,  and  the 
annual  death  and  revival  of  Adonis  and  Osiris,  are  the  allegorical  symbols  of  the 
absence  and  return  of  the  sun  in  the  Arctic  regions.  This  ingenious  writer  is  a 
worthy  disciple  of  the  great  Buffon ;  nor  is  it  easy  for  the  coldest  reason  to  with- 
stand the  magic  of  their  philosophy. 


118  DEFENSIVE  WARS  OF  THEODORIU.      [Ch.  XXXIX. 

first  rajs  of  returning  light,  and  proclaimed  to  the  plain  below 
the  festival  of  his  resurrection.43 

The  life  of  Theodoric  represents  the  rare  and  meritorious 
example  of  a  barbarian  who  sheathed  his  sword  in  the  pride 
Hisdefen-  °^  victory  and  the  vigor  of  his  age.  A  reign  of 
■ivewara.  three-and-  thirty  years  was  consecrated  to  the  du- 
ties of  civil  government,  and  the  hostilities  in  which  he  was 
sometimes  involved  were  speedily  terminated  by  the  conduct 
of  his  lieutenants,  the  discipline  of  his  troops,  the  arms  of  his 
allies,  and  even  by  the  terror  of  his  name.  He  reduced,  un- 
der a  strong  and  regular  government,  the  unprofitable  coun- 
tries of  Khastia,  Koricum,  Dalmatia,  and  Pannonia,  from  the 
source  of  the  Danube  and  the  territory  of  the  Bavarians44  to 
the  petty  kingdom  erected  by  the  Gepidse  on  the  ruins  of 
Sirmium.  His  prudence  could  not  safely  intrust  the  bulwark 
of  Italy  to  such  feeble  and  turbulent  neighbors ;  and  his  jus- 
tice might  claim  the  lands  which  they  oppressed,  either  as  a 
part  of  his  kingdom,  or  as  the  inheritance  of  his  father.  The 
greatness  of  a  servant,  who  was  named  perfidious  because  he 
was  successful,  awakened  the  jealousy  of  the  Emperor  Anas- 
tasius ;  and  a  war  was  kindled  on  the  Dacian  frontier  by  the 
protection  which  the  Gothic  king,  in  the  vicissitude  of  human 

affairs,  had  granted  to  one  of  the  descendants  of 
A.D.  505.  .      ..  '      _.  .  ?  .  ......         .  .  . 

Attila.     Sabmian,  a  general  illustrious  by  his  own 

and  fat '^er's  merit,  advanced  at  the  head  of  ten  thousand  Ro- 
mans ;  and  the  provisions  and  arms,  which  filled  a  long  train 
of  wagons,  were  distributed  to  the  fiercest  of  the  Bulgarian 
tribes.  But  in  the  fields  of  Margus  the  Eastern  powers  were 
defeated  by  the  inferior  forces  of  the  Goths  and  Huns ;  the 

48  Avtt)  re  QovXiraiQ  fj  fiByiirrr]  ra>v  topT&v  tan,  says  Procopius  [torn.  ii.  p.  207, 
edit.  Bonn].  At  present  a  rude  Manicheism  (generous  enough)  prevails  a.iiong 
the  Samoyedes  in  Greenland  and  in  Lapland  (Hist,  des  Voyages,  torn,  xviii.  p. 
508,  509,  torn.  xix.  p.  105,  106,  527,  528) ;  yet,  according  to  Grotius,  Samojntas 
coelura  atque  astra  adorant,  numina  haud  aliis  iniquiora  (de  Rebus  Belgicis,  1.  iv. 
p.  338,  folio  edition) ;  a  sentence  which  Tacitus  would  not  have  disowned. 

44  See  the  Hist,  des  Peuples  Anciens,  etc.,  torn.  ix.  p.  255-273,  396-501.  The 
Count  de  Buat  was  French  minister  at  the  court  of  Bavaria :  a  liberal  curiosity 
prompted  his  inquiries  into  the  antiquities  of  the  country,  and  that  curiosity  was 
the  germ  of  twelve  respectable  volumes. 


',-D.  493-626.]  HIS  NAVAL  ARMAMENT.  119 

flower  and  even  the  hope  of  the  Roman  armies  was  irretrieva- 
bly destroyed ;  and  such  was  the  temperance  with  which  The- 
odoric  had  inspired  his  victorious  troops  that,  as  their  leader 
had  not  given  the  signal  of  pillage,  the  rich  spoils  of  the 
enemy  lay  untouched  at  their  feet.45    Exasperated 

His  naval  ,-,.,.  t         -r>  •  i  t      ■ 

armament  by  this  disgrace,  the  Byzantine  court  despatchec 
two  hundred  ships  and  eight  thousand  men  to  plun 
der  the  sea-coast  of  Calabria  and  Apulia :  they  assaulted  the 
ancient  city  of  Tarentum,  interrupted  the  trade  and  agricult* 
ure  of  a  happy  country,  and  sailed  back  to  the  Hellespont, 
proud  of  their  piratical  victory  over  a  people  whom  they  still 
presumed  to  consider  as  their  Roman  brethren.46  Their  re- 
treat was  possibly  hastened  by  the  activity  of  Theodoric; 
Italy  was  covered  by  a  fleet  of  a  thousand  light  vessels,47 
which  he  constructed  with  incredible  despatch ;  and  his  firm 
moderation  was  soon  rewarded  by  a  solid  and  honorable 
peace.  He  maintained,  with  a  powerful  hand,  the  balance  of 
the  West,  till  it  was  at  length  overthrown  by  the  ambition  of 
Clovis ;  and,  although  unable  to  assist  his  rash  and  unfortu- 
nate kinsman  the  king  of  the  Visigoths,  he  saved  the  remains 
of  his  family  and  people,  and  checked  the  Franks  in  the 
midst  of  their  victorious  career.  I  am  not  desirous  to  pro- 
long or  repeat48  this  narrative  of  military  events,  the  least  in- 
teresting of  the  reign  of  Theodoric ;  and  shall  be  content  to 
add  that  the  Alemanni  were  protected,49  that  an  inroad  of  the 

46  See  the  Gothic  transactions  on  the  Danube  and  in  Illyricuna,  in  Jornandes 
(c.  58,  p.  699),  Ennodius  (p.  1607-1610),  Marcellinus  (in  Chron.  p.  44,  47,  48), 
and  Cassiodorus  (in  Chron.  and  Var.  hi.  23,  50;  iv.  13;  vii.  4,  24;  viii.  9,  10, 
11,  21  ;  ix.  8,  9). 

46  1  cannot  forbear  transcribing  the  liberal  and  classic  style  of  Count  Marcel- 
linus: "Romanus  comes  domesticorum,  et  Rusticus  comes  scholariorum  cam 
centum  armatis  navibus,  totidemque  dromonibus,  octo  millia  militum  armatorum 
secnm  ferentibns,  ad  devastanda  Italias  littora  processerunt,  et  usque  ad  Tarentum 
antiquissimam  civitatem  aggressi  sunt;  remensoque  mari  inhonestam  victoriam 
quam  piratico  ausu  Romani  ex  Romanis  rapuerunt,  Anastasio  Csesari  reportarunt" 
(in  Chron.  p.  48  [anno  508]).     See  Variar.  i.  16 ;  ii.  38. 

47  See  the  royal  orders  and  instructions  (Var.  iv.  15  ;  v.  1 6-20).  These  armed 
boats  should  be  still  smaller  than  the  thousand  vessels  of  Agamemnon  at  the  siege 
of  Troy  [Manso,  p.  121].  48  See  p.  30  seq. 

49  Ennodius  (p.  1610)  and  Cassiodorus,  in  the  royal  name  (Var.  ii.  41),  record 
his  salutary  protection  of  the  Alemanni. 


120  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  ITALY  [Ch.  XXXIX 

Burgundians  was  severely  chastised,  and  that  the  conquest  of 
A-rles  and  Marseilles  opened  a  free  communication  with  the 
Visigoths,  who  revered  him  both  as  their  national  protector, 
and  as  the  guardian  of  his  grandchild,  the  infant  son  of 
Alaric.  Under  this  respectable  character,  the  King  of  Italy 
restored  the  Praetorian  prefecture  of  the  Gauls,  reformed 
some  abuses  in  the  civil  government  of  Spain,  and  accepted 
the  annual  tribute  and  apparent  submission  of  its  military 
governor,  who  wisely  refused  to  trust  his  person  in  the  palace 
of  Ravenna.60  The  Gothic  sovereignty  was  established  from 
Sicily  to  the  Danube,  from  Sirmium  or  Belgrade  to  the  At- 
lantic Ocean ;  and  the  Greeks  themselves  have  acknowledged 
that  Theodoric  reigned  over  the  fairest  portion  of  the  West- 
ern empire." 

The  union  of  the  Goths  and  Romans  might  have  fixed  for 

ages  the  transient  happiness  of  Italy ;  and  the  first  of  nations, 

a  new  people  of  free  subiects  and  enlightened  sol- 

Civil  govern-  .    ,      t  ■,      -,,  .  ,.  , 

ment  of  Italy  diers,  might  have  gradually  arisen  from  the  mutual 

according  to  '     .   °  .  °  .  . 

the  Roman  emulation  of  their  respective  virtues.  But  the  sub- 
lime merit  of  guiding  or  seconding  such  a  revolu- 
tion was  not  reserved  for  the  reign  of  Theodoric :  he  wanted 
either  the  genius  or  the  opportunities  of  a  legislator;62  and 
while  he  indulged  the  Goths  in  the  enjoyment  of  rude  liber- 
ty, he  servilely  copied  the  institutions,  and  even  the  abuses,  of 

50  The  Gothic  transactions  in  Gaul  and  Spain  are  represented  with  some  per- 
plexity in  Cassiodorus  (Var.  iii.  32,  38,  41,  43,  44 ;  v.  39),  Jornandes  (c.  58,  p. 
698,  699),  and  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  i.  c.  12).  I  will  peither  hear  nor  reconcile  the 
long  and  contradictory  arguments  of  the  Abbe*  Dubos  and  the  Count  de  Buat 
about  the  wars  of  Burgundy. 

61  Theophanes,  p.  113  [p.  203,  edit.  Bonn]. 

52  Procopius  affirms  that  no  laws  whatsoever  were  promulgated  by  Theodoric 
and  the  succeeding  kings  of  Italy  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  6  [torn.  ii.  p.  170,  edit.  Bonn]).  H« 
must  mean  in  the  Gothic  language.  A  Latin  edict  of  Theodoric  is  still  extant,  in 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four  articles.* 


*  This  edict  was  promulgated  in  a.d.  500,  and  its  laws  applied  to  the  Goths  and 
to  the  Romans.  While  the  Goths  retained  the  exclusive  possession  of  arms,  it  was 
the  policy  of  Theodoric  to  unite  them  and  the  Romans  in  all  their  civil  relations  into 
one  people.  In  this  respect  the  Ostrogothic  kingdom  differed  from  all  the  other 
German  states  founded  upon  the  downfall  of  the  empire,  since  in  the  latter  each 
nation  preserved  its  separate  laws.  Savigny,  Geschichte  des  Romischeu  Rechta* 
■sol.  ii.  p.  172  se<j.,  2d  edit.— & 


A.D.  493-52C]      ACCORDING  TO  THE  ROMAN  LAWS.  121 

the  political  system  which  had  been  framed  by  Constantino 
and  his  successors.  From  a  tender  regard  to  the  expiring 
prejudices  of  Rome,  the  barbarian  declined  the  name,  the  pur- 
ple, and  the  diadem  of  the  emperors ;  but  he  assumed,  under 
the  hereditary  title  of  king,  the  whole  substance  and  pleni- 
tude of  imperial  prerogative.63  His  addresses  to  the  East- 
ern throne  were  respectful  and  ambiguous :  he  celebrated  in 
pompous  style  the  harmony  of  the  two  republics,  applauded 
his  own  government  as  the  perfect  similitude  of  a  sole  and 
undivided  empire,  and  claimed  above  the  kings  of  the  earth 
the  same  pre-eminence  which  he  modestly  allowed  to  the 
person  or  rank  of  Anastasius.  The  alliance  of  the  East  and 
West  was  annually  declared  by  the  unanimous  choice  of  two 
consuls;  but  it  should  seem  that  the  Italian  candidate,  who 
was  named  by  Theodoric,  accepted  a  formal  confirmation  from 
the  sovereign  of  Constantinople.54  The  Gothic  palace  of  Ra- 
venna reflected  the  image  of  the  court  of  Theodosius  or  Val- 
entinian.  The  Praetorian  praefect,  the  prsefect  of  Rome,  the 
quaestor,  the  master  of  the  offices,  with  the  public  and  patri- 
monial treasurers,  whose  functions  are  painted  in  gaudy  col- 
ors by  the  rhetoric  of  Cassiodorus,  still  continued  to  act  as 
the  ministers  of  State.a  And  the  subordinate  care  of  justice 
and  the  revenue  was  delegated  to  seven  consulars,  three  cor- 
rectors, and  five  presidents,  who  governed  the  fifteen  regions 
of  Italy  according  to  the  principles,  and  even  the  forms,  of 


63  The  image  of  Theodoric  is  engraved  on  his  coins :  his  modest  successors  were 
satisfied  with  adding  their  own  name  to  the  head  of  the  reigning  emperor  (Mura- 
tori,  Antiquitat.  Italiaa  Medii  iEvi,  torn.  ii.  dissert,  xxvii.  p.  577-579.  Giannone, 
Istoria  Civile  di  Napoli,  torn.  i.  p.  166). 

64  The  alliance  of  the  emperor  and  the  King  of  Italy  are  represented  by  Cassio- 
dorus (Var.  i.  ]  ;  ii.  1,  2,  3 ;  vi.  1)  and  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  6  ;  1.  iii.  c.  21  [torn. 
ii.  p.  369,  edit.  Bonn]),  who  celebrate  the  friendship  of  Anastasius  and  Theodoric: 
but  the  figurative  style  of  compliment  was  interpreted  in  a  very  different  sense  at 
Constantinople  and  Ravenna. 


*  All  causes  between  Roman  and  Roman  were  judged  by  the  old  Roman  courts. 
The  comes  Gothorum  judged  between  Goth  and  Goth ;  between  Goths  and  Ro- 
mans (without  considering  which  was  the  plaintiff),  the  comes  Gothorum,  with  a 
Roman  jurist  as  his  assessor,  making  a  kind  of  mixed  jurisdiction,  but  with  a  nat- 
ural predominance  to  the  side  of  the  Goth.     Savigny,  vol.  i.  p.  337, 2d  edit. — M. 


122  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  OF  ITALY.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

Roman  jurisprudence.55  The  violence  of  the  conquerors  was 
abated  or  eluded  by  the  slow  artifice  of  judicial  proceedings ; 
the  civil  administration,  with  its  honors  and  emoluments,  was 
confined  to  the  Italians ;  and  the  people  still  preserved  their 
dress  and  language,  their  laws  and  customs,  their  personal 
freedom,  and  two  thirds  of  their  landed  property.*  It  had 
been  the  object  of  Augustus  to  conceal  the  introduction 
of  monarchy ;  it  was  the  policy  of  Theodoric  to  disguise 
the  reign  of  a  barbarian.68  If  his  subjects  were  sometimes 
awakened  from  this  pleasing  vision  of  a  Roman  government, 
they  derived  more  substantial  comfort  from  the  character  of 
a  Gothic  prince  who  had  penetration  to  discern,  and  firmness 
to  pursue,  his  own  and  the  public  interest.  Theodoric  loved 
the  virtues  which  he  possessed  and  the  talents  of  which  he 
was  destitute.  Liberius  was  promoted  to  the  office  of  Prae- 
torian prsefect  for  his  unshaken  fidelity  to  the  unfortunate 
cause  of  Odoacer.     The  ministers  of  Theodoric,  Cassiodorus" 

65  To  the  seventeen  provinces  of  the  Notitia,  Paul  Warnefrid  the  deacon  (De 
Reb.  Longobard.  1.  ii.  c.  14-22)  has  subjoined  an  eighteenth,  the  Apennine  (Mura- 
tori,  Script.  Rerum  Italicarum,  torn.  i.  p.  431-433).  But  of  these,  Sardinia  and 
Corsica  were  possessed  by  the  Vandals,  and  the  two  Rhaetias,  as  well  as  the  Cot- 
tian  Alps,  seem  to  have  been  abandoned  to  a  military  government.  The  state  of 
the  four  provinces  that  now  form  the  kingdom  of  Naples  is  labored  by  Giannone 
(torn.  i.  p.  172,  178)  with  patriotic  diligence. 

56  See  the  Gothic  history  of  Procopius  (1.  i.  c.  1, 1.  ii.  c.  6),  the  Epistles  of  Cas- 
siodorus  (passim,  but  especially  the  fifth  and  sixth  books  [vi.  vii.],  which  contain 
the  formula,  or  patents  of  offices),  and  the  Civil  History  of  Giannone  (torn.  i.  1.  ii. 
iii.).  The  Gothic  counts,  which  he  places  in  every  Italian  city,  are  annihilated, 
however,  by  Maffei  (Verona  Illustrata,  P.  i.  1.  viii.  p.  227)  ;  for  those  of  Syracuse 
and  Naples  (Var.  vi.  22,  23)  were  special  and  temporary  commissions. 

67  Two  Italians  of  the  name  of  Cassiodorus,  the  father  (Var.  i.  24  [4],  40)  and 
the  son  (ix.  24,  25),  were  successively  employed  in  the  administration  of  Theodo- 
ric. The  son  was  born  in  the  year  479  :  his  various  epistles  as  quaestor,  master  of 
the  offices,  and  Praetorian  prefect,  extend  from  509  to  539,  and  he  lived  as  a  monk 


*  Manso  enumerates  and  develops  at  some  length  the  following  sources  of  the 
royal  revenue  of  Theodoric:  1.  A  domain,  either  by  succession  to  that  of  Odoa- 
cer, or  a  part  of  the  third  of  the  lands,  was  reserved  for  the  royal  patrimony.  2. 
Regalia,  including  mines,  unclaimed  estates,  treasure-trove,  and*  confiscations.  3. 
Land-tax.  4.  Auraria,  like  the  Chrysargyrum,  a  tax  on  certain  brandies  of  trade. 
5.  Grant  of  monopolies.  6.  Siliquaticum,  a  small  tax  on  the  sale  of  all  kinds  of 
commodities.  7.  Portoria,  customs. — Manso,  96,  111.  Savigny  supposes  that  in 
many  cases  the  property  remained  in  Uie  original  owner,  who  paid  his  tertia,  a 
third  of  the  produce,  to  the  crown ;  vol.  i.  p.  333. — M. 


A.D.  493-526.]  PROSPERITY  OF  ROME.  123 

and  Boethius,  have  reflected  on  his  reign  the  lustre  of  their 
genius  and  learning.  More  prudent  or  more  fortunate  than 
his  colleague,  Cassiodorus  preserved  his  own  esteem  without 
forfeiting  the  royal  favor ;  and  after  passing  thirty  years  in 
the  honors  of  the  world,  he  was  blessed  with  an  equal  term  of 
repose  in  the  devout  and  studious  solitude  of  Squillace.* 

As  the  patron  of  the  republic,  it  was  the  interest  and  duty 
of  the  Gothic  king  to  cultivate  the  affections  of  the  senate68 
Prosperity  and  people.  The  nobles  of  Rome  were  flattered 
of  Home.  ^y  sonorous  epithets  and  formal  professions  of  re- 
spect, which  had  been  more  justly  applied  to  the  merit  and 
authority  of  their  ancestors.  The  people  enjoyed,  without 
fear  or  danger,  the  three  blessings  of  a  capital,  order,  plenty, 
and  public  amusements.  A  visible  diminution  of  their  num- 
bers may  be  found  even  in  the  measure  of  liberality  ;69  yet 
Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily  poured  their  tribute  of  corn  into 
the  granaries  of  Rome ;  an  allowance  of  bread  and  meat  was 
distributed  to  the  indigent  citizens;  and  every  office  was 
deemed  honorable  which  was  consecrated  to  the  care  of  their 
health  and  happiness.  The  public  games,  such  as  a  Greek 
ambassador  might  politely  applaud,  exhibited  a  faint  and  fee- 
about  thirty  years.  (Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letteratura  Italiana,  torn.  iii.  p.  7-24. 
Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Lat.  Med.  Mv\,  torn.  i.  p.  357,  358,  edit.  Mansi.) 

68  See  his  regard  for  the  senate  iii  Cochlceus  (Vit.  Theod.  viii.  p.  72-80). 

69  No  more  than  120,000  modii,  or  four  thousand  quarters  (Anonym.  Valesian, 
p.  721  [Amm.  ii.  p.  310,  edit.  Bip.],  and  Var.  i.  35  ;  vi.  18 ;  xi.  5,  39). 


*  Cassiodorus  was  of  an  ancient  and  honorable  family :  his  grandfather  had  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  the  defence  of  Sicily  against  the  ravages  of  Genseric ;  his  fa- 
ther held  a  high  rank  at  the  court  of  Valentinian  the  Third,  enjoyed  the  friendship 
of  Aetius,  and  was  one  of  the  ambassadors  sent  to  arrest  the  progress  of  Attila* 
Cassiodorus  himself  was  first  the  treasurer  of  the  private  expenditure  to  Odoacer, 
afterwards  "count  of  the  sacred  largesses."  Yielding  with  the  rest  of  the  Romans 
to  the  dominion  of  Theodoric,  he  was  instrumental  in  the  peaceable  submission  of 
Sicily ;  was  successively  governor  of  his  native  provinces  of  Bruttium  and  Luca- 
nia,  quaestor,  magister  palatii,  Praetorian  praefect,  patrician,  consul,  private  secreta- 
ry, and,  in  fact,  first  minister  of  the  king.  He  was  five  times  Praetorian  praefect 
under  different  sovereigns,  the  last  time  in  the  reign  of  Vitiges.  This  is  the  theo- 
ry of  Manso,  which  is  not  unencumbered  with  difficulties.  M.  Buat  had  supposed 
that  it  was  the  father  of  Cassiodorus  who  held  the  office  first  named.  Compare 
Manso,  p.  85,  etc.,  and  Beylage,  vii.  It  certainly  appears  improbable  that  Cassi- 
odorus should  have  been  count  of  the  sacred  largesses  at  twenty  years  old. — M. 
Cassiodorus  died  575,  at  the  age  of  ninety-five,  Clinton,  Fast.  Rom.  vol.  i.  p.  837 
— S. 


124  VISIT  OF  THEODORIC,  £Ch.  XXXIX 

ble  copy  of  the  magnificence  of  the  Caesars :  yet  the  mnsical, 
the  gymnastic,  and  the  pantomime  arts  had  not  totally  sunk 
in  oblivion  ;  the  wild  beasts  of  Africa  still  exercised  in  the 
amphitheatre  the  courage  and  dexterity  of  the  hunters ;  and 
the  indulgent  Goth  either  patiently  tolerated  or  gently  re- 
strained the  blue  and  green  factions,  whose  contests  so  often 

filled  the  circus  with  clamor,  and  even  with  blood.60 
Theodoiic.      In  the  seventh  year  of  his  peaceful  reign,  Theodo- 

ric  visited  the  old  capital  of  the  world ;  the  senate 
and  people  advanced  in  solemn  procession  to  salute  a  second 
Trajan,  a  new  Yalentinian  ;  and  he  Dobly  supported  that  char- 
acter, by  the  assurance  of  a  just  and  legal  government,61  in  a 
discourse  which  he  was  not  afraid  to  pronounce  in  public  and 
to  inscribe  on  a  tablet  of  brass.  Rome,  in  this  august  cere- 
mony, shot  a  last  ray  of  declining  glory ;  and  a  saint,  the 
spectator  of  this  pompous  scene,  could  only  hope,  in  his  pious 
fancy,  that  it  was  excelled  by  the  celestial  splendor  of  the 
New  Jerusalem.62  During  a  residence  of  six  months,  the 
fame,  the  person,  and  the  courteous  demeanor  of  the  Gothic 
king  excited  the  admiration  of  the  Romans,  and  he  contem- 
plated, with  equal  curiosity  and  surprise,  the  monuments  that 
remained  of  their  ancient  greatness.  He  imprinted  the  foot- 
steps of  a  conqueror  on  the  Capitoline  Hill,  and  frankly  con- 
fessed that  each  day  he  viewed  with  fresh  wonder  the  forum 
of  Trajan  and  his  lofty  column.  The  theatre  of  Pompey  ap- 
peared, even  in  its  decay,  as  a  huge  mountain  artificially  hoi 
lowed  and  polished,  and  adorned  by  human  industry ;  and  he 
vaguely  computed  that  a  river  of  gold  must  have  been  drain- 
ed to  erect  the  colossal  amphitheatre  of  Titus.63     From  the 

60  See  his  regard  and  indulgence  for  the  spectacles  of  the  circus,  the  amphithe- 
atre, and  the  theatre,  in  the  Chronicle  and  Epistles  of  Cassiodorus  (Var.  i.  20, 
27,  30,  31,  32 ;  iii.  51 ;  iv.  51,  illustrated  by  the  fourteenth  Annotation  of  Mascou's 
History),  who  has  contrived  to  sprinkle  the  subject  with  ostentatious,  though  agree- 
able, learning. 

61  Anonym.  Vales,  p.  721  [1.  c.  edit.  Bip.].  Marius  Aventicensis  in  Chron.  In 
the  scale  of  public  and  personal  merit,  the  Gothic  conqueror  is  at  least  as  much 
above  Valentinian  as  he  may  seem  inferior  to  Trajan. 

62  Vit.  Fulgentii  in  Baron.  Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  500,  No.  10. 

63  Cassiodorus  describes  in  his  pompous  style  the  Forum  of  Trajan  (Var.  vii.  6), 


A.D.  500.]  VISIT  OF  TIIEODORIC.  125 

mouths  of  fourteen  aqueducts  a  pure  and  copious  stream  was 
diffused  into  every  part  of  the  city  ;  among  these  the  Claudi- 
an  water,  which  arose  at  the  distance  of  thirty-eight  miles  in 
the  Sabine  mountains,  was  conveyed  along  a  gentle  though 
constant  declivity  of  solid  arches,  till  it  descended  on  the 
summit  of  the  Aventine  Hill.  The  long  and  spacious  vaults 
which  had  been  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  common  sew- 
ers subsisted  after  twelve  centuries  in  their  pristine  strength ; 
and  these  subterraneous  channels  have  been  preferred  to  all 
the  visible  wonders  of  Rome.64  The  Gothic  kings,  so  inju- 
riously accused  of  the  ruin  of  antiquity,  were  anxious  to  pre- 
serve the  monuments  of  the  nation  whom  they  had  subdued.66 
The  royal  edicts  were  framed  to  prevent  the  abuses,  the  neg- 
lect, or  the  depredations  of  the  citizens  themselves;  and  a 
professed  architect,  the  annual  sum  of  two  hundred  pounds 
of  gold,  twenty-five  thousand  tiles,  and  the  receipt  of  customs 
from  the  Lucrine  port,  were  assigned  for  the  ordinary  repairs 
of  the  walls  and  public  edifices.  A  similar  care  was  extend- 
ed to  the  statues  of  metal  or  marble  of  men  or  animals.  The 
spirit  of  the  horses,  which  have  given  a  modern  name  to  the 
Quirinal,  was  applauded  by  the  barbarians  ;68  the  brazen  ele- 

the  theatre  of  Marcellus  (iv.  51),  and  the  amphitheatre  of  Titus  (v.  42);  and  his 
descriptions  are  not  unworthy  of  the  reader's  perusal.  According  to  the  modern 
prices,  the  Abbe  Barthelemy  computes  that  the  brickwork  and  masonry  of  the 
Coliseum  would  now  cost  twenty  millions  of  French  livres  (Mem  de  1' Academic 
des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxviii.  p.  585,  586).  How  small  a  part  of  that  stupendous 
fabric ! 

64  For  the  aqueducts  and  cloaca?,  see  Strabo  (1.  v.  p.  360  [p.  235,  edit.  Casaub.]), 
Pliny  (Hist.  Nat.  xxxvi.  24  [§  3]),  Cassiodorus  (Var.  iii.  30, 31 ;  vi.  6),  Procopius 
(Goth.  1.  i.  c.  19),  and  Nardini  (Roma  Antica,  p.  514-522).  How  such  works 
could  be  executed  by  a  king  of  Rome  is  yet  a  problem.* 

65  For  the  Gothic  care  of  the  buildings  and  statues,  see  Cassiodorus  (Var.  i.  21, 
25 ;  ii.  34 ;  iv.  30  ;  vii.  6, 13, 15),  and  the  Valesian  Fragment  (p.  721  [Amm.  torn, 
ii.  p.  310,  edit.  Bip.]). 

66  Var.  vii.  15.  These  horses  of  Monte  Cavallo  had  been  transported  from  Al- 
exandria to  the  baths  of  Constantine  (Nardini,  p.  188).     Their  sculpture  is  dis- 


*  See  Niebuhr,  vol.  i.  p.  402.  These  stupendous  works  are  among  the  most 
striking  confirmations  of  Niebuhr's  views  of  the  early  Roman  history ;  at  least 
they  appear  to  justify  his  strong  sentence:  "These  works  and  the  building  of 
the  Capitol  attest  with  unquestionable  evidence  that  the  Rome  of  the  later  kings 
was  the  chief  city  of  a  great  state." — Page  410. — M. 


126  FLOURISHING  STATE  OF  ITALY.         [Ch.  XXXIX. 

phants  of  the  Via  sacra  were  diligently  restored,-87  the  fa* 
mous  heifer  of  Myron  deceived  the  cattle,  as  they  were  driven 
through  the  forum  of  peace  ;68  and  an  officer  was  created  to 
protect  those  works  of  art,  which  Theodoric  considered  as  the 
noblest  ornament  of  his  kingdom. 

After  the  example  cf  the  last  emperors,  Theodoric  pre- 
ferred the  residence  of  Kavenna,  where  he  cultivated  an  or- 
Fiourishing  chard  with  his  own  hands.69  As  often  as  the  peace 
state  of  itaiy.  0£  j^g  kingdom  was  threatened  (for  it  was  never 
invaded)  by  the  barbarians,  he  removed  his  court  to  Verona," 
on  the  northern  frontier,  and  the  image  of  his  palace,  still  ex- 
tant on  a  coin,  represents  the  oldest  and  most  authentic  model 
of  Gothic  architecture.  These  two  capitals,  as  well  as  Pavia. 
Spoleto,  Naples,  and  the  rest  of  the  Italian  cities,  acquired  un- 
der his  reign  the  useful  or  splendid  decorations  of  churches, 
aqueducts,  baths,  porticoes,  and  palaces."     But  the  happiness 

dained  by  the  Abbe'  Dubos  (Reflexions  sur  la  Poesie  et  sur  la  Peinture,  torn.  i. 
eection  39),  and  admired  by  Winckelman  (Hist,  de  l'Art,  torn.  ii.  p.  159). 

61  Var.  x.  30.  They  were  probably  a  fragment  of  some  triumphal  car  (Cuper 
de  Elephautis,  ii.  10). 

68  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  21  [torn.  ii.  p.  571,  edit.  Bonn])  relates  a  foolish 
story  of  Myron's  cow,  which  is  celebrated  by  the  false  wit  of  thirty-six  Greek  epi- 
grams (Antholog.  1.  iv.  p.  302-306,  edit.  Hen.  Steph.  ;  Auson.  Epigram,  lviii.- 
lxviii.). 

69  See  an  epigram  of  Ennodius  (ii.  3,  p.  1893, 1894)  on  this  garden  and  the 
royal  gardener. 

70  His  affection  for  that  city  is  proved  by  the  epithet  of  "Verona  tua,"  and  the 
legend  of  the  hero ;  under  the  barbarous  name  of  Dietrich  of  Bern  (Peringsciold 
ad  Cochlceum,  p.  240),  Maffei  traces  him  with  knowledge  and  pleasure  in  his  na- 
tive country  (1.  ix.  p.  230-236). 

11  See  Maffei  (Verona  Illustrata,  part  i.  p.  231,  232,  308,  etc.).  He  imputes 
Gothic  architecture,  like  the  corruption  of  language,  writing,  etc.,  not  to  the  bar- 
barians, but  to  the  Italians  themselves.  Compare  his  sentiments  with  those  of 
Tiraboschi  (torn.  iii.  p.  61).a 


■  Mr.  Hallam  (vol.  iii.  p.  432)  observes  that  "  the  image  of  Theodoric's  palace" 
Is  represented  in  Maffei,  not  from  a  coin,  but  from  a  seal.  Compare  D'Agincourt 
(Storia  dell'  Arte,  Italian  Transl.,  Architettura,  Plate  xvii.  No.  2,  and  Pittura, 
Plate  xvi.  No.  15),  where  there  is  likewise  an  engraving  from  a  mosaic  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Apollinaris  in  Ravenna,  representing  a  building  ascribed  to  Theod- 
oric in  that  city.  Neither  of  these,  as  Mr.  Hallam  justly  observes,  in  the  least 
approximates  to  what  is  called  the  Gothic  style.  They  are  evidently  the  degen- 
erate Roman  architecture,  and  more  resemble  the  early  attempts  of  our  architects 
to  get  back  from  our  national  Gothic  into  a  classical  Greek  style.     One  of  them 


AJ>.500.]  FLOURISHING  STATE  OF  ITALY.  127 

of  the  subject  was  more  truly  conspicuous  in  the  busy  scene 
of  labor  and  luxury,  in  the  rapid  increase  and  bold  enjoyment 
of  national  wealth.  From  the  shades  of  Tibur  and  Prsencste, 
the  Eoraan  senators  still  retired  in  the  winter  season  to  the 
warm  sun  and  salubrious  springs  of  Baiae ;  and  their  villas, 
which  advanced  on  solid  moles  into  the  Bay  of  Naples,  com- 
manded the  various  prospect  of  the  sky,  the  earth,  and  the 
water.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Adriatic  a  new  Campania 
was  formed  in  the  fair  and  fruitful  province  of  Istria,  which 
communicated  with  the  palace  of  Ravenna  by  an  easy  navi- 
gation of  one  hundred  miles.  The  rich  productions  of  Luca- 
nia  and  the  adjacent  provinces  were  exchanged  at  the  Mar- 
cilian  fountain,  in  a  populous  fair  annually  dedicated  to  trade, 
intemperance,  and  superstition.  In  the  solitude  of  Comum, 
which  had  once  been  animated  by  the  mild  genius  of  Pliny, 
a  transparent  basin  above  sixty  miles  in  length  still  reflected 
the  rural  seats  which  encompassed  the  margin  of  the  Larian 
lake;  and  the  gradual  ascent  of  the  hills  was  covered  by  a 
triple  plantation  of  olives,  of  vines,  and  of  chestnut -trees.'9 
Agriculture  revived  under  the  shadow  of  peace,  and  the  num- 
ber of  husbandmen  was  multiplied  by  the  redemption  of  cap- 
tives.73 The  iron  -  mines  of  Dalmatia,  a  gold  -  mine  in  Brut- 
tium,  were  carefully  explored,  and  the  Pomptine  marshes,  as 
well  as  those  of  Spoleto,  were  drained  and  cultivated  by  pri- 
vate undertakers,  whose  distant  reward  must  depend  on  the 
continuance  of  the  public  prosperity.74     Whenever  the  sea- 

12  The  villas,  climate,  and  landscape  of  Baiae  (Var.  ix.  6 ;  see  Cluver.  Italia 
Antiq.  1.  iv.  c.  2,  p.  1119,  etc.),  Istria  (Var.  xii.  22,  26),  and  Comum  (Var.  xi.  14, 
compare  with  Pliny's  two  villas,  ix.  7),  are  agreeably  painted  in  the  epistles  of 
Cassiodorus. 

,3  In  Liguria  numerosa  agricolarum  progenies  (Ennodius,  p.  1678,  1679,  1680). 
St.  Epiphanius  of  Pavia  redeemed  by  prayer  or  ransom  6000  captives  from  the 
Burgundians  of  Lyons  and  Savoy.     Such  deeds  are  the  best  of  miracles. 

74  The  political  economy  of  Theodoric  (see  Anonym.  Vales,  p.  721  [Amm.  torn, 
ii.  p.  311,  edit.  Bip.]  and  Cassiodorus,  in  Chron.)  may  be  distinctly  traced  under 
the  following  heads:  iron -mine  (Var.  iii.  25);  gold-mine  (ix.  3) ;  Pomptine 
marshes  (ii.  32,  33) ;  Spoleto  (ii.  21) ;  corn  (i.  34 ;  x.  27,  28 ;  xi.  11,  12) ;  trade 


calls  to  mind  Inigo   Jones's   inner   quadrangle  in    St.  John's  College,  Oxford, 
Compare  Hallam  and  D'Agincourt,  vol.  i.  p.  140-145. — M. 


128  THEODOEIC  AN  ARIAH.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

eons  were  less  propitious,  the  doubtful  precautions  of  forming 
magazines  of  corn,  fixing  the  price,  and  prohibiting  the  ex- 
portation, attested  at  least  the  benevolence  of  the  State ;  but 
such  was  the  extraordinary  plenty  which  an  industrious  peo- 
ple produced  from  a  grateful  soil,  that  a  gallon  of  wine  was 
sometimes  sold  in  Italy  for  less  than  three  farthings,  and  a 
quarter  of  wheat  at  about  five  shillings  and  sixpence."  A 
country  possessed  of  so  many  valuable  objects  of  exchange 
soon  attracted  the  merchants  of  the  world,  whose  beneficial 
traffic  was  encouraged  and  protected  by  the  liberal  spirit  of 
Theodoric.  The  free  intercourse  of  the  provinces  by  land 
and  water  was  restored  and  extended;  the  city  gates  were 
never  shut  either  by  day  or  by  night ;  and  the  common  say- 
ing, that  a  purse  of  gold  might  be  safely  left  in  the  fields,  was 
expressive  of  the  conscious  security  of  the  inhabitants. 

A  difference  of  religion  is  always  pernicious  and  often 
fatal  to  the  harmony  of  the  prince  and  people:  the  Gothic 
Theodoric  conqueror  had  been  educated  in  the  profession  of 
anArian.  Arianism,  and  Italy  was  devoutly  attached  to  the 
Nicene  faith.  But  the  persuasion  of  Theodoric  was  not  in- 
fected by  zeal :  and  he  piously  adhered  to  the  heresy  of  his 
fathers,  without  condescending  to  balance  the  subtile  argu- 
ments of  theological  metaphysics.  Satisfied  with  the  private 
toleration  of  his  Arian  sectaries,  he  justly  conceived  him- 
self to  be  the  guardian  of  the  public  worship,  and  his  ex- 
ternal reverence  for  a  superstition  which  he  despised  may 
have  nourished  in  his  mind  the  salutary  indifference  of  a 
statesman  or  philosopher.     The  Catholics  of  his  dominions 


(vi.  7 ;  vii.  9,  23) ;  fair  of  Leucothoe  or  St.  Cyprian  in  Lucania  (viii.  33) ;  plenty 
(xii.  4) ;  the  cursus,  or  public  post  (i.  29  ;  ii.  31 ;  iv.  47 ;  v.  5 ;  vi.  6 ;  vii.  33) ; 
the  Flaminian  way  (xii.  18).a 

76  LX  modii  tritici  in  solidum  ipsius  tempore  fuerunt,  et  vinum  xxx  amphoras 
in  solidum  (Fragment.  Vales,  [p.  311,  edit.  Bip.j).  Corn  was  distributed  from 
the  granaries  at  fifteen  or  twenty -five  modii  for  a  piece  of  gold,  and  the  price 
was  still  moderate. 


*  The  inscription  commemorative  of  the  draining  the  Pomptine  marshes  may 
be  found  in  many  works  :  in  Gruter  Inscript.  Ant.  Heidelberg,  p.  152,  No.  8  ;  with 
variations,  in  Nicolai  De'  Bonificamenti  delle  Terre  Pontine,  p.  103  ;  in  Sartorius, 
in  his  prize  essay  on  the  reign  of  Theodoric ;  and  Manso,  Beylage,  xi. — M. 


A.D.500.]  HIS  TOLEKATION  OF  THE  CATHOLICS.  129 

acknowledged,  perhaps  with  reluctance,  the  peace  of  the 
Church ;  their  clergy,  according  to  the  degrees  of 
tion  ofthe  rank  or  merit,  were  honorably  entertained  in  the 
palace  of  Theodoric ;  he  esteemed  the  living  sanctity 
of  Csesarius78  and  Epiphanius,77  the  orthodox  bishops  of  Aries 
and  Pa  via;  and  presented  a  decent  offering  on  the  tomb  of 
St.  Peter,  without  any  scrupulous  inquiry  into  the  creed  of 
the  apostle.78  His  favorite  Goths,  and  even  his  mother,  were 
permitted  to  retain  or  embrace  the  Athanasian  faith,  and  his 
long  reign  could  not  afford  the  example  of  an  Italian  Catho- 
lic who,  either  from  choice  or  compulsion,  had  deviated  into 
the  religion  of  the  conqueror.79  The  people,  and  the  barba- 
rians themselves,  were  edified  by  the  pomp  and  order  of  re- 
ligious worship;  the  magistrates  were  instructed  to  defend 
the  just  immunities  of  ecclesiastical  persons  and  possessions ; 
the  bishops  held  their  synods,  the  metropolitans  exercised 
their  jurisdiction,  and  the  privileges  of  sanctuary  were  main- 
tained or  moderated  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  Roman 
jurisprudence.80    With  the  protection,  Theodoric  assumed  the 

,6  See  the  Life  of  St.  Caesarius  in  Baronius  (a.d.  508,  No.  12, 13,  14).  The 
king  presented  him  with  300  gold  solidi,  and  a  discus  of  silver  of  the  weight  of 
sixty  pounds. 

™  Ennodius  in  Vit.  St.  Epiphanii,  in  Sirmond  Op.  torn.  i.  p.  1672-1690.  The- 
odoric bestowed  some  important  favors  on  this  bishop,  whom  he  used  as  a  coun- 
sellor in  peace  and  war. 

18  Devotissimus  ac  si  Catholicus  (Anonym.  Vales,  p.  720  [p.  S10,  edit.  Bip.]) ; 
yet  his  offering  was  no  more  than  two  silver  candlesticks  (cerostratd)  of  the  weight 
of  seventy  pounds,  far  inferior  to  the  gold  and  gems  of  Constantinople  and  Franc© 
(Anastasius  in  Vit.  Pont,  in  Hormisda,  p.  34,  edit.  Paris  [torn.  i.  p.  93,  edit, 
Horn.  1718]). 

19  The  tolerating  system  of  his  reign  (Ennodius,  p.  1612,  Anonym.  Vales,  p.  719 
[p.  308,  edit.  Bip.  J,  Procop.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  1 ;  1.  ii.  c.  6)  may  be  studied  in  the  Epis- 
tles of  Cassiodorus,  under  the  following  heads :  bishops  (Var.  i.  9  ;  viii.  1 5,  24 ;  xi. 
23) ;  immunities  (i.  26  ;  ii.  29,  30) ;  Church  lands  (iv.  17,  20) ;  sanctuaries  (ii.  11 ; 
iii.  47) ;  Church  plate  (xii.  20)  ;  discipline  (iv.  44) ;  which  prove  at  the  same  tim«? 
that  he  was  the  head  of  the  Church  as  well  as  of  the  State.* 

80  We  may  reject  a  foolish  tale  of  his  beheading  a  Catholic  deacon  who  tamed 
Arian  (Theodor.  Lector.  No.  17).  Why  is  Theodoric  surnamed  A/erf  From 
Vqfer?  (Vales,  ad  loc).     A  light  conjecture. 


*  He  recommended  the  same  toleration  to  the  Emperor  Justin.— M. 


130  VICES  OF  THE  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

legal  supremacy,  of  the  Church ;  and  his  firm  administration 
restored  or  extended  some  useful  prerogatives  which  had 
been  neglected  by  the  feeble  emperors  of  the  "West.  He  was 
not  ignorant  of  the  dignity  and  importance  of  the  Roman 
pontiff,  to  whom  the  venerable  name  of  pope  was  now  appro- 
priated. The  peace  or  the  revolt  of  Italy  might  depend  on 
the  character  of  a  wealthy  and  popular  bishop,  who  claimed 
such  ample  dominion  both  in  heaven  and  earth  ;  who  had 
been  declared  in  a  numerous  synod  to  be  pure  from  all  sin 
and  exempt  from  all  judgment.81  When  the  chair  of  St.  Pe- 
ter was  disputed  by  Symmachus  and  Laurence,  they  appeared 
to  his  summons  before  the  tribunal  of  an  Arian  monarch,  and 
he  confirmed  the  election  of  the  most  worthy  or  the  most  ob- 
sequious candidate.  At  the  end  of  his  life,  in  a  moment  of 
jealousy  and  resentment,  he  prevented  the  choice  of  the  Ro- 
mans, by  nominating  a  pope  in  the  palace  of  Ravenna.  The 
danger  and  furious  contests  of  a  schism  were  mildly  restrain- 
ed, and  the  last  decree  of  the  senate  was  enacted  to  extin- 
guish, if  it  were  possible,  the  scandalous  venality  of  the  papal 
elections.82 

I  have  descanted  with  pleasure  on  the  fortunate  condition 
of  Italy,  but  our  fancy  must  not  hastily  conceive  that  the 
vices  of  his  golden  age  of  the  poets,  a  race  of  men  without 
government.  vjce  or  misery?  was  realized  under  the  Gothic  con- 
quest. The  fair  prospect  was  sometimes  overcast  with  clouds; 
the  wisdom  of  Theodoric  might  be  deceived,  his  power  might 
be  resisted,  and  the  declining  age  of  the  monarch  was  sullied 
with  popular  hatred  and  Patrician  blood.  In  the  first  inso- 
lence of  victory  he  had  been  tempted  to  deprive  the  whole 
party  of  Odoacer  of  the  civil  and  even  the  natural  rights  of 
society  ;8S  a  tax,  unseasonably  imposed  after  the  calamities  of 

81  Ennodius,  p.  1621, 1622,  1636,  1638.  His  libel  was  approved  and  registered 
(synodaliter)  by  a  Roman  council  (Baronius,  a.d.  503,  No.  6.  Franciscus  Pagi 
in  Breviar.  Pont.  Rom.  torn.  i.  p.  242). 

82  See  Cassiodorus  (Var.  viii.  15 ;  ix.  15, 16),  Anastasius  (in  Symmacho,  p.  31 
[p.  84,  edit.  Rom.]),  and  the  seventeenth  Annotation  of  Mascou.  Baronius,  Pagi, 
and  most  of  the  Catholic  doctors,  confess,  with  an  angry  growl,  this  Gothic  usur- 
pation. 

83  He  disabled  them — a  licentia  testandi;  and  all  Italy  mourned — lamentabili 


A.D.  500.]  GOVERNMENT  OF  THEODORIC.  131 

war,  would  have  crushed  the  rising  agriculture  of  Liguria ;  a 
rigid  pre-emption  of  corn,  which  was  intended  for  the  publio 
relief,  must  have  aggravated  the  distress  of  Campania.  These 
dangerous  projects  were  defeated  by  the  virtue  and  eloquence 
of  Epiphanius  and  Boethius,  who,  in  the  presence  of  Theod- 
oric  himself,  successfully  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  people  :M 
but,  if  the  royal  ear  was  open  to  the  voice  of  truth,  a  saint 
and  a  philosopher  are  not  always  to  be  found  at  the  ear  of 
kings.  The  privileges  of  rank,  or  office,  or  favor  were  too 
frequently  abused  by  Italian  fraud  and  Gothic  violence,  and 
the  avarice  of  the  king's  nephew  was  publicly  exposed,  at 
first  by  the  usurpation,  and  afterwards  by  the  restitution,  of 
the  estates  which  he  had  unjustly  extorted  from  his  Tuscan 
neighbors.  Two  hundred  thousand  barbarians,  formidable 
even  to  their  master,  were  seated  in  the  heart  of  Italy ;  they 
indignantly  supported  the  restraints  of  peace  and  discipline ; 
the  disorders  of  their  march  were  always  felt  and  sometimes 
compensated ;  and  where  it  was  dangerous  to  punish,  it  might 
be  prudent  to  dissemble,  the  sallies  of  their  native  fierceness. 
When  the  indulgence  of  Theodoric  had  remitted  two  thirds 
of  the  Ligurian  tribute,  he  condescended  to  explain  the  diffi- 
culties of  his  situation,  and  to  lament  the  heavy  though  in- 
evitable burdens  which  he  imposed  on  his  subjects  for  their 
own  defence.86  These  ungrateful  subjects  could  never  be 
cordially  reconciled  to  the  origin,  the  religion,  or  even  the 
virtues  of  the  Gothic  conqueror ;  past  calamities  were  forgot- 
ten, and  the  sense  or  suspicion  of  injuries  was  rendered  still 
more  exquisite  by  the  present  felicity  of  the  times. 

Even  the  religious  toleration  which  Theodoric  had  the 

justitio.  I  wish  to  believe  that  these  penalties  were  enacted  against  the  rebels 
who  had  violated  their  oath  of  allegiance ;  but  the  testimony  of  Ennodius  (p. 
1675-1678)  is  the  more  weighty,  as  he  lived  and  died  under  the  reign  of  The- 
odoric. 

84  Ennodius,  in  Vit.  Epipban.  p.  1689,  1690.  Boethius  de  Consolatione  Philo- 
sophise, 1.  i.  pros.  iv.  p.  45, 46,  47  [edit.  Callyus,  Par.  1680].  Respect,  but  weigh, 
the  passions  of  the  saint  and  the  senator,  and  fortify  or  alleviate  their  com- 
plaints by  the  various  hints  of  Cassiodorus  (ii.  8  ;  iv.  36  ;  viii.  5). 

85  Immanium  expensarum  pondus  *  *  *  pro  ipsorum  salute,  etc. ;  yet  these 
are  no  more  than  words. 


132  THEODORIC  PROVOKED  CCH.XXXI2. 

glory  of  introducing  into  the  Christian  world  was  painful 
He  is  pro-  an(i  offensive  to  the  orthodox  zeal  of  the  Italians, 
pereecute  They  respected  the  armed  heresy  of  the  Goths; 
the  catholics,  ^u^  ^{j.  pious  rage  was  safely  pointed  against  the 
rich  and  defenceless  Jews,  who  had  formed  their  establish- 
ments at  Naples,  Rome,  Ravenna,  Milan,  and  Genoa,  for  the 
benefit  of  trade,  and  under  the  sanction  of  the  laws.88  Their 
persons  were  insulted,  their  effects  were  pillaged,  and  their 
synagogues  were  burned  by  the  mad  populace  of  Ravenna 
and  Rome,  inflamed,  as  it  should  seem,  by  the  most  frivolous 
or  extravagant  pretences.  The  government  which  could  neg- 
lect, would  have  deserved  such  an  outrage.  A  legal  inquiry 
was  instantly  directed ;  and,  as  the  authors  of  the  tumult  had 
escaped  in  the  crowd,  the  whole  community  was  condemned 
to  repair  the  damage,  and  the  obstinate  bigots,  who  refused 
their  contributions,  were  whipped  through  the  streets  by  the 
hand  of  the  executioner.3  This  simple  act  of  justice  exas- 
perated the  discontent  of  the  Catholics,  who  applauded  the 
merit  and  patience  of  these  holy  confessors.  Three  hundred 
pulpits  deplored  the  persecution  of  the  Church ;  and  if  the 
chapel  of  St.  Stephen  at  Verona  was  demolished  by  the  com- 
mand of  Theodoric,  it  is  probable  that  some  miracle  hostile 
to  his  name  and  dignity  had  been  performed  on  that  sacred 
theatre.  At  the  close  of  a  glorious  life,  the  King  of  Italy 
discovered  that  he  had  excited  the  hatred  of  a  people  whose 
happiness  he  had  so  assiduously  labored  to  promote ;  and  his 
mind  was  soured  by  indignation,  jealousy,  and  the  bitterness 
of  unrequited  love.  The  Gothic  conqueror  condescended  to 
disarm  the  unwarlike  natives  of  Italy,  interdicting  all  weap- 
ons of  offence,  and  excepting  only  a  small  knife  for  domestic 
use.  The  deliverer  of  Rome  was  accused  of  conspiring  with 
the  vilest  informers  against  the  lives  of  senators  whom  he 
suspected  of  a  secret  and  treasonable  correspondence  with  the 

86  The  Jews  were  settled  at  Naples  (Procopius,  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  8  [torn.  ii.  p.  44, 
edit.  Bonn]),  at  Genoa  (Var.  ii.  27 ;  iv.  33),  Milan  (v.  37),  Rome  (iv.  43).  See  like- 
wise Basnage,  Hist,  des  Juifs,  torn.  viii.  c.  7,  p.  254. 


See  History  of  the  Jews,  vol.  iii.  p.  217. — M. 


A.D.  500.]  TO  PERSECUTE  THE  CATHOLICS.  133 

Byzantine  court.87  After  the  death  of  Anastasius,  the  diadem 
had  been  placed  on  the  head  of  a  feeble  old  man,  but  the 
powers  of  government  were  assumed  by  his  nephew  Justin- 
ian, who  already  meditated  the  extirpation  of  heresy  and  the 
conquest  of  Italy  and  Africa.  A  rigorous  law,  which  was 
published  at  Constantinople,  to  reduce  the  Arians,  by  the 
dread  of  punishment,  within  the  pale  of  the  Church,  awa- 
kened the  just  resentment  of  Theodoric,  who  claimed  for  his 
distressed  brethren  of  the  East  the  same  indulgence  which  he 
had  so  long  granted  to  the  Catholics  of  his  dominions.11  At 
his  stern  command  the  Roman  pontiff,  with  four  illustrious 
senators,  embarked  on  an  embassy  of  which  he  must  have 
alike  dreaded  the  failure  or  the  success.  The  singular  vener- 
ation shown  to  the  first  pope  who  had  visited  Constantinople 
was  punished  as  a  crime  by  his  jealous  monarch ;  the  artful 
or  peremptory  refusal  of  the  Byzantine  court  might  excuse 
an  equal,  and  would  provoke  a  larger,  measure  of  retaliation ; 
and  a  mandate  was  prepared  in  Italy  to  prohibit,  after  a  stated 
day,  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  worship.  By  the  bigotry  of 
his  subjects  and  enemies  the  most  tolerant  of  princes  was 
driven  to  the  brink  of  persecution,  and  the  life  of  Theodoric 
was  too  long,  since  he  lived  to  condemn  the  virtue  of  Boe- 
thius  and  Symmachus.88 

87  Rex  avidus  communis  exitii,  etc.  (Boethius,  1.  i.  p.  55) :  rex  dolum  Ro- 
manis  tendebat  (Anonym.  Vales,  p.  723).  These  are  hard  words :  they  speak  the 
passions  of  the  Italians,  and  those  (I  fear)  of  Theodoric  himself. 

88  I  have  labored  to  extract  a  rational  narrative  from  the  dark,  concise,  and  va- 
rious hints  of  the  Valesian  Fragment  (p.  722,  723,  724  [p.  313  seq.  edit.  Bip.]), 
Theophanes  (p.  145  [torn.  i.  p.  261,  edit.  Bonn]),  Anastasius  (in  Johanne,  p.  35 
[p.  94,  edit.  Rom.]),  and  the  Hist.  Miscella  (p.  103,  edit.  Muratori  [Milan,  1723]). 
A  gentle  pressure  and  paraphrase  of  their  words  is  no  violence.  Consult  likewise 
Muratori  (Annali  d'ltalia,  torn.  iv.  p.  471-478),  with  the  Annals  and  Breviary 
(torn.  i.  p.  259-263)  of  the  two  Pagis,  the  uncle  and  the  nephew. 


*  Gibbon  should  not  have  omitted  the  golden  words  of  Theodoric  in  a  letter 
which  he  addressed  to  Justin  :  That  to  pretend  to  a  dominion  over  the  conscience 
is  to  usurp  the  prerogative  of  God  ;  that  by  the  nature  of  things  the  power  of  sov- 
ereigns is  confined  to  external  government;  that  they  have  no  right  of  punish- 
ment but  over  those  who  disturb  the  public  peace,  of  which  they  are  the  guardi- 
ans ;  that  the  most  dangerous  heresy  is  that  of  a  sovereign  who  separates  from 
himself  a  part  of  his  subjects,  because  they  believe  not  according  to  his  beliefi 
Compare  Le  Beau,  vol.  viii.  p.  68. — M. 


134  CHARACTER  STUDIES,  AND  HONORS     [Ch.  XXXIX. 

The  senator  Boetliius89  is  the  last  of  the  Romans  whom 
Cato  or  Tully  could  have  acknowledged  for  their  country- 
character  man.  As  a  wealthy  orphan,  he  inherited  the  pat- 
Cuors'of"d  I'imony  and  honors  of  the  Anician  family,  a  name 
Boetiiius.  ambitiously  assumed  by  the  kings  and  emperors  of 
the  age,  and  the  appellation  of  Manlius  asserted  his  genuine 
or  fabulous  descent  from  a  race  of  consuls  and  dictators  who 
had  repulsed  the  Gauls  from  the  Capitol,  and  sacrificed  their 
sons  to  the  discipline  of  the  republic.  In  the  youth  of  Boe- 
tliius the  studies  of  Rome  were  not  totally  abandoned ;  a  Vir- 
gil90 is  now  extant,  corrected  by  the  hand  of  a  consul ;  and 
the  professors  of  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  jurisprudence  were 
maintained  in  their  privileges  and  pensions  by  the  liberality 
of  the  Goths.  But  the  erudition  of  the  Latin  language  was 
insufficient  to  satiate  his  ardent  curiosity;  and  Boethius  is 
said  to  have  employed  eighteen  laborious  years  in  the  schools 
of  Athens,91  which  were  supported  by  the  zeal,  the  learning, 
and  the  diligence  of  Proclus  and  his  disciples.  The  reason 
and  piety  of  their  Roman  pupil  were  fortunately  saved  from 
the  contagion  of  mystery  and  magic  which  polluted  the 
groves  of  the  Academy ;  but  he  imbibed  the  spirit,  and  im- 

89  Le  Clerc  has  composed  a  critical  and  philosophical  Life  of  Anicius  Manlius 
Severinus  Boetius  (Bibliot.  Choisie,  torn.  xvi.  p.  168-275);  and  both  Tiraboschi 
(torn,  iii.)  and  Fabricius  (Bibliot.  Latin.)  may  be  usefully  consulted.  The  date 
of  his  birth  may  be  placed  about  the  year  470,  and  his  death  in  52-1,  in  a  prema- 
ture old  age  (Consol.  Phil.  Metrica,  i.  p.  5). 

90  For  the  age  and  value  of  this  MS.,  now  in  the  Medicean  library  at  Florence, 
see  the  Cenotaphia  Pisana  (p.  430-447)  of  Cardinal  Noris. 

91  The  Athenian  studies  of  Boethius  are  doubtful  (Baronius,  a.d.  510,  No.  3, 
from  a  spurious  tract,  De  Disciplina  Scholarum),  and  the  term  of  eighteen  years 
is  doubtless  too  long:  but  the  simple  fact  of  a  visit  to  Athens  is  justified  by  much 
internal  evidence  (Brucker,  Hist.  Crit.  Philosoph.  torn.  iii.  p.  524-527),  and  by  an 
expression  (though  vague  and  ambiguous)  of  his  friend  Cassiodorus  (Var.  i.  45), 
"Longe  positas  Athenas  introisti."a 


a  The  only  authority  for  Boethius  having  spent  eighteen  years  in  the  schools  of 
Athens  is  the  tract  De  Disciplina  Scholarum,  which  Gibbon  correctly  designates 
as  spurious.  The  passage  of  Cassiodorus  is  misquoted  by  Gibbon.  It  rather 
makes  against  Boethius  having  visited  Athens:  "Sic  enim  Atheniensium  scholas 
(not  Athenas)  longe  posi^ws  (not  positas)  introisti;  sic  palliatorum  choris  mis- 
cuisti  to  gam,  ut  Grsecorum  dogmata  doctrinam  feceris  esse  Romnnam."  The 
whole  passage  is  figurative,  and  seems  to  mean  that  Boethius.  though  living  at  a 
great  distance,  had  succeeded  in  converting  Grecian  learning  to  Roman  uses.— & 


a.d.  GOO.]  OF  BOETHIUS.  135 

itated  the  method,  of  his  dead  and  living  masters,  who  at- 
tempted to  reconcile  the  strong  and  subtle  sense  of  Aristotle 
with  the  devout  contemplation  and  sublime  fancy  of  Plato. 
After  }iis  return  to  Rome,  and  his  marriage  with  the  daugh- 
ter of  his  friend  the  Patrician  Symmachus,  Boethius  still  con- 
tinued, in  a  palace  of  ivory  and  marble,  to  prosecute  the  same 
studies.92  The  Church  was  edified  by  his  profound  defence 
of  the  orthodox  creed  against  the  Arian,  the  Eutychian,  and 
the  Nestorian  heresies;  and  the  Catholic  unity  was  explained 
or  exposed  in  a  formal  treatise  by  the  indifference  of  three 
distinct  though  consubstantial  persons.  For  the  benefit  of 
his  Latin  readers,  his  genius  submitted  to  teach  the  first  ele- 
ments of  the  arts  and  sciences  of  Greece.  The  geometry  of 
Euclid,  the  music  of  Pythagoras,  the  arithmetic  of  Nicoma- 
chus,  the  mechanics  of  Archimedes,  the  astronomy  of  Ptol- 
emy, the  theology  of  Plato,  and  the  logic  of  Aristotle,  with 
the  commentary  of  Porphyry,  were  translated  and  illustrated 
by  the  indefatigable  pen  of  the  Roman  senator.  And  he 
alone  was  esteemed  capable  of  describing  the  wonders  of  art, 
a  sundial,  a  water-clock,  or  a  sphere  which  represented  the 
motions  of  the  planets.  From  these  abstruse  speculations 
Boethius  stooped — or,  to  speak  more  truly,  he  rose — to  the 
social  duties  of  public  and  private  life ;  the  indigent  were 
relieved  by  his  liberality,  and  his  eloquence,  which  flattery 
might  compare  to  the  voice  of  Demosthenes  or  Cicero,  was 
uniformly  exerted  in  the  cause  of  innocence  and  humanity. 
Such  conspicuous  merit  was  felt  and  rewarded  by  a  discern- 
ing prince:  the  dignity  of  Boethius  was  adorned  with  the 
titles  of  consul  and  patrician,  and  his  talents  were  usefully 
employed  in  the  important  station  of  master  of  the  offices. 

92  Bibliothecae  comptos  ebore  ac  vitro*  parietes,  etc.  (Consol.  Phil.  1.  i.  pros.  v. 
p.  74).  The  Epistles  of  Ennodius  (vi.  6 ;  vii.  13  ;  viii.  1,31,37,  40)  and  Cassiodo- 
rus  (Var.  i.  39  ;  iv.  6 ;  ix.  21)  afford  many  proofs  of  the  high  reputation  which  he 
enjoyed  in  his  own  times.  It  is  true  that  the  Bishop  of  Pavia  wanted  to  pur- 
chase of  him  an  old  house  at  Milan,  and  praise  might  be  tendered  and  accepted 
in  part  of  payment. 

a  Gibbon  translated  vitro,  marble ;  under  the  impression,  no  doubt,  that  glass 
was  unknown. — M. 


136  PATRIOTISM  OF  BOETHIUS  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

Notwithstanding  the  equal  claims  of  the  East  and  West,  hia 
two  sons  were  created,  in  their  tender  youth,  the  consuls  of 
the  same  year.93  Oq  the  memorable  day  of  their  inaugura- 
tion they  proceeded  in  solemn  pomp  from  their  palace  to  the 
forum  amidst  the  applause  of  the  senate  and  people;  and 
their  joyful  father,  the  true  consul  of  Rome,  after  pronounc- 
ing an  oration  in  the  praise  of  his  royal  benefactor,  distrib- 
uted a  triumphal  largess  in  the  games  of  the  circus.  Pros- 
perous in  his  fame  and  fortunes,  in  his  public  honors  and  pri- 
vate alliances,  in  the  cultivation  of  science  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  virtue,  Boethius  might  have  been  styled  happy,  if 
that  precarious  epithet  could  be  safely  applied  before  the  last 
term  of  the  life  of  man. 

A  philosopher,  liberal  of  his  wealth  and  parsimonious  of 
his  time,  might  be  insensible  to  the  common  allurements  of 
Hiepatri-  ambition,  the  thirst  of  gold  and  employment.  And 
otism.  some  credit  may  be  due  to  the  asseveration  of  Boe- 

thius, that  he  had  reluctantly  obeyed  the  divine  Plato,  who 
enjoins  every  virtuous  citizen  to  rescue  the  State  from  the 
usurpation  of  vice  and  ignorance.  For  the  integrity  of  his 
public  conduct  he  appeals  to  the  memory  of  his  country.  His 
authority  had  restrained  the  pride  and  oppression  of  the  royal 
officers,  and  his  eloquence  had  delivered  Paulianus  from  the 
dogs  of  the  palace.  He  had  always  pitied,  and  often  relieved, 
the  distress  of  the  provincials,  whose  fortunes  were  exhausted 
by  public  and  private  rapine ;  and  Boethius  alone  had  cour- 
age to  oppose  the  tyranny  of  the  barbarians,  elated  by  con- 
quest, excited  by  avarice,  and,  as  he  complains,  encouraged  by 
impunity.  In  these  honorable  contests  his  spirit  soared  above 
the  consideration  of  danger,  and  perhaps  of  prudence ;  and 
we  may  learn  from  the  example  of  Cato  that  a  character  of 
pure  and  inflexible  virtue  is  the  most  apt  to  be  misled  by  prej- 
udice, to  be  heated  by  enthusiasm,  and  to  confound  private 

93  Pagi,  Muratori,  etc.,  are  agreed  that  Boethius  himself  was  consul  in  the  year 
510,  his  two  sons  in  522,  and  in  487,  perhaps,  his  father.  A  desire  of  ascribing 
the  last  of  these  consulships  to  the  philosopher  had  perplexed  the  chronology  of 
his  life.  In  his  honors,  alliances,  children,  he  celebrates  his  own  felicity— his  past 
felicity  (p.  109, 110). 


a.d.500.]  ACCUSED  OF  TREASON.  137 

enmities  with  public  justice.  The  disciple  of  Plato  might 
exaggerate  the  infirmities  of  nature  and  the  imperfections  of 
society ;  and  the  mildest  form  of  a  Gothic  kingdom,  even  the 
weight  of  allegiance  and  gratitude,  must  be  insupportable  to 
the  free  spirit  of  a  Roman  patriot.  But  the  favor  and  fidel- 
ity of  Boethius  declined  in  just  proportion  with  the  public 
happiness,  and  an  unworthy  colleague  was  imposed  to  divide 
and  control  the  power  of  the  master  of  the  offices.  In  the 
last  gloomy  season  of  Theodoric  he  indignantly  felt  that  he 
was  a  slave ;  but  as  his  master  had  only  power  over  his  life, 
he  stood,  without  arms  and  without  fear,  against  the  face  of 
an  angry  barbarian,  who  had  been  provoked  to  believe  that 
the  safety  of  the  senate  was  incompatible  with  his  own.  The 
He  is  accused  senator  Albinus  was  accused  and  already  convicted 
of  treason.  on  ^q  presumption  of  hoping,  as  it  was  said,  the 
liberty  of  Rome.  "  If  Albinus  be  criminal,"  exclaimed  the 
orator,  "the  senate  and  myself  are  all  guilty  of  the  same 
crime.  If  we  are  innocent,  Albinus  is  equally  entitled  to  the 
protection  of  the  laws."  These  laws  might  not  have  punish- 
ed the  simple  and  barren  wish  of  an  unattainable  blessing; 
but  they  would  have  shown  less  indulgence  to  the  rash  con- 
fession of  Boethius,  that,  had  he  known  of  a  conspiracy,  the 
tyrant  never  should.94  The  advocate  of  Albinus  was  soon  in- 
volved in  the  danger  and  perhaps  the  guilt  of  his  client ;  their 
signature  (which  they  denied  as  a  forgery)  was  affixed  to  the 
original  address  inviting  the  emperor  to  deliver  Italy  from 
the  Goths ;  and  three  witnesses  of  honorable  rank,  perhaps 
of  infamous  reputation,  attested  the  treasonable  designs  of 
the  Roman  Patrician.95  Yet  his  innocence  must  be  presumed, 
since  he  was  deprived  by  Theodoric  of  the  means  of  justifica- 
tion, and  rigorously  confined  in  the  Tower  of  Pavia,  while  the 


94  Si  ego  scissem  tu  nescisses.  Boethius  adopts  this  answer  (1.  i.  pros.  4,  p.  53) 
of  Julius  Canus,  whose  philosophic  death  is  described  by  Seneca  (De  Tranquilli- 
tate  Animi,  c.  14). 

96  The  characters  of  his  two  delators,  Basilius  (Var.  ii.  10, 11 ;  iv.  22)  and  Opilio 
(v.  41,  viii.  16),  are  illustrated,  not  much  to  their  honor,  in  the  Epistles  of  Cassio- 
dorus,  which  likewise  mention  Decoratus  (v.  31),  the  worthless  colleague  of  Boe* 
thius  (1.  iii.  pros.  4,  p.  193). 


138  IMPKISONMENT  OF  BOETHIUS.  [Ch.  XXXTX. 

senate,  at  the  distance  of  five  hundred  miles,  pronounced  a 
sentence  of  confiscation  and  death  against  the  most  illustrious 
of  its  members.  At  the  command  of  the  barbarians,  the  oc- 
cult science  of  a  philosopher  was  stigmatized  with  the  names 
of  sacrilege  and  magic.911  A  devout  and  dutiful  attachment 
to  the  senate  was  condemned  as  criminal  by  the  trembling 
voices  of  the  senators  themselves ;  and  their  ingratitude  de- 
served the  wish  or  prediction  of  Boethius,  that,  after  him, 
none  should  be  found  guilty  of  the  same  offence.97 

While  Boethius,  oppressed  with  fetters,  expected  each  mo- 
ment the  sentence  or  the  stroke  of  death,  he  composed  in  the 
His  impris-  Tower  of  Pavia  the  Consolation  of  Philosophy — a 
a"d  death.  golden  volume  not  unworthy  of  the  leisure  of  Pla* 
a.d.524.  ^-0  or  Tully,  but  which  claims  incomparable  merit 
from  the  barbarism  of  the  times  and  the  situation  of  the  au- 
thor. The  celestial  guide  whom  he  had  so  long  invoked  at 
Rome  and  Athens  now  condescended  to  illumine  his  dungeon, 
to  revive  his  courage,  and  to  pour  into  his  wounds  her  saluta- 
ry balm.  She  taught  him  to  compare  his  long  prosperity  and 
his  recent  distress,  and  to  conceive  new  hopes  from  the  incon- 
stancy of  fortune.  Reason  had  informed  him  of  the  preca- 
rious condition  of  her  gifts;  experience  had  satisfied  him  of 
their  real  value  ;  he  had  enjoyed  them  without  guilt,  he  might 
resign  them  without  a  sigh,  and  calmly  disdain  the  impotent 
malice  of  his  enemies,  who  had  left  him  happiness,  since  they 
had  left  him  virtue.  From  the  earth  Boethius  ascended  to 
heaven  in  search  of  the  supreme  good  ;  explored  the  meta- 
physical labyrinth  of  chance  and  destiny,  of  prescience  and 
free-will,  of  time  and  eternity  ;  and  generously  attempted  to 
reconcile  the  perfect  attributes  of  the  Deity  with  the  appar- 

96  A  severe  inquiry  was  instituted  into  the  crime  of  magic  (Var.  iv.  22,  23 ;  ix. 
i8);  and  it  was  believed  that  many  necromancers  had  escaped  by  making  their 
jailers  mad  :  for  mad,  I  should  read  drunk. 

91  Boethius  had  composed  his  own  Apology  (p.  53),  perhaps  more  interesting 
than  his  Consolation.  We  must  be  content  with  the  general  view  of  his  honors, 
principles,  persecution,  etc.  (1.  i.  pros.  4,  p.  42-62),  which  may  be  compared  with 
the  short  and  weighty  words  of  the  Valesian  Fragment  (p.  723  [Amm.  torn.  ii.  p. 
314,  edit.  Bip.]).  An  anonymous  writer  (Sinner,  Catalog.  MSS.  Bibliot.  Bern, 
torn.  i.  p.  287)  charges  him  home  with  honorable  and  patriotic  treason. 


^D.524.]  HIS  DEATH.  139 

ent  disorders  of  his  moral  and  physical  government.  Such 
topics  of  consolation,  so  obvious,  so  vague,  or  so  abstruse,  are 
ineffectual  to  subdue  the  feelings  of  human  nature.  Yet  the 
sense  of  misfortune  may  be  diverted  by  the  labor  of  thought ; 
and  the  sage  who  could  artfully  combine  in  the  same  work 
the  various  riches  of  philosophy,  poetry,  and  eloquence  must 
already  have  possessed  the  intrepid  calmness  which  he  affect- 
ed to  seek.  Suspense,  the  worst  of  evils,  was  at  length  deter- 
mined by  the  ministers  of  death,  who  executed,  and  perhaps 
exceeded,  the  inhuman  mandate  of  Theodoric.  A  strong  cord 
was  fastened  round  the  head  of  Boethius,  and  forcibly  tight- 
ened till  his  eyes  almost  started  from  their  sockets ;  and  some 
mercy  may  be  discovered  in  the  milder  torture  of  beating  him 
with  clubs  till  he  expired.98  But  his  genius  survived  to  dif- 
fuse a  ray  of  knowledge  over  the  darkest  ages  of  the  Latin 
world ;  the  writings  of  the  philosopher  were  translated  by 
the  most  glorious  of  the  English  kings,"  and  the  third  emper- 
or of  the  name  of  Otho  removed  to  a  more  honorable  tomb 
the  bones  of  a  Catholic  saint  who,  from  his  Arian  persecutors, 
had  acquired  the  honors  of  martyrdom  and  the  fame  of  mira- 
cles.100 a     In  the  last  hours  of  Boethius  he  derived  some  com- 

98  IIo  was  executed  in  Agro  Calventiano  (Calvenzano,  between  Marignano  and 
Pavia),  Anonym.  Vales,  p.  723  [p.  315,  edit.  Bip.],  by  order  of  Ensebius,  Count  of 
Ticinum  or  Pavia.  The  place  of  his  confinement  is  styled  the  baptistery,  an  edi- 
fice and  name  peculiar  to  cathedrals.  It  is  claimed  by  the  perpetual  tradition  of 
the  Church  of  Pavia.  The  Tower  of  Boethius  subsisted  till  the  year  1584,  and 
the  draught  is  yet  preserved  (Tiraboschi,  torn.  iii.  p.  47,  48). 

99  See  the  Biographia  Britannica,  Alfred,  torn.  i.  p.  80,  2d  edition.  The  work 
is  still  more  honorable  if  performed  under  the  learned  eye  of  Alfred  by  his  foreign 
mid  domestic  doctors.  For  the  reputation  of  Boethius  in  the  Middle  Ages  con- 
sult Brucker  (Hist.  Crit.  Philosoph.  torn.  iii.  p.  565,  566). 

100  The  inscription  on  his  new  tomb  was  composed  by  the  preceptor  of  Otho 
the  Third,  the  learned  Pope  Silvester  II.,  who.  like  Boethius  himself,  was  styled  a 
magician  by  the  ignorance  of  the  times.  The  Catholic  martyr  had  carried  his 
head  in  his  hands  a  considerable  way  (Baronius,  a.d.  526,  No.  17,  18) ;  yet  on  a 


a  Various  legends  gathered  round  the  name  of  Boethius,  who  in  the  Middle 
Ages  was  looked  upon  as  the  head  and  type  of  all  philosophers.  But  though  he 
was  throughout  the  whole  of  that  period  regarded  not  only  as  a  Christian,  but  also 
as  a  saint  and  martyr,  the  very  question  of  his  Christianity  is  beset  with  difficul- 
ties, in  whatever  way  it  is  determined.  If  the  works  on  dogmatic  theology  as- 
cribed to  him  be  really  his,  the  question  is  settled  in  the  affirmative ;  but  then  the 


140  DEATH  OF  SYMMACHUS.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

fort  from  the  safety  of  his  two  sons,  of  his  wife,  and  of  his 

father-in-law,  the  venerable  Symmaehus.     But  the  grief  of 

Syrnmachus  was  indiscreet,  and  perhaps  disrespectful :  he  had 

presumed  to  lament,  he  might  dare  to  revenge,  the 

Death  of  *,  ■■  •  .     .  '        .        °  .         °   '     . 

symmaehus.    death  of  an  injured  friend.     He  was  dragged  m 
chains  from  Rome  to  the  palace  of  Havenna,  and 
the  suspicions  of  Theodoric  could  only  be  appeased  by  the 
blood  of  an  innocent  and  aged  senator.101 

Humanity  will  be  disposed  to  encourage  any  report  which 
testifies  the  jurisdiction  of  conscience  and  the  remorse  of 
kings ;  and  philosophy  is  not  ignorant  that  the  most  horrid 


similar  tale,  a  lady  of  my  acquaintance  once  observed,  "La  distance  n'y  fait  rienj 
il  n'y  a  que  le  premier  pas  qui  cofite."3 

101  Boethius  applauds  the  virtues  of  his  father-in-law  (I.  i.  pros.  4,  p.  59 ;  1.  ii. 
pros.  4,  p.  118).  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  i.  c.  i.  [torn.  ii.  p.  11,  edit.  Bonn]),  the  Vale- 
sian  Fragment  (p.  724  [p.  316,  edit.  Bip.]),  and  the  Historia  Miscella  (1.  xv.  p. 
105  [103?]),  agree  in  praising  the  superior  innocence  or  sanctity  of  Symmaehus; 
and  in  the  estimation  of  the  legend,  the  guilt  of  his  murder  is  equal  to  the  impris- 
onment of  a  pope. 

total  omission  of  all  reference  to  Christianity  in  the  "Consolatio  Philosophise," 
in  passages  and  under  circumstances  where  its  mention  seemed  to  be  imperatively 
demanded,  seems  almost  inexplicable.  To  solve  this  difficulty  various  expedients 
have  been  adopted.  Bertius  conjectured  that  there  was  to  have  been  a  sixth  book, 
whicli  was  interrupted  by  the  death  of  Boethius.  Glareanus  rejected  the  work  it- 
self as  spurious.  Finally,  Professor  Hand,  in  Ersch  and  Gruber's  Encyclopadie, 
has  with  much  ingenuity  maintained  the  opposite  hypothesis,  viz.,  that  Boethius 
was  not  a  Christian  at  all,  and  that  the  theological  works  ascribed  to  him  were 
written  by  another  Boethius,  who  was  afterwards  confounded  with  him ;  and  hence 
the  origin  or  confirmation  of  the  mistake.  In  favor  of  this  theory  may  be  men- 
tioned, over  and  above  the  general  argument  arising  from  the  "Consolatio  Phi- 
losophias:"  (1.)  The  number  of  persons  of  the  name  of  Boethius  in  or  about  that 
time.  See  Fabric.  Biblioth.  Lat.  iii.  15.  (2.)  The  tendency  of  that  age  to  con- 
found persons  of  inferior  note  with  their  more  famous  namesakes,  as  well  as  to 
publish  anonymous  works  under  celebrated  names.  (3.)  The  evidently  fabulous 
character  of  all  the  events  in  his  life  alleged  to  prove  his  Christianity.  (4.)  The 
tendency  which  appears  increasingly  onwards  through  the  Middle  Ages  to  Chris- 
tianize eminent  heathens ;  as,  for  example,  the  embodiment  of  such  traditions  with 
regard  to  Trajan,  Virgil,  and  Statius,  in  the  Divina  Commedia  of  Dante.  Still 
sufficient  difficulties  remain  to  prevent  an  implicit  acquiescence  in  this  hypothesis. 
Though  no  author  quotes  the  theological  works  of  Boethius  before  Hincmar(A.D. 
850),  yet  there  is  no  trace  of  any  doubt  as  to  their  genuineness  ;  and  also,  though 
the  general  tone  of  the  Consolatio  is  heathen,  a  few  phrases  seem  to  savor  of  a  be- 
lief in  Christianity,  e.  g.,  Angelica  virtute  (iv.  5),  patriam  for  "  heaven  "  (v.  1,  iv. 
1),  veri  prcevia  luminis  (iv.  1).  See  A.  P.  Stanley,  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and 
Rom.  Biography,  vol.  i.  p.  496. — S. 

a  Madame  du  Deffand.  This  witticism  referred  to  the  miracle  of  St.  Denia, 
— G. 


A..D.  526.]  DEATH  OF  THEODORIC.  llj 

spectres  are  sometimes  created  by  the  powers  of  a  disordered 
fancy  and  the  weakness  of  a  distempered  body. 

Remorse  J 


and  death  of    After  a  life  of  virtue  and  glory,  Theodonc  was  now 

Theodoric.  .  _.  .  °       •"  ..      .  , 

a.i). 526,  descending  with  shame  and  guilt  into  the  grave: 
his  mind  was  humbled  by  the  contrast  of  the  past, 
and  justly  alarmed  by  the  invisible  terrors  of  futurity.  One 
evening,  as  it  is  related,  when  the  head  of  a  large  fish  was 
served  on  the  royal  table,102  he  suddenly  exclaimed  that  he  be- 
held the  angry  countenance  of  Symraachus,  his  eyes  glaring 
fury  and  revenge,  and  his  mouth  armed  with  long  sharp  teeth, 
which  threatened  to  devour  him.  The  monarch  instantly  re- 
tired to  his  chamber,  and,  as  he  lay  trembling  with  aguish 
cold  under  a  weight  of  bedclothes,  he  expressed  in  broken 
murmurs  to  his  physician  Elpidius  his  deep  repentance  for 
the  murders  of  Boethius  and  Symmachus.103  His  malady  in- 
creased, and,  after  a  dysentery  which  continued  three  days,  he 
expired  in  the  palace  of  Ravenna,  in  the  thirty-third,  or,  if  we 
compute  from  the  invasion  of  Italy,  in  the  thirty-seventh  year 
of  his  reign.  Conscious  of  his  approaching  end,  he  divided 
his  treasures  and  provinces  between  his  two  grandsons,  and 
fixed  the  Rhone  as  their  common  boundary.104  Amalaric  was 
restored  to  the  throne  of  Spain.  Italy,  with  all  the  conquests 
of  the  Ostrogoths,  was  bequeathed  to  Athalaric,  whose  age  did 
not  exceed  ten  years,  but  who  was  cherished  as  the  last  male 
offspring  of  the  line  of  Amali,  by  the  short-lived  marriage  of 
his  mother  Amalasuntha  with  a  royal  fugitive  of  the  same 
blood.105     In  the  presence  of  the  dying  monarch,  the  Gothic 


109  In  the  fanciful  eloquence  of  Cassiodorus,  the  variety  of  sea  and  river  fish 
are  an  evidence  of  extensive  dominion  ;  and  those  of  the  Rhine,  of  Sicily,  and  of 
the  Danube  were  served  on  the  table  of  Theodonc  (Var.  xii.  44).  The  mon- 
strous turbot  of  Domitian  (Juvenal,  Satir.  iv.  39)  had  been  caught  on  the  shores 
of  the  Adriatic. 

103  Procopius,  Goth.  LLc.1  [torn.  ii.  p.  11,  edit.  Bonn].  But  he  might  have 
informed  us  whether  he  had  received  this  curious  anecdote  from  common  report 
or  from  the  mouth  of  the  royal  physician. 

104  Procopius,  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  1,  2, 12,  13.  This  partition  had  been  directed  by 
Theodoric,  though  it  was  not  executed  till  after  his  death.  Regni  hereditatem 
superstes  reliquit  (Isidor.  Chron.  p.  721,  edit.  Grot.). 

105  Berimund,  the  third  in  descent  from  Hermanric,  king  of  the  Ostrogoths,  had 


142  DEATH  OF  THEODORIC.  [Ch.  XXXIX. 

chiefs  and  Italian  magistrates  mutually  engaged  their  faith 
and  loyalty  to  the  young  prince  and  to  his  guardian  mother ; 
and  received,  in  the  same  awful  moment,  his  last  salutary  ad- 
vice to  maintain  the  laws,  to  love  the  senate  and  people  of 
Rome,  and  to  cultivate  with  decent  reverence  the  friendship 
of  the  emperor.106  The  monument  of  Theodoric  was  erect- 
ed by  his  daughter  Amalasuntha  in  a  conspicuous  situation, 
which  commanded  the  city  of  Eavenna,  the  harbor,  and  the 
adjacent  coast.  A  chapel  of  a  circular  form,  thirty  feet  in  di- 
ameter, is  crowned  by  a  dome  of  one  entire  piece  of  granite  *. 
from  the  centre  of  the  dome  four  columns  arose,  which  sup- 
ported in  a  vase  of  porphyry  the  remains  of  the  Gothic  king, 
surrounded  by  the  brazen  statues  of  the  twelve  apostles.1" 
His  spirit,  after  some  previous  expiation,  might  have  been  per- 
mitted to  mingle  with  the  benefactors  of  mankind,  if  an  Ital- 
ian hermit  had  not  been  witness  in  a  vision  to  the  damnation 
of  Theodoric,108  whose  soul  was  plunged  by  the  ministers  of 
divine  vengeance  into  the  volcano  of  Lipari,  one  of  the  flam- 
ing mouths  of  the  infernal  world.109 

retired  into  Spain,  where  he  lived  and  died  in  obscurity  (Jornandes,  c.  33,  p.  202, 
edit.  Muratori).  See  the  discovery,  nuptials,  and  death  of  his  grandson  Eutharic 
(c.  58,  p.  220).  His  Koman  games  might  render  him  popular  (Cassiodor.  in 
Chron.),  but  Eutharic  was  asper  in  religione  (Anonym.  Vales,  p.  722,  723  [p.  313, 
edit.  Bip.]). 

106  See  the  counsels  of  Theodoric,  and  the  professions  of  his  successor,  in  Pro- 
copius  (Goth.  1.  i.  c.  1,  2),  Jornandes  (c.  59  [p.  700,  701,  edit.  Grot.]),  and  Cassio- 
dorus  (Var.  viii.  1-7).    These  epistles  are  the  triumph  of  his  ministerial  eloquence. 

101  Anonym. Vales,  p.  724  [p.  316,  edit.  Bip.].  Agnellus  de  Vitis  Pont.  Raven, 
in  Muratori  Script.  Rerum  Ital.  torn.  ii.  pt.  i.  p.  67.  Alberti  Descrizione  d'ltalia, 
p.311.1 

108  This  legend  is  related  by  Gregory  I.  (Dialog,  iv.  30  [torn.  ii.  p.  420,  edit. 
Bened.]),  and  approved  by  Baronius  (a.d.  526,  No.  28) ;  and  both  the  pope  and 
cardinal  are  grave  doctors,  sufficient  to  establish  a  probable  opinion. 

109  Theodoric  himself,  or  rather  Cassiodorus,  had  described  in  tragic  strains  the 
volcanoes  of  Lipari  (Cluver.  Sicilia,  p.  406-410),  and  Vesuvius  ([Var.]  iv.  50). 


*  The  Mausoleum  of  Theodoric,  now  Santa  Maria  della  Rotonda,  is  engraved 
in  D'Agincourt,  Histoire  de  l'Art,  p.  xviii.  of  the  Architectural  Prints. — M. 


BIKTH  OF  JUSTINIAN.  143 


CHAPTER  XL. 

Elevation  of  Justin  the  Elder. — Reign  of  Justinian.— I.  The  Empress  Theodora. 
— II.  Factions  of  the  Circus,  and  Sedition  of  Constantinople. — III.  Trade  and 
Manufacture  of  Silk. — IV.  Finances  and  Taxes. — V.  Edifices  of  Justinian.— 
Church  of  St.  Sophia. — Fortifications  and  Frontiers  of  the  Eastern  Empire. — ■ 
Abolition  of  the  Schools  of  Athens  and  the  Consulship  of  Rome. 

The  Emperor  Justinian  was  born1  near  the  ruins  of  Sardica 
(the  modern  Sophia),  of  an  obscure  race2  of  barbarians,3  the 
inhabitants  of  a  wild  and  desolate  country,  to  which  the  names 
of  Dardania,  of  Dacia,  and  of  Bulgaria  have  been  successively 
applied.*     His  elevation  was  prepared  by  the  adventurous 

1  There  is  some  difficulty  in  the  date  of  his  birth  (Ludewig  in  Vit.  Justiniani, 
p.  125) ;  none  in  the  place — the  district  Bederiana — the  village  Tauresium,  which 
he  afterwards  decorated  with  his  name  and  splendor  (D'Anville,  Hist,  de  l'Acad. 
etc.,  torn.  xxxi.  p.  287-292). 

2  The  names  of  these  Dardanian  peasants  are  Gothic,  and  almost  English  :  Jus- 
tinian is  a  translation  of  uprauda  {upright) ;  his  father  Sabatius  (in  Graeco-bar- 
barous  language  stipes)  was  styled  in  his  village  Istock  (Stock)  •  his  mother  Bi- 
gleniza  was  softened  into  Vigilantia.b 

3  Ludewig  (p.  127-135)  attempts  to  justify  the  Anician  name  of  Justinian  and 
Theodora,  and  to  connect  them  with  a  family  from  which  the  House  of  Austria 
has  been  derived. 

a  The  following  table  exhibits  the  most  important  persons  of  the  family  of 
Justinian : 

Sabatius  =  Bigleniza.  Justinus  I.  =  Euphemia. 

(Istok).    I  Imp.  ob.  527. 


Justiniantts  I.  Vigilantia,  Filius. 

Imp.  ob.  565,  m.  Dulcissimus. 

m.  Theodora, 
ob.  548. 

JtTSTINUS  II. 
Imp.  ob.  578. 

Justinian  had  several  other  nephews  besides  Justin  II..  the  children  both  of  hig 
sister  Vigilantia,  and  of  his  brother,  whose  name  is  unknown.     See  the  genealog- 
ical table  by  Alemannus  (Procop.  vol.  iii.  p.  417,  edit.  Bonn). — S. 
b  These  names  are  Slavonic  rather  than   Gothic.      Uprawda,  or  Wprawda 


144  ELEVATION  OF  JUSTIN  I.  [Ch.  XL. 

spirit  of  his  uncle  Justin,  who,  with  two  other  peasants  of  the 
same  village,  deserted  for  the  profession  of  arms 
Emperor  the  more  useful  employment  of  husbandmen  or 
a.b.  482,  '  shepherds.4  On  foot,  with  a  scanty  provision  of 
A.r>.  483,  biscuit  in  their  knapsacks,  the  three  youths  fol- 
lowed the  high-road  of  Constantinople,  and  were 
soon  enrolled,  for  their  strength  and  stature,  among  the  guards 
of  the  Emperor  Leo.  Under  the  two  succeeding  reigns,  the 
fortunate  peasant  emerged  to  wealth  and  honors ;  and  his  es- 
cape from  some  dangers  which  threatened  his  life  was  after- 
wards ascribed  to  the  guardian  angel  who  watches  over  the 
fate  of  kings.  His  long  and  laudable  service  in  the  Tsaurian 
and  Persian  wars  would  not  have  preserved  from  oblivion  the 
name  of  Justin;  yet  they  might  warrant  the  military  pro- 
motion which,  in  the  course  of  fifty  years,  he  gradually  ob- 
tained— the  rank  of  tribune,  of  count,  and  of  general,  the  dig- 
nity of  senator,  and  the  command  of  the  guards,  who  obeyed 
him  as  their  chief  at  the  important  crisis  when  the  Emperor 
Anastasius  was  removed  from  the  world.  The  powerful  kins- 
men whom  he  had  raised  and  enriched  were  excluded  from 
the  throne ;  and  the  eunuch  Amantius,  who  reigned  in  the 
palace,  had  secretly  resolved  to  fix  the  diadem  on  the  head  of 
the  most  obsequious  of  his  creatures.  A  liberal  donative,  to 
conciliate  the  suffrage  of  the  guards,  was  intrusted  for  that 
purpose  in  the  hands  of  their  commander.  But  these  weighty 
arguments  were  treacherously  employed  by  Justin  in  his  own 
favor ;  and  as  no  competitor  presumed  to  appear,  the  Dacian 
peasant  was  invested  with  the  purple  by  the  unanimous  con- 

4  See  the  Anecdotes  of  Procopius  (c.  6),  with  the  notes  of  N.  Alemannus.  The 
satirist  would  not  have  sunk,  in  the  vague  and  decent  appellation  of  yswpyoc,  the 
j3ovko\oq  and  ai(pop€og  of  Zonaras.  Yet  why  are  those  names  disgraceful  ? — and 
what  German  baron  would  not  be  proud  to  descend  from  the  Eumseus  of  the 
Odyssey  ? 

(OinrpaovSa),  the  name  by  which  the  future  emperor  was  called  by  his  country- 
men, agrees  in  meaning  with  the  Latin  Justinian ;  prawda  in  old  Slavic  signify- 
ing jus,  justitia,  and  w  being  a  breathing  frequently  prefixed  to  Slavonic  names. 
Iztok  (Sol  oriens),  the  name  of  Justinian's  father,  is  a  Slavonic  translation  of  the 
Thracian-Phrygian  name  of  Sabatius;  and  in  the  year  1171  we  find  mention  of  a 
Slavonic  chief  of  the  name  of  Iztok.  See  Schafarik,  Slawische  Alterthiimer,  vol. 
ii.p.  160.— S. 


M>.  520-527.]  ADOPTION  OF  JUSTINIAN.  145 

sent  of  the  soldiers,  who  knew  him  to  be  brave  and  gentle ; 
of  the  clergy  and  people,  who  believed  him  to  be 
and  reip  of  orthodox ;  and  of  the  provincials,  who  yielded  a 
jn8stinCL,'  blind  and  implicit  submission  to  the  will  of  the 
Jaiyio;         capital.     The   elder  Justin,  as  he   is   distinguish- 

A.i).  627,  _r  ,  '  /.-it 

April  i,  or      ed  from  another  emperor  ot  the  same  family  and 

All""U6t  1 

name,  ascended  the  Byzantine  throne  at  the  age  of 
sixty-eight  years ;  and,  had  he  been  left  to  his  own  guidance, 
every  moment  of  a  nine  years'  reign  must  have  exposed  to 
his  subjects  the  impropriety  of  their  choice.  His  ignorance 
was  similar  to  that  of  Theodoric ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that, 
in  an  age  not  destitute  of  learning,  two  contemporary  mon- 
archs  had  never  been  instructed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  al- 
phabets Bat  the  genius  of  Justin  was  far  inferior  to  that  of 
the  G  othic  king :  the  experience  of  a  soldier  had  not  qualified 
him  for  the  government  of  an  empire ;  and  though  personal- 
ly brave,  the  consciousness  of  his  own  weakness  was  natural- 
ly attended  with  doubt,  distrust,  and  political  apprehension. 
But  the  official  business  of  the  State  was  diligently  and  faith- 
fully transacted  by  the  quaestor  Proclus  ;5  and  the  aged  em- 
peror adopted  the  talents  and  ambition  of  his  nephew  Justin- 
ian, an  aspiring  youth,  whom  his  uncle  had  drawn  from  the 
rustic  solitude  of  Dacia,  and  educated  at  Constantinople  as 
the  heir  of  his  private  fortune,  and  at  length  of  the  Eastern 
empire. 

Since  the  eunuch  Amantius  had  been  defrauded  of  his 
money,  it  became  necessary  to  deprive  him  of  his  life.  The 
Adoption  and  tas^  was  easily  accomplished  by  the  charge  of  a 
jusdnian0  of  real  or  fictitious  conspiracy ;  and  the  judges  were 
a.d.  520-527.  mformeci5  as  an  accumulation  of  guilt,  that  he  was 
secretly  addicted  to  the  Manichsean  heresy.6     Amantius  lost 

*  His  virtues  are  praised  by  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  11  [torn.  i.  p.  52,  edit. 
Bonn]).  The  quajstor  Proclus  was  the  friend  of  Justinian,  and  the  enemy  of  ev- 
ery other  adoption. 

6  Manichsean  signifies  Eutychian.     Hear  the  furious  acclamations  of  Constan- 


*  St.  Martin  questions  the  fact  in  both  cases.  The  ignorance  of  Justin  rests  on 
the  secret  history  of  Procopius.  St.  Martin's  notes  on  Le  Beau,  vol.  viii.  p.  8. 
— M. 

IV.— 10 


146  SUCCESSION  OF  JUSTINIAN.  [Ch.  XL. 

his  head ;  three  of  his  companions,  the  first  domestics  of  the 
palace, were  punished  either  with  death  or  exile;  and  their 
unfortunate  candidate  for  the  purple  was  cast  into  a  deep 
dungeon,  overwhelmed  with  stones,  and  ignominiously  thrown 
without  burial  into  the  sea.  The  ruin  of  Vitalian  was  a  work 
of  more  difficulty  and  danger.  That  Gothic  chief  had  ren- 
dered himself  popular  by  the  civil  war  which  he  boldly 
waged  against  Anastasius  for  the  defence  of  the  orthodox 
faith ;  and  after  the  conclusion  of  an  advantageous  treaty,  he 
still  remained  in  the  neighborhood  of  Constantinople,  at  the 
head  of  a  formidable  and  victorious  army  of  barbarians.  By 
the  frail  security  of  oaths  he  was  tempted  to  relinquish  this 
advantageous  situation,  and  to  trust  his  person  within  the 
walls  of  a  city  whose  inhabitants,  particularly  the  blue  fac- 
tion, were  artfully  incensed  against  him  by  the  remembrance 
even  of  his  pious  hostilities.  The  emperor  and  his  nephew 
embraced  him  as  the  faithful  and  worthy  champion  of  the 
Church  and  State,  and  gratefully  adorned  their  favorite  with 
the  titles  of  consul  and  general;  but  in  the  seventh  month 
of  his  consulship  Yitalian  was  stabbed  with  seventeen  wounds 
at  the  royal  banquet,7  and  Justinian,  who  inherited  the  spoil, 
was  accused  as  the  assassin  of  a  spiritual  brother,  to  whom 
he  had  recently  pledged  his  faith  in  the  participation  of  the 
Christian  mysteries.8  After  the  fall  of  his  rival,  he  was  pro- 
moted, without  any  claim  of  military  service,  to  the  office  of 
master-general  of  the  Eastern  armies,  whom  it  was  his  duty 
to  lead  into  the  field  against  the  public  enemy.     But,  in  the 


tinople  and  Tyre,  the  former  no  more  than  six  days  after  the  decease  of  Anasta- 
sius. They  produced,  the  latter  applauded,  the  eunuch's  death  (Baronius,  a.d. 
518,  P.  ii.  Xo.  15 ;  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.  torn.  vii.  p.  200,  205,  from  the  Councils, 
torn.  v.  p.  182,  207). 

1  His  power,  character,  and  intentions  are  perfectly  explained  by  the  Count,  da 
Buat  (torn.  ix.  p.  54—81).  He  was  great-grandson  of  Aspar,  hereditary  prince 
in  the  Lesser  Scythia,  and  count  of  the  Gothic  faederati  of  Thrace.  The  Bessir 
whom  he  could  influence,  are  the  minor  Goths  of  Jornandes  (c.  51). 

8  Justiniani  patricii  factione  dicitur  interfectus  fuisse  (Victor  Tununensis, 
Chron.  in  Thesaur.  Temp.  Scaliger,  P.  ii.  p.  7).  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  7  [c.  6, 
torn.  iii.  p.  46,  edit.  Bonn])  styles  him  a  tyrant,  but  acknowledges  the  aSe\<po* 
Kiaria,  which  is  well  explained  by  Alemauuus, 


A.D. 520-527.]  SUCCESSION  OF  JUSTINIAN.  147 

pursuit  of  fame,  Justinian  might  have  lost  his  present  domin- 
ion over  the  ago  and  weakness  of  his  uncle;  and  instead  of 
acquiring  by  Scythian  or  Persian  trophies  the  applause  of  his 
countrymen,9  the  prudent  warrior  solicited  their  favor  in  the 
churches,  the  circus,  and  the  senate  of  Constantinople.  The 
Catholics  were  attached  to  the  nephew  of  Justin,  who,  be- 
tween the  Nestorian  and  Eutychian  heresies,  trod  the  narrow 
path  of  inflexible  and  intolerant  orthodoxy.10  In  the  first 
days  of  the  new  reign  he  prompted  and  gratified  the  popular 
enthusiasm  against  the  memory  of  the  deceased  emperor. 
After  a  schism  of  thirty-four  years,  he  reconciled  the  proud 
and  angry  spirit  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  and  spread  among  the 
Latins  a  favorable  report  of  his  pious  respect  for  the  apos- 
tolic see.  The  thrones  of  the  East  were  filled  with  Catholic 
bishops  devoted  to  his  interest,  the  clergy  and  the  monks 
were  gained  by  his  liberality,  and  the  people  were  taught  to 
pray  for  their  future  sovereign,  the  hope  and  pillar  of  the 
true  religion.  The  magnificence  of  Justinian  was  displayed 
in  the  superior  pomp  of  his  public  spectacles,  an  object  not 
less  sacred  and  important  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  than 
the  creed  of  Nice  or  Chalcedon :  the  expense  of  his  consul- 
ship was  esteemed  at  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand 
pieces  of  gold;  twenty  lions  and  thirty  leopards  were  pro- 
duced at  the  same  time  in  the  amphitheatre;  and  a  numer- 
ous train  of  horses,  with  their  rich  trappings,  was  bestowed 
as  an  extraordinary  gift  on  the  victorious  charioteers  of  the 
circus.  While  he  indulged  the  people  of  Constantinople  and 
received  the  addresses  of  foreign  kings,  the  nephew  of  Jus- 
tin assiduously  cultivated  the  friendship  of  the  senate.  That 
venerable  name  seemed  to  qualify  its  members  to  declare  the 
sense  of  the  nation,  and  to  regulate  the  succession  of  the  im- 

9  In  his  earliest  youth  (plane  adolescens)  he  had  passed  some  time  as  a  hostage 
with  Theodoric.  For  this  curious  met  Alemannus  (ad  Procop.  Anecdot.  c.  9,  p. 
34  [torn.  iii.  p.  383,  edit.  Bonn]  of  the  first  edition)  quotes  a  MS.  history  of  Jus- 
tinian, by  his  preceptor  Theophilus.  Ludewig  (p.  143)  wishes  to  make  him  a 
soldier. 

10  The  ecclesiastical  history  of  Justinian  will  be  shown  hereafter.  See  Baro- 
nius,  a.d.  518-521,  and  the  copious  article  Justinianus  in  the  index  to  the  sev- 
enth volume  of  his  Annals. 


148  SUCCESSION  OF  JUSTINIAN.  [Ch.  XL. 

perial  throne.  The  feeble  Anastasius  had  permitted  the  vig- 
or of  government  to  degenerate  into  the  form  or  substance 
of  an  aristocracy,  and  the  military  officers  who  had  obtained 
the  senatorial  rank  were  followed  by  their  domestic  guards,  a 
band  of  veterans  whose  arms  or  acclamations  might  fix  in  a 
tumultuous  moment  the  diadem  of  the  East.  The  treasures 
of  the  State  were  lavished  to  procure  the  voices  of  the  sena- 
tors, and  their  unanimous  wish  that  he  would  be  pleased  to 
adopt  Justinian  for  his  colleague  was  communicated  to  the 
emperor.  But  this  request,  which  too  clearly  admonished 
him  of  his  approaching  end,  was  unwelcome  to  the  jealous 
temper  of  an  aged  monarch  desirous  to  retain  the  power 
which  he  was  incapable  of  exercising ;  and  Justin,  holding 
his  purple  with  both  his  hands,  advised  them  to  prefer,  since 
an  election  was  so  profitable,  some  older  candidate.  Notwith- 
standing this  reproach,  the  senate  proceeded  to  decorate  Jus- 
tinian with  the  royal  epithet  of  nobilissimus  /  and  their  de- 
cree was  ratified  by  the  affection  or  the  fears  of  his  uncle. 
After  some  time  the  languor  of  mind  and  body  to  which  he 
was  reduced  by  an  incurable  wound  in  his  thigh  indispensa- 
bly required  the  aid  of  a  guardian.  He  summoned  the  patri- 
arch and  senators,  and  in  their  presence  solemnly  placed  the 
diadem  on  the  head  of  his  nephew,  who  was  conducted  from 
the  palace  to  the  circus,  and  saluted  by  the  loud  and  joyful 
applause  of  the  people.  The  life  of  Justin  was  prolonged 
about  four  months;  but  from  the  instant  of  this  ceremony 
he  was  considered  as  dead  to  the  empire,  which  acknowl- 
edged Justinian,  in  the  forty -fifth  year  of  his  age,  for  the 
lawful  sovereign  of  the  East." 

11  The  reign  of  the  elder  Justin  may  be  found  in  the  three  Chronicles  of  Mar- 
cellinus,  Victor,  and  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  130-150  [edit.  Oxun. ;  1.  xvii.  p. 
410-424,  edit.  Bonn]),  the  last  of  whom  (in  spite  of  Hody,  Prolegom.  No.  14,  39, 
edit.  Oxon.)  lived  soon  after  Justinian  (Jortin's  Eemarks,  etc.,  vol.  iv.  p.  383) ;* 
in  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  c.  1,  2,  3,  9),  and  the  Excerpta 
of  Theodoras  Lector  (No.  37  Q.  ii.J),  and  in  Cedrenus  (p.  363-366  [edit.  Par. ; 
torn.  i.  p.  636-642,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Zonaras  (1.  xiv.  p.  58-60),  who  may  pass  for 
an  original.  

a  Dindorf,  in  his  preface  to  the  new  edition  of  Malala,  p.  vi.,  concurs  with  this  opin« 
ion  of  Gibbon,  which  was  also  that  of  Reiske,  as  to  the  age  of  the  chronicler. — M» 


A.D.  527-565.]  HIS  EEIGN.  149 

From  his  elevation  to  his  death,  Justinian  governed  the 
Roman  empire  thirty-eight  years,  seven  months,  and  thirteen 
The  reign  of  days.  The  events  of  his  reign,  which  excite  our 
Iu».t527an'  curious  attention  by  their  number,  variety,  and  im- 
i?.H665,  portance,  are  diligently  related  by  the  secretary  of 
Nov.  u.  Belisarius,  a  rhetorician,  whom  eloquence  had  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  senator  and  Prsefect  of  Constantinople. 
According  to  the  vicissitudes  of  courage  or  servitude,  of  fa- 
vor or  disgrace,  Procopius12  successively  composed 
auditories  the  history,  the  panegyric,  and  the  satire  of  his  own 
ocopms.   tjmeg>     ijijie  ejg]lt  jjQQks  0f  the  Persian,  Yandalic, 

and  Gothic  wars,"  which  are  continued  in  the  five  books  of 
Agathias,  deserve  our  esteem  as  a  laborious  and  successful 
imitation  of  the  Attic,  or  at  least  of  the  Asiatic,  writers  of 
ancient  Greece.  His  facts  are  collected  from  the  personal 
experience  and  free  conversation  of  a  soldier,  a  statesman, 
and  a  traveller ;  his  style  continually  aspires,  and  often  at- 
tains, to  the  merit  of  strength  and  elegance ;  his  reflections, 
more  especially  in  the  speeches,  which  he  too  frequently  in- 
serts, contain  a  rich  fund  of  political  knowledge ;  and  the  his- 
torian, excited  by  the  generous  ambition  of  pleasing  and  in- 
structing posterity,  appears  to  disdain  the  prejudices  of  the 
people  and  the  flattery  of  courts.     The  writings  of  Procopius14 

12  See  the  characters  of  Procopius  and  Agathias  in  La  Mothe  le  Vayer  (torn. 
viii.  p.  144-174),  Vossius  (de  Historicis  Gratis,  1.  ii.  c.  22),  and  Fabricius  (Bibliot. 
GraBc.  1.  v.  c.  5,  torn.  vi.  p.  248-278).  Their  religion,  an  honorable  problem,  be- 
trays occasional  conformity,  with  a  secret  attachment  to  Paganism  and  Philosophy. 

13  In  the  seven  first  books,  two  Persic,  two  Vandalic,  and  three  Gothic,  Proco- 
pins  has  borrowed  from  Appian  the  division  of  provinces  and  wars :  the  eighth 
book,  though  it  bears  the  name  of  Gothic,  is  a  miscellaneous  and  general  supple- 
ment down  to  the  spring  of  the  year  553,  from  whence  ft  is  continued  by  Agathiaa 
till  559  (Pagi,  Critica,  a.d.  579,  No.  5). 

14  The  literary  fate  of  Procopius  has  been  somewhat  unlucky.  1.  His  books 
de  Bello  Gothico  were  stolen  by  Leonard  Aretin,  and  published  (Fulginii,  1470; 
Venet.  1471,  apud  Janson.  Mattaire,  Annal.  Typograph.  torn.  i.  edit,  posterior, 
p.  290,  304,  279,  299)  in  his  own  name  (see  Vossius  de  Hist.  Lat.  1.  iii.  c.  5,  and 
the  feeble  defence  of  the  Venice  Giornale  de?  Letterati,  torn.  xix.  p.  207).  2.  His 
works  were  mutilated  by  the  first  Latin  translators,  Christopher  'Persona  (Gior- 
nale, torn.  xix.  p.  340-348)  and  Raphael  de  Volaterra  (Huet,  de  Claris  Interpre- 
tibus,  p.  166),  who  did  not  even  consult  the  MS.  of  the  Vatican  library,  of  which 
they  were  prefects  ^Aleman.  in  Prsefat.  Auecdot.).     3.  The  Greek  text  was  not 


150  CHARACTER  AND  HISTORIES  [Ch.XL. 

were  read  and  applauded  by  his  contemporaries :  out,  al- 
though he  respectfully  laid  them  at  the  foot  of  the  throne, 
the  pride  of  Justinian  must  have  been  wounded  by  the  praise 
of  a  hero  who  perpetually  eclipses  the  glory  of  his  inactive 
sovereign.  The  conscious  dignity  of  independence  was  sub- 
dued by  the  hopes  and  fears  of  a  slave ;  and  the  secretary  of 
Belisarius  labored  for  pardon  and  reward  in  the  six  books  of 
the  imperial  edifices.  He  had  dexterously  chosen  a  subject 
of  apparent  splendor,  in  which  he  could  loudly  celebrate  the 
genius,  the  magnificence,  and  the  piety  of  a  prince  who,  both 
as  a  conqueror  and  legislator,  had  surpassed  the  puerile  vir- 
tues of  Themistocles  and  Cyrus.18  Disappointment  might 
urge  the  flatterer  to  secret  revenge ;  and  the  first  glance  of 
favor  might  again  tempt  him  to  suspend  and  suppress  a  libel17 
in  which  the  Roman  Cyrus  is  degraded  into  an  odious  and 
contemptible  tyrant,  in  which  both  the  emperor  and  his  con- 
sort Theodora  are  seriously  represented  as  two  demons  who 
had  assumed  a  human  form  for  the  destruction  of  mankind.18 

printed  till  1607,  by  Hoeschelius  of  Augsburg  (Dictionnaire  tie  Bayle,  torn.  ii.  p. 
782).  4.  The  Paris  edition  was  imperfectly  executed  by  Claude  Maltret,  a  Jesuit 
of  Toulouse  (in  1663),  far  distant  from  the  Louvre  press  and  the  Vatican  MS., 
from  which,  however,  he  obtained  some  supplements.  His  promised  commenta- 
ries, etc.,  have  never  appeared.  The  Agathias  of  Leyden  (159-1)  has  been  wisely 
reprinted  by  the  Paris  editor,  with  the  Latin  version  of  Bonaventura  Vulcanius,  a 
learned  interpreter  (Huet,  p.  176). 

15  Agathias  in  Praefat.  p.  7,  8, 1.  iv.  p.  136  [edit.  Par. ;  p.  11,  264,  edit.  Bonn]  ; 
Evagrius,  1.  iv.  c.  12.     See  likewise  Photius,  cod.  lxiii.  p.  65  [p.  21,  edit.  Bekk.]. 

16  Kvpov  Traihia  (says  he,  Prsefat.  ad  1.  de  vEdificiis  Trepl  ktktjicitidv)  is  no 
more  than  Kvpov  iraidia — a  pun !  In  these  five  books  Procopius  affects  a  Chris- 
tian as  well  as  a  courtly  style. 

11  Procopius  discloses  himself  (Praifat.  ad  Anecdot.  c.  1,  2,  5),  and  the  anec- 
dotes are  reckoned  as  the  ninth  book  by  Suidas  (torn.  iii.  p.  186,  edit.  Kuster). 
The  silence  of  Evagrius  is  a  poor  objection.  Baronius  (a.d.  548,  No.  24)  regrets 
the  loss  of  this  secret  history :  it  was  then  in  the  Vatican  library,  in  his  own  cus- 
tody, and  was  first  published  sixteen  years  after  his  death,  with  the  learned  but 
partial  notes  of  Nicholas  Alemannus  (Lugd.  1623). 

13  Justinian  an  ass — the  perfect  likeness  of  Domitian — Anecdot.  c.  8 — The- 
odora's lovers  driven  from  her  bed  by  rival  demons — her  marriage  foretold  with  a, 
great  demon — a  monk  saw  the  prince  of  the  demons,  instead  of  Justinian,  on  the 
throne — the  servants  who  watched  beheld  a  face  without  features,  a  body  walking 
without  a  head,  etc. ,  etc.  Procopius  declares  his  own  and  his  friends'  belief  in 
these  diabolical  stories  (c.  12). 


A.D.  527-565.]  OF  PROCOPIUS.    .  151 

Such  base  inconsistency  must  doubtless  sully  the  reputation 
and  detract  from  the  credit  of  Procopius :  yet,  after  the 
venom  of  his  malignity  has  been  suffered  to  exhale,  the  resi- 
due of  the  anecdotes,  even  the  most  disgraceful  facts,  some  of 
which  had  been  tenderly  hinted  iu  his  public  history,  are  es- 
tablished by  their  internal  evidence,  or  the  authentic  monu- 
ments of  the  times.19  a  From  these  various  materials  I  shall 
now  proceed  to  describe  the  reign  of  Justinian,  which  will  de- 
serve and  occupy  an  ample  space.  The  present  chapter  will 
explain  the  elevation  and  character  of  Theodora, 
the  reign  of  the  factions  of  the  circus,  and  the  peaceful  admin- 
istration of  the  sovereign  of  the  East.  In  the  three 
succeeding  chapters  I  shall  relate  the  wars  of  Justinian, 
which  achieved  the  conquest  of  Africa  and  Italy ;  and  I  shall 
follow  the  victories  of  Belisarius  and  N  arses,  without  disguis- 
ing the  vanity  of  their  triumphs,  or  the  hostile  virtue  of  the 
Persian  and  Gothic  heroes.  The  series  of  this  volume  will 
embrace  the  jurisprudence  and  theology  of  the  emperor; 
the  controversies  and  sects  which  still  divide  the  Oriental 
Church ;  the  reformation  of  the  Roman  law  which  is  obeyed 
or  respected  by  the  nations  of  modern  Europe. 

I.  In  the  exercise  of  supreme  power,  the  first  act  of  Justin- 
ian was  to  divide  it  with  the  woman  whom  he  loved,  the  fa- 
mous Theodora,20  whose  strange  elevation  cannot  be  applauded 
as  the  triumph  of  female  virtue.     Under  the  reign  of  Anasta- 

19  Montesquieu  (Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  la  Decadence  des  Romains, 
ch.  xx.)  gives  credit  to  these  anecdotes,  as  counected,  1,  with  the  weakness  of  the 
empire,  and,  2,  with  the  instability  of  Justinian's  laws. 

20  Yov  the  life  and  manners  of  the  Empress  Theodora,  see  the  Anecdotes; 
more  especially  c.  1-5,  9,, 10-15,  16,  17,  with  the  learned  notes  of  Alemannus — a 
reference  which  is  always  implied. 


a  'The  Anecdota  of  Procopius,  compared  with  the  former  works  of  the  same  au- 
thor, appear  to  me  the  basest  and  most  disgraceful  work  in  literature.  The  wars 
which  he  has  described  in  the  former  volumes  as  glorious  or  necessary  are  become 
unprofitable  and  wanton  massacres;  the  buildings  which  he  celebrated,  as  raised 
to  the  immortal  honor  of  the  great  emperor  and  his  admirable  queen,  either  as 
magnificent  embellishments  of  the  city,  or  useful  fortifications  for  the  defence  of 
the  frontier,  are  become  works  of  vain  prodigality  and  useless  ostentation.  I  doubt 
whether  Gibbon  has  made  sufficient  allowance  for  the  "  malignity  "  of  the  Anec- 
dotn  ;  at  all  events  the  extreme  and  disgusting  profligacy  of  Theodora's  early  life 
rest;;  eutirelv  on  this  virulent  libel. — M. 


152  BIRTH  AND  VICES  [Ch.  XL. 

sius,  the  care  Of  the  wild  beasts  maintained  by  the  green  f ac- 
Bhthand  tidn  at  Constantinople  was  intrusted  to  Acacius,  a 
Emp.ess h*  native  of  the  isle  of  Cyprus,  who,  from  his  employ- 
Theoaora.  ment,  was  surnamed  the  master  of  the  bears.  This 
honorable  office  was  given  after  his  death  to  another  candi- 
date, notwithstanding  the  diligence  of  his  widow,  who  had  al- 
ready provided  a  husband  and  a  successor.  Acacius  had  left 
three  daughters — Comito,"  Theodoka,  and  Anastasia — the  eld- 
est of  whom  did  not  then  exceed  the  age  of  seven  years.  On 
a  solemn  festival,  these  helpless  orphans  were  sent  by  their  dis- 
tressed and  indignant  mother,  in  the  garb  of  suppliants,  into 
the  midst  of  the  theatre:  the  green  faction  received  them 
with  contempt,  the  blues  with  compassion ;  and  this  diifer- 
ence,  which  sunk  deep  into  the  mind  of  Theodora,  was  felt 
long  afterwards  in  the  administration  of  the  empire.  As  they 
improved  in  age  and  beauty,  the  three  sisters  were^succes- 
sively  devoted  to  the  public  and  private  pleasures  of  the  By- 
zantine people ;  and  Theodora,  after  following  Comito  on  the 
stage,  in  the  dress  of  a  slave,  with  a  stool  on  her  head,  was  at 
length  permitted  to  exercise  her  independent  talents.  She 
neither  danced,  nor  sung,  nor  played  on  the  flute ;  her  skill 
was  confined  to  the  pantomime  arts;  she  excelled  in  buffoon 
characters ;  and  as  6ften  as  the  comedian  swelled  her  cheeks, 
and  complained  with  a  ridiculous  tone  and  gesture  of  the 
blows  that  were  inflicted,  the  whole  theatre  of  Constantinople 
resounded  with  laughter  and  applause.  The  beauty  of  The- 
odora" was  the  subject  of  more  flattering  praise,  and  the 
source  of  more  exquisite  delight.  Her  features  were  delicate 
and  regular ;  her  complexion,  though  somewhat  pale,  was 
tinged  with  a  natural  color;  every  sensation  was  instantly  ex- 
pressed by  the  vivacity  of  her  eyes ;  her  easy  motions  dis- 


81  Comito  was  afterwards  married  to  Sittas,  Duke  of  Armenia,  the  father,  per- 
haps, at  least  she  might  be  the  mother,  of  the  Empress  Sophia.  Two  nephews  of 
Theodora  may  be  the  sons  of  Anastasia  (Aleman.  p.  30,  31). 

22  Her  statue  was  raised  at  Constantinople  on  a  porphyry  column.  See  Proco- 
pius  (de  iEdif.  1.  i.  c.  11),  who  gives  her  portrait  in  the  Anecdotes  (c.  10  [torn.  iii. 
p.  69,  edit.  Bonn]).  Aleman.  (p.  47)  produces  one  from  a  mosaic  at  Ravenna, 
loaded  with  pearls  and  jewels,  and  yet  handsome. 


A.D.  527-565.]  OF  THE  EMPRESS  THEODORA.  153 

played  the  graces  of  a  small  but  elegant  figure ;  and  either 
love  or  adulation  might  proclaim  that  painting  and  poetry 
were  incapable  of  delineating  the  matchless  excellence  of  her 
form.  But  this  form  was  degraded  by  the  facility  with  which 
it  was  exposed  to  the  public  eye  and  prostituted  to  licentious 
desire.  Her  venal  charms  were  abandoned  to  a  promiscuous 
crowd  of  citizens  and  strangers,  of  every  rank  and  of  every 
profession  :  the  fortunate  lover  who  had  been  promised  a  night 
of  enjoyment  was  often  driven  from  her  bed  by  a  stronger 
or  more  wealthy  favorite ;  and  when  she  passed  through  the 
streets,  her  presence  was  avoided  by  all  who  wished  to  escape 
either  the  scandal  or  the  temptation.  The  satirical  historian 
has  not  blushed23  to  describe  the  naked  scenes  which  Theodora 
was  not  ashamed  to  exhibit  in  the  theatre.24  After  exhaust- 
ing the  arts  of  sensual  pleasure,25  she  most  ungratefully  mur- 
mured against  the  parsimony  of  Nature  ;2a  but  her  murmurs, 
her  pleasures,  and  her  arts  must  be  veiled  in  the  obscurity  of 


23  A  fragment  of  the  Anecdotes  (c.  9),  somewhat  too  naked,  was  suppressed  by 
Alemannus,  though  extant  in  the  Vatican  MS. ;  nor  has  the  defect  been  supplied 
in  the  Paris  or  Venice  editions.  La  Mothe  le  Vayer  (torn.  viii.  p.  155)  gave  the 
first  hint  of  this  curious  and  genuine  passage  (Jortin's  Remarks,  vol.  iv.  p.  366), 
which  lie  had  received  from  Rome,  and  it  has  been  since  published  in  the  Menagi- 
ana  (torn.  iii.  p.  254—259),  with  a  Latin  version. 

24  After  the  mention  of  a  narrow  girdle  (as  none  could  appear  stark-naked 
in  the  theatre),  Procopius  thus  proceeds :  avairETrTUKvXa  re  iv  rij>  idd<pu  virria 
ikuto.  Qrjrtg  fa:  nvtg  ***  icpiQag  avrg  virepQtv  tGjv  alSoiiov  ippiirrovv,  ag  o»)  oi 
Xrjvsg,  oi  eg  tovto  irapeffKevaafikvoi  iruyxavov,  rolg  oTOfiaoiv  ivQivOt  Kara  piav 
ave\6[iEvoi  ijaOiov.  I  have  heard  that  a  learned  prelate,  now  deceased,  was  fond 
of  quoting  this  passage  in  conversation.* 

55  Theodora  surpassed  the  Ciispa  of  Ausonius  (Epigram  Ixxi.),  who  imitated 
the  capitalis  luxus  of  the  females  of  Nola.  See  Quintilian  Institut.  viii.  6,  and 
Torrentius  ad  Horat.  Sermon,  1.  i.  sat.  2,  v.  101.  At  a  memorable  supper  thirty 
slaves  waited  round  the  table ;  ten  young  men  feasted  with  Theodora.  Her  char- 
ity was  universal. 

Et  lassata  viris,  necdum  satiata,  recessit. 

26  "H  fa  kAk  rwv  rpitZv  Tpvmjfidrdjv  ipyaZ,o\iivr\  svekoXu  ry  <pwei,  dvaipopovukvi) 
on  fa)  fir]  icai  rovg  rirdovg  avry  evpvrtpov  ?"j  vvv  Aai  rpvn(pt],  oirwg  dvvarrj  eIj]  Kal 
eKtivy  tpya&aQai.  She  wished  for  a,  fourth  altar  on  which  she  might  pour  liba- 
tions to  the  god  of  love. 

a  Gibbon  should  have  remembered  the  axiom  Avhich  he  quotes  in  another  place, 
"Scelera  osteudi  oportet  dum  puniantur,  abscondi  flagitia." — M. 


154  MARRIAGE  OF  THEODORA  [Ch.  XL. 

a  learned  language.  After  reigning  for  some  time,  the  delight 
and  contempt  of  the  capital,  she  condescended  to  accompany 
Ecebolus,  a  native  of  Tyre,  who  had  obtained  the  government 
of  the  African  Pentapolis.  But  this  union  was  frail  and  tran- 
sient :  Ecebolus  soon  rejected  an  expensive  or  faithless  con- 
cubine ;  she  was  reduced  at  Alexandria  to  extreme  distress ; 
and  in  her  laborious  return  to  Constantinople,  every  city  of 
the  East  admired  and  enjoyed  the  fair  Cyprian,  whose  merit 
appeared  to  justify  her  descent  from  the  peculiar  island  of 
Yenus.  The  vague  commerce  of  Theodora,  and  the  most 
detestable  precautions,  preserved  her  from  the  danger  which 
she  feared ;  yet  once,  and  once  only,  she  became  a  mother. 
The  infant  was  saved  and  educated  in  Arabia  by  his  father, 
who  imparted  to  him  on  his  death-bed  that  he  was  the  son  of 
an  empress.  Filled  with  ambitious  hopes,  the  unsuspecting 
youth  immediately  hastened  to  the  palace  of  Constantinople, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  presence  of  his  mother.  As  he  was 
never  more  seen,  even  after  the  decease  of  Theodora,  she  de- 
serves the  foul  imputation  of  extinguishing  with  his  life  a 
secret  so  offensive  to  her  imperial  virtue. 

In  the  most  abject  state  of  her  fortune  and  reputation, 

some  vision,  either  of  sleep  or  of  fancy,  had  whispered  to 

Theodora  the  pleasing  assurance  that  she  was  des- 

Her  mar-  i 

riagewith       tined  to  become  the  spouse  of  a  potent  monarch. 

Justinian.  x  l 

Conscious  of  her  approaching  greatness,  she  return- 
ed from  Paphlagonia  to  Constantinople ;  assumed,  like  a  skil- 
ful actress,  a  more  decent  character  ;  relieved  her  poverty  by 
the  laudable  industry  of  spinning  wool ;  and  affected  a  life  of 
chastity  and  solitude  in  a  small  house,  which  she  afterwards 
changed  into  a  magnificent  temple.27  Her  beauty,  assisted  by 
art  or  accident,  soon  attracted,  captivated,  and  fixed  the  Patri- 
cian Justinian,  who  already  reigned  with  absolute  sway  under 
the  name  of  his  uncle.  Perhaps  she  contrived  to  enhance  the 
value  of  a  gift  which  she  had  so  often  lavished  on  the  mean- 

27  Anonym,  de  Antiquitat.  C.  P.  1.  iii.  132,  in  Banduri  Imperium  Orient,  torn.  i. 
p.  47.  Ludewig  (p.  154)  argues  sensibly  that  Theodora  would  not  have  immortal- 
ized a  brothel :  but  I  apply  this  fact  to  her  second  and  chaster  residence  at  Con* 

t-.duiinople. 


A.D.  527-565.]  WITIIJUSTINIAN.  155 

est  of  mankind ;  perhaps  she  inflamed,  at  first  by  modest  de- 
lays, and  at  last  by  sensual  allurements,  the  desires  of  a  lover 
who,  from  nature  or  devotion,  was  addicted  to  long  vigils  and 
abstemious  diet.  When  his  first  transports  had  subsided,  she 
still  maintained  the  same  ascendant  over  his  mind  by  the 
more  solid  merit  of  temper  and  understanding.  Justinian  de- 
lighted to  ennoble  and  enrich  the  object  of  his  affection  :  the 
treasures  of  the  East  were  poured  at  her  feet,  and  the  nephew 
of  Justin  was  determined,  perhaps  by  religious  scruples,  to 
bestow  on  his  concubine  the  sacred  and  legal  character  of  a 
wife.  But  the  laws  of  Rome  expressly  prohibited  the  mar- 
riage of  a  senator  with  any  female  who  had  been  dishonored 
by  a  servile  origin  or  theatrical  profession :  the  Empress  Lu- 
picina  or  Euphemia,  a  barbarian  of  rustic  manners  but  of 
irreproachable  virtue,  refused  to  accept  a  prostitute  for  her 
niece ;  and  even  Yigilantia,  the  superstitious  mother  of  Jus- 
tinian, though  she  acknowledged  the  wit  and  beauty  of  Theo- 
dora, was  seriously  apprehensive  lest  the  levity  and  arrogance 
of  that  artful  paramour  might  corrupt  the  piety  and  happi- 
ness of  her  son.  These  obstacles  were  removed  by  the  inflex- 
ible constancy  of  Justinian.  He  patiently  expected  the  death 
of  the  empress;  he  despised  the  tears  of  his  mother,  who  soon 
sunk  under  the  weight  of  her  affliction ;  and  a  law  was  pro- 
mulgated, in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  Justin,  which  abolished 
the  rigid  jurisprudence  of  antiquity.  A  glorious  repentance 
(the  words  of  the  edict)  was  left  open  for  the  unhappy  fe- 
males who  had  prostituted  their  persons  on  the  theatre,  and 
they  were  permitted  to  contract  a  legal  union  with  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  Romans.28  This  indulgence  was  speedily 
followed  by  the  solemn  nuptials  of  Justinian  and  Theodora ; 
her  dignity  was  gradually  exalted  with  that  of  her  lover ; 
and,  as  soon  as  Justin  had  invested  his  nephew  with  the  pur- 
ple, the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  placed  the  diadem  on  the 

::  See  the  old  law  in  Justinian's  Code  (1.  v.  tit.  v.  leg.  7 ;  tit.  xxvii.  leg.  1)  under 
tha  years  336  and  454.  The  new  edict  (about  the  year  521  or  522,  Aleman.  p.  38, 
96)  very  awkwardly  repeals  no  more  than  the  clause  of  mulieres  scenicce,  libertinae, 
tabernarias.  See  the  novels  89  and  117,  and  a  Greek  rescript  from  Justinian  to 
the  bishops  (Aleman.  p.  41). 


156  TYRANNY  OF  THEODORA.  [Ch.  XL. 

heads  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  the  East.  But  the 
usual  honors  which  the  severity  of  Roman  manners  had  al« 
lowed  to  the  wives  of  princes  could  not  satisfy  either  the  am- 
bition of  Theodora  or  the  fondness  of  Justinian.  He  seated 
her  on  the  throne  as  an  equal  and  independent  colleague  in 
the  sovereignty  of  the  empire,  and  an  oath  of  allegiance  was 
imposed  on  the  governors  of  the  provinces  in  the  joint  names 
of  Justinian  and  Theodora.29  The  Eastern  world  fell  pros- 
trate before  the  genius  and  fortune  of  the  daughter  of  Aca- 
cius.  The  prostitute  who,  in  the  presence  of  innumerable 
spectators,  had  polluted  the  theatre  of  Constantinople,  was 
adored  as  a  queen  in  the  same  city,  by  grave  magistrates,  or- 
thodox bishops,  victorious  generals,  and  captive  monarchs.30 

Those  who  believe  that  the  female  mind  is  totally  depraved 
by  the  loss  of  chastity  will  eagerly  listen  to  all  the  invectives 
of  private  envy  or  popular  resentment,  which  have 
dissembled  the  virtues  of  Theodora,  exaggerated 
her  vices,  and  condemned  with  rigor  the  venal  or  voluntary 
sins  of  the  youthful  harlot.  From  a  motive  of  shame  or  con- 
tempt, she  often  declined  the  servile  homage  of  the  multitude, 
escaped  from  the  odious  light  of  the  capital,  and  passed  the 
greatest  part  of  the  year  in  the  palaces  and  gardens  which  were 
pleasantly  seated  on  the  sea-coast  of  the  Propontis  and  the 
Bosphorus.  Her  private  hours  were  devoted  to  the  prudent 
as  well  as  grateful  care  of  her  beauty,  the  luxury  of  the  bath 
and  table,  and  the  long  slumber  of  the  evening  and  the  morn- 
ing. Her  secret  apartments  were  occupied  by  the  favorite 
women  and  eunuchs,  whose  interests  and  passions  she  in- 
dulged at  the  expense  of  justice  :  the  most  illustrious  person- 
ages of  the  State  were  crowded  into  a  dark  and  sultry  ante- 

59  I  swear  by  the  Father,  etc.,  by  the  Virgin  Mary,  by  the  four  Gospels,  quae  in 
manibus  teneo,  and  by  the  Holy  Archangels  Michael  and  Gabriel,  puram  consci- 
entiam  germanumque  servitium  me  servaturum,  sacratissimis  DDNN.  Justiniano 
et  Theodora3  conjugi  ejus  (Novell,  viii.  tit.  3).  Would  the  oath  have  been  bind- 
ing in  favor  of  the  widow  ?    Communes  tituli  et  triumphi,  etc.  (Aleman.  p.  47,  48). 


30  "  Let  greatness  own  her,  and  she's  mean  no  more,"  etc 

Without  Warburton's  critical  telescope  I  should  never  have  seen,  in  this  general 
picture  of  triumphant  vice,  any  personal  allusion  to  Theodora. 


AJ>.  527-565.]  TYRANNY  OF  THEODORA.  151 

chamber ;  and  when  at  last,  after  tedious  attendance,  they 
were  admitted  to  kiss  the  feet  of  Theodora,  they  experienced, 
as  her  humor  might  suggest,  the  silent  arrogance  of  an  em- 
press or  the  capricious  levity  of  a  comedian.  Her  rapacious 
avarice  to  accumulate  an  immense  treasure  may  be  excused  by 
the  apprehension  of  her  husband's  death,  which  could  leave 
no  alternative  between  ruin  and  the  throne ;  and  fear  as  well 
as  ambition  might  exasperate  Theodora  against  two  generals 
who,  during  a  malady  of  the  emperor,  had  rashly  declared 
that  they  were  not  disposed  to  acquiesce  in  the  choice  of  the 
capital.  But  the  reproach  of  cruelty,  so  repugnant  even  to 
her  softer  vices,  has  left  an  indelible  stain  on  the  memory  of 
Theodora.  Her  numerous  spies  observed  and  zealously  re- 
ported every  action,  or  word,  or  look  injurious  to  their  royal 
mistress.  Whomsoever  they  accused  were  cast  into  her  pe- 
culiar prisons,31  inaccessible  to  the  inquiries  of  justice ;  and  it 
was  rumored  that  the  torture  of  the  rack  or  scourge  had  been 
inflicted  in  the  presence  of  a  female  tyrant,  insensible  to  the 
voice  of  prayer  or  of  pity.81  Some  of  these  unhappy  victims 
perished  in  deep  unwholesome  dungeons,  while  others  were 
permitted,  after  the  loss  of  their  limbs,  their  reason,  or  their 
fortune,  to  appear  in  the  world,  the  living  monuments  of  her 
vengeance,  which  was  commonly  extended  to  the  children  of 
those  whom  she  had  suspected  or  injured.  The  senator  or 
bishop  whose  death  or  exile  Theodora  had  pronounced,  was 
delivered  to  a  trusty  messenger,  and  his  diligence  was  quick- 
ened by  a  menace  from  her  own  mouth.  "  If  you  fail  in  the 
execution  of  my  commands,  I  swear  by  Him  who  liveth  for- 
ever that  your  skin  shall  be  flayed  from  your  body."33 
If  the  creed  of  Theodora  had  not  been  tainted  with  heresy, 


31  Her  prisons,  a  labyrinth,  a  Tartarus  (Anecdot.  c.  4),  were  under  the  palace. 
Darkness  is  propitious  to  cruelty,  but  it  is  likewise  favorable  to  calumny  and 
fiction. 

88  A  more  jocular  whipping  was  inflicted  on  Saturninus,  for  presuming  to  say 
that  his  wife,  a  favorite  of  the  empress,  had  not  been  found  arprjroQ  (Anecdot.  c. 
17  [torn.  iii.  p.  104,  edit.  Bonn]). 

33  Per  viventem  in  ssecula  excoriari  te  faciam.  Anastasius  de  Vitis  Pont.  Ro* 
man.  in  Vigilio,  p.  40. 


158  VIKTUES  OF  THEODORA.  [Ch.XL. 

her  exemplary  devotion  might  have  atoned,  in  the  opinion  of 
her  contemporaries,  for  pride,  avarice,  and  cruelty  : 

Her  virtues       ,  .i.-1-i-ii./i  \ 

but  if  she  employed  her  influence  to  assuage  the 
intolerant  fury  of  the  emperor,  the  present  age  will  allow 
some  merit  to  her  religion  and  much  indulgence  to  her  spec- 
ulative errors.34  The  name  of  Theodora  was  introduced,  with 
equal  honor,  in  all  the  pious  and  charitable  foundations  of 
Justinian ;  and  the  most  benevolent  institution  of  his  reign 
may  be  ascribed  to  the  sympathy  of  the  empress  for  her  less 
fortunate  sisters,  who  had  been  seduced  or  compelled  to  em- 
brace the  trade  of  prostitution.  A  palace  on  the  Asiatic  side 
of  the  Bosphorus  was  converted  into  a  stately  and  spacious 
monastery,  and  a  liberal  maintenance  was  assigned  to  five 
hundred  women  who  had  been  collected  from  the  streets  and 
brothels  of  Constantinople.  In  this  safe  and  holy  retreat  they 
were  devoted  to  perpetual  confinement;  and  the  despair  of 
some,  who  threw  themselves  headlong  into  the  sea,  was  lost  in 
the  gratitude  of  the  penitents  who  had  been  delivered  from 
sin  and  misery  by  their  generous  benefactress.36  The  pru- 
dence of  Theodora  is  celebrated  by  Justinian  himself;  and 
his  laws  are  attributed  to  the  sage  counsels  of  his  most  rev- 
erend wife,  whom  he  had  received  as  the  gift  of  the  Deity.38 
Her  courage  was  displayed  amidst  the  tumult  of  the  people 
and  the  terrors  of  the  court.  Her  chastity,  from  the  moment 
of  her  union  with  Justinian,  is  founded  on  the  silence  of  her 
implacable  enemies ;  and  although  the  daughter  of  Acacius 
might  be  satiated  with  love,  yet  some  applause  is  due  to  the 
firmness  of  a  mind  which  could  sacrifice  pleasure  and  habit  to 
the  stronger  sense  either  of  duty  or  interest.  The  wishes  and 
prayers  of  Theodora  could  never  obtain  the  blessing  of  a  law- 


34  Ludewig,  p.  161-166.  I  give  him  credit  for  the  charitable  attempt,  although 
he  hath  not  much  charity  in  his  temper. 

35  Compare  the  Anecdotes  (c.  17)  with  the  Edifices  (1.  i.  c.  9).  How  differently 
may  the  same  fact  be  stated !  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  174, 175  [p.  440,  441,  edit. 
Bonn])  observes  that,  on  this  or  a  similar  occasion,  she  released  and  clothed  the 
girls  whom  she  had  purchased  from  the  stews  at  five  aurei  apiece. 

36  Novel,  viii.  1.  An  allusion  to  Theodora.  Her  enemies  read  the  name  Das« 
monodora  (Aleman.  p.  66  [Procop.  torn.  iii.  p.  415,  edit.  Bonn]). 


A.D.  527-565.]  HEE  DEATH.  159 

ful  son,  and  6he  buried  an  infant  daughter,  the  sole  offspring 
of  her  marriage.37  Notwithstanding  this  disappointment,  her 
dominion  was  permanent  and  absolute ;  she  preserved,  by  art 
or  merit,  the  affections  of  Justinian ;  and  their  seeming  dis- 
sensions were  always  fatal  to  the  courtiers  who  believed  them 
to  be  sincere.  Perhaps  her  health  had  been  impaired  by  the 
licentiousness  of  her  youth ;  but  it  was  always  delicate,  and 
she  was  directed  by  her  physicians  to  use  the  Pythian  warm- 
baths.  In  this  journey  the  empress  was  followed  by  the 
Praetorian  prsefect,  the  great  treasurer,  several  counts  and  pa- 
tricians, and  a  splendid  train  of  four  thousand  attendants:  the 
highways  were  repaired  at  her  approach ;  a  palace  was  erect- 
ed for  her  reception ;  and  as  she  passed  through  Bithynia  she 
distributed  liberal  alms  to  the  churches,  the  monasteries,  and 
the  hospitals,  that  they  might  implore  Heaven  for  the  resto- 
ration of  her  health.38  At  length,  in  the  twenty -fourth  year 
of  her   marriage   and   the   twenty -second   of  her 

and  death,  .  °  J  ,«'-,, 

a.d. 548,         reign,  she  was  consumed  by  a  cancer;     and  the 
irreparable  loss  was  deplored  by  her  husband,  who, 
in  the  room  of  a  theatrical  prostitute,  might  have  selected  the 
purest  and  most  noble  virgin  of  the  East.40 

II.  A  material  difference  may  be  observed  in  the  games  of 
antiquity :  the  most  eminent  of  the  Greeks  were  actors,  the 
Romans  were  merely  spectators.  The  Olympic  stadium  was 
open  to  wealth,  merit,  and  ambition ;  and  if  the  candidates 

S7  St.  Sabas  refused  to  pray  for  a  son  of  Theodora,  lest  he  should  prove  a  heretic 
worse  than  Anastasius  himself  (Cyril  in  Vit.  St.  Sabas,  apud  Aleman.  p.  70,  109 
[Procop.  torn.  iii.  p.  421,  462,  edit.  Bonn]). 

38  See  John  Malala,  torn.  ii.  p.  174  [p.  441,  edit.  Bonn].  Theophanes,  p.  158 
[torn.  i.  p.  286,  edit.  Bonn].     Procopius  de  iEdific.  1.  v.  c.  3. 

39  Theodora  Chalcedonensis  synodi  inimica  canceris  plaga  toto  corpore  perfusa 
vitam  prodigiose  finivit  (Victor  Tununensis  in  Chron.).  On  such  occasions  an 
orthodox  mind  is  steeled  against  pity.  Alemannus  (p.  12,  13)  understands  the 
EVffi€u>g  tKoi[ir]9ri  of  Theophanes  as  civil  language,  which  does  not  imply  either 
piety  or  repentance;  yet  two  years  after  her  death  St.  Theodora  is  celebrated  by 
Paul  Silentiarius  (in  Proem,  ver.  58-62). 

40  As  she  persecuted  the  popes  and  rejected  a  council,  Baronius  exhausts  the 
names  of  Eve,  Dalila,  Herodias,  etc.  ;  after  which  he  has  recourse  to  his  infernal 
dictionary :  civis  inferni — alumna  daamonum — satanico  agitata  spiritu — cestro  per- 
cita  diabolico,  etc.,  etc.  (a.d.  548,  No.  24). 


ICO  FACTIONS  OF  THE  CIRCUS.  [Ch.XL. 

could  depend  on  their  personal  skill  and  activity,  they  might 
The  factions  pursue  the  footsteps  of  Diomede  and  Menelaus, 
of  the  circus  an(j  con(juct  their  own  horses  in  the  rapid  career.41 
Ten,  twenty,  forty  chariots,  were  allowed  to  start  at  the  same 
instant ;  a  crown  of  leaves  was  the  reward  of  the  victor,  and 
his  fame,  with  that  of  his  family  and  country,  was  chanted  in 
lyric  strains  more  durable  than  monuments  of  brass  and  mar- 
ble.  But  a  senator,  or  even  a  citizen,  conscious  of  his  dig- 
nity, would  have  blushed  to  expose  his  person  or  his  horses 
in  the  circus  of  Rome.  The  games  were  exhibited  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  republic,  the  magistrates,  or  the  emperors ;  but 
the  reins  were  abandoned  to  servile  hands  ;  and  if  the  profits 
of  a  favorite  charioteer  sometimes  exceeded  those  of  an  advo- 
cate, they  must  be  considered  as  the  effects  of  popular  extrav- 
agance and  the  high  wages  of  a  disgraceful  profession.  The 
race,  in  its  first  institution,  was  a  simple  contest  of  two  char- 
iots, whose  drivers  were  distinguished  by  white  and  red  liver- 
ies :  two  additional  colors,  a  light  green  and  a  caerulean  blue^ 
were  afterwards  introduced ;  and,  as  the  races  were  repeated 
twenty -five  times,  one  hundred  chariots  contributed  in  the 
same  day  to  the  pomp  of  the  circus.  The  four  factions  soon 
acquired  a  legal  establishment  and  a  mysterious  origin,  and 
their  fanciful  colors  were  derived  from  the  various  appear- 
ances of  nature  in  the  four  seasons  of  the  year — the  red  dog- 
star  of  summer,  the  snows  of  winter,  the  deep  shades  of  au- 
tumn, and  the  cheerful  verdure  of  the  spring.42  Another 
interpretation  preferred  the  elements  to  the  seasons,  and  the 
struggle  of  the  green  and  blue  was  supposed  to  represent  the 
conflict  of  the  earth  and  sea.     Their  respective  victories  an- 

41  Read  and  feel  the  twenty- third  book  of  the  Iliad,  a  living  picture  of  manners, 
passions,  and  the  whole  form  and  spirit  of  the  chariot-race.  West's  Dissertation 
on  the  Olympic  Games  (sect.  xii.-xvii.)  affords  much  curious  and  authentic  in- 
formation. 

49  The  four  colors,  alhati,  russati,  prasini,  veneti,  represent  the  four  seasons,  ac- 
cording to  Cassiodorus  (Var.  iii.  51),  who  lavishes  much  wit  and  eloquence  on  this 
theatrical  mystery.  Of  these  colors,  the  three  first  may  be  fairly  translated,  white, 
red,  and  green.  Venetus  is  explained  by  cceruleus,  a  word  various  and  vague: 
it  is  properly  the  sky  reflected  in  the  sea ;  but  custom  and  convenience  may  allow 
blue  as  an  equivalent.    (Robert.  Stephan,  sub  voce.     Spence's  Polymetis,  p.  228.) 


A.D.  527-565.]  FACTIONS  OF  THE  CIRCUS.  161 

nounced  either  a  plentiful  harvest  or  a  prosperous  navigation, 
and  the  hostility  of  the  husbandmen  and  mariners  was  some- 
what less  absurd  than  the  blind  ardor  of  the  Roman  people, 
who  devoted  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  the  color  which  they 
had  espoused.  Such  folly  was  disdained  and  indulged  by  the 
wisest  princes ;  but  the  names  of  Caligula,  Nero,  Yitellius, 
Verus,  Commodus,  Caracalla,  and  Elagabalus  were  enrolled 
in  the  blue  or  green  factions  of  the  circus:  they  frequented 
their   stables,  applauded   their   favorites,  chastised 

at  Rome.  ..  .-it  ■>      ■,  ,., 

their  antagonists,  and  deserved  the  esteem  of  the 
populace  by  the  natural  or  affected  imitation  of  their  man- 
ners. The  bloody  and  tumultuous  contest  continued  to  dis- 
turb the  public  festivity  till  the  last  age  of  the  spectacles  of 
Rome ;  and  Theodoric,  from  a  motive  of  justice  or  affection, 
interposed  his  authority  to  protect  the  greens  against  the  vio- 
lence of  a  consul  and  a  patrician  who  were  passionately  ad^ 
dieted  to  the  blue  faction  of  the  circus.43 

Constantinople  adopted  the  follies,  though  not  the  virtues, 
of  ancient  Rome ;  and  the  same  factions  which  had  agitated 
They  distract  the  circus  raged  with  redoubled  fury  in  the  hippo- 
ptenfnTthe°"  drome.  Under  the  reign  of  Anastasius,  this  popu- 
East.  jar  frenzv  was  inflamed  by  religious  zeal ;  and  the 

greens,  who  had  treacherously  concealed  stones  and  daggers 
under  baskets  of  fruit,  massacred  at  a  solemn  festival  three 
thousand  of  their  blue  adversaries.44  From  the  capital  this 
pestilence  was  diffused  into  the  provinces  and  cities  of  the 
East,  and  the  sportive  distinction  of  two  colors  produced  two 
strong  and  irreconcilable  factions,  which  shook  the  founda- 
tions of  a  feeble   government.44      The  popular  dissensions, 

43  See  Onuphrius  Panvinius  de  Ludis  Circensibus,  I.  i.  c.  10,  11  ;  the  seventeenth 
Annotation  on  Mascou's  History  of  the  Germans ;  and  Aleman.  ad  c.  vii. 

44  Marcellin.  in  Chron.  p.  47  [anno  501].  Instead  of  the  vulgar  word  veneta,  ha 
uses  the  more  exquisite  terms  of  ccerulea  and  ccerealis.  Baronius  (a.d.  501,  No.  4, 
5,  6)  is  satisfied  that  the  blues  were  orthodox ;  but  Tillemont  is  angry  at  the  supposi- 
tion, and  will  not  allow  any  martyrs  in  a  playhouse  (Hist,  des  Emp.  torn.  vi.  p.  554). 

45  See  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  24).  In  describing  the  vices  of  the  factions 
and  of  the  government,  the  public  is  not  more  favorable  than  the  secret  historian. 
Aleman.  (p.  26  [torn.  iii.  p.  373,  edit.  Bonn])  has  quoted  a  fine  passage  from  Greg* 
os-7  Nazianzen,  which  proves  the  inveteracv  of  the  evil. 

IV.— 11 


162  JUSTINIAN  FAVORS  THE  BLUES.  [Ch.XL. 

founded  on  the  most  serious  interest  or  holy  pretence,  have 
scarcely  equalled  the  obstinacy  of  this  wanton  discord,  which 
invaded  the  peace  of  families,  divided  friends  and  brothers, 
and  tempted  the  female  sex,  though  seldom  seen  in  the  circus, 
to  espouse  the  inclinations  of  their  lovers,  or  to  contradict  the 
wishes  of  their  husbands.  Every  law,  either  human  or  divine, 
was  trampled  under  foot ;  and  as  long  as  the  party  was  suc- 
cessful, its  deluded  followers  appeared  careless  of  private  dis- 
tress or  public  calamity.  The  license,  without  the  freedom, 
of  democracy,  was  revived  at  Antioch  and  Constantinople, 
and  the  support  of  a  faction  became  necessary  to  every  candi- 
date for  civil  or  ecclesiastical  honors.  A  secret  attachment 
to  the  family  or  sect  of  Anastasius  was  imputed  to  the  greens; 
the  blues  were  zealously  devoted  to  the  cause  of  orthodoxy 
and  Justinian,48  and  their  grateful  patron  protected,  above 
five  years,  the  disorders  of  a  faction  whose  seasonable  tumults 
overawed  the  palace,  the  senate,  and  the  capitals  of  the  East. 
Justinian  fa-  Insolent  with  royal  favor,  the  blues  affected  to 
ws  the  blues.  strike  terror  by  a  peculiar  and  barbaric  dress — the 
long  hair  of  the  Huns,  their  close  sleeves  and  ample  garments, 
a  lofty  step  and  a  sonorous  voice.  In  the  day  they  concealed 
their  two-edged  poniards,  but  in  the  night  they  boldly  assem- 
bled in  arms  and  in  numerous  bands,  prepared  for  every  act 
of  violence  and  rapine.  Their  adversaries  of  the  green  fac- 
tion, or  even  inoffensive  citizens,  were  stripped  and  often  mur- 
dered by  these  nocturnal  robbers,  and  it  became  dangerous  to 
wear  any  gold  buttons  or  girdles,  or  to  appear  at  a  late  hour 
in  the  streets  of  a  peaceful  capital.  A  daring  spirit,  rising 
with  impunity,  proceeded  to  violate  the  safeguard  of  private 
houses ;  and  fire  was  employed  to  facilitate  the  attack,  or  to 
conceal  the  crimes,  of  these  factious  rioters.  No  place  was 
safe  or  sacred  from  their  depredations ;  to  gratify  either  ava- 
rice or  revenge  they  profusely  spilled  the  blood  of  the  inno- 
cent ;  churches  and  altars  were  polluted  by  atrocious  murders, 

46  The  partiality  of  Justinian  for  the  blues  (Anecdot.  c.  7  [torn.  iii.  p.  53,  edit. 
Bonn])  is  attested  by  Evagrius  (Hist.  Eccles.  1.  iv.  c.  32),  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p. 
138,  139  [p.  152,  edit.  Oxon. ;  lib.  xviii.  p.  425,  edit.  Bonn]),  especially  for  Anti- 
och, and  Theophanes  (p.  142  [p.  256,  edit.  Bonn}). 


A.D.  527-565.]    JUSTINIAN  FAVORS  THE  BLUES.  lG^ 

and  it  was  the  boast  of  the  assassins  that  their  dexterity  eould 
always  inflict  a  mortal  wound  with  a  single  stroke  of  their 
dagger.  The  dissolute  youth  of  Constantinople  adopted  the 
blue  livery  of  disorder;  the  laws  were  silent,  and  the  bonds  of 
society  were  relaxed ;  creditors  were  compelled  to  resign  their 
obligations  ;  judges  to  reverse  their  sentence;  masters  to  en- 
franchise their  slaves ;  fathers  to  supply  the  extravagance  of 
their  children ;  noble  matrons  were  prostituted  to  the  lust  of 
their  servants;  beautiful  boys  were  torn  from  the  arms  of 
their  parents ;  and  wives,  unless  they  preferred  a  voluntary 
death,  were  ravished  in  the  presence  of  their  husbands.47  The 
despair  of  the  greens,  who  were  persecuted  by  their  enemies 
and  deserted  by  the  magistrate,  assumed  the  privilege  of  de- 
fence, perhaps  of  retaliation;  "but  those  who  survived  the 
combat  were  dragged  to  execution,  and  the  unhappy  fugitives, 
escaping  to  woods  and  caverns,  preyed  without  mercy  on  the 
society  from  whence  they  were  expelled.  Those  ministers  of 
justice  who  had  courage  to  punish  the  crimes  and  to  brave 
the  resentment  of  the  blues  became  the  victims  of  their  indis- 
creet zeal :  a  prsef ect  of  Constantinople  fled  for  refuge  to  the 
holy  sepulchre,  a  count  of  the  East  was  ignominiously  whip- 
ped, and  a  governor  of  Cilicia  was  hanged,  by  the  order  of 
Theodora,  on  the  tomb  of  two  assassins  whom  he  had  con- 
demned for  the  murder  of  his  groom  and  a  daring  attack 
upon  his  own  life.48  An  aspiring  candidate  may  be  tempted 
to  build  his  greatness  on  the  public  confusion,  but  it  is  the 
interest  as  well  as  duty  of  a  sovereign  to  maintain  the  author- 
ity of  the  laws.  The  first  edict  of  Justinian,  which  was  oiten 
repeated  and  sometimes  executed,  announced  his  firm  resolu- 
tion to  support  the  innocent,  and  to  chastise  the  guilty,  of  ev- 
ery denomination  and  color.     Yet  the  balance  of  justice  was 

47  "A  wife"  (says  Procopius),  "  who  was  seized  and  almost  ravished  by  a  blue- 
coat,  threw  herself  into  the  Bosphorus."  The  bishops  of  the  second  Syria  (Ale- 
man,  p.  26  [torn.  iii.  p.  374,  edit.  Bonn])  deplore  a  similar  suicide,  the  guilt  or  glo- 
ry of  female  chastity,  and  name  the  heroine. 

48  The  doubtful  credit  of  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  17)  is  supported  by  the  less 
partial  Evagrius,  who  confirms  the  fact,  and  specifies  the  names.  The  tragic  fate 
of  the  Prefect  of  Constantinople  is  related  by  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  139  [p.  416, 
edit.  Bonn]). 


164  THE  "NIKA.B  [CilXI* 

still  inclined  in  favor  of  the  blue  faction,  by  the  secret  affec- 
tion, the  habits,  and  the  fears  of  the  emperor ;  his  equity,  af- 
ter an  apparent  struggle,  submitted  without  reluctance  to  the 
implacable  passions  of  Theodora,  and  the  empress  never  for- 
got or  forgave  the  injuries  of  the  comedian.  At  the  acces- 
sion of  the  younger  Justin,  the  proclamation  of  equal  and  rig- 
orous justice  indirectly  condemned  the  partiality  of  the  for- 
mer reign.  "  Te  blues,  Justinian  is  no  more !  ye  greens,  he 
is  still  alive!"49 

A  sedition,  which  almost  laid  Constantinople  in  ashes,  was 
excited  by  the  mutual  hatred  and  momentary  reconciliation 
sedition  of  °f  the  two  f actions.  In  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign 
nopiefrat  Justinian  celebrated  the  festival  of  the  ides  of  Jan- 
J^^**  uary :  the  games  were  incessantly  disturbed  by  the 
January.  clamorous  discontent  of  the  greens;  till  the  twen- 
ty-second race  the  emperor  maintained  his  silent  gravity ;  at 
length,  yielding  to  his  impatience,  he  condescended  to  hold, 
in  abrupt  sentences,  and  by  the  voice  of  a  crier,  the  most  sin- 
gular dialogue50  that  ever  passed  between  a  prince  and  his 
subjects.  Their  first  complaints  were  respectful  and  modest; 
they  accused  the  subordinate  ministers  of  oppression,  and  pro- 
claimed their  wishes  for  the  long  life  and  victory  of  the  em- 
peror. "Be  patient  and  attentive,  ye  insolent  railers!"  ex- 
claimed Justinian ;  "  be  mute,  ye  Jews,  Samaritans,  and  Mani- 
chseans!"  The  greens  still  attempted  to  awaken  his  compas- 
sion. ""We  are  poor,  we  are  innocent,  we  are  injured,  we  dare 
not  pass  through  the  streets:  a  general  persecution  is  exer- 

49  See  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  147  [p.  422,  edit.  Bonn]);  yet  he  owns  that  Jus- 
tinian was  attached  to  the  blues.  The  seeming  discord  of  the  emperor  and  The- 
odora is  perhaps  viewed  with  too  much  jealousy  and  refinement  by  Procopius 
(Anecdot.  c.  10  [t.  iii.  p.  70,  edit.  Bonn]).     See  Aleman.  Prasfat.  p.  6. 

50  This  dialogue,  which  Theophanes  has  preserved,  exhibits  the  popular  lan- 
guage, as  well  as  the  manners,  of  Constantinople  in  the  sixth  century.*  Their 
Greek  is  mingled  with  many  strange  and  barbarous  words,  for  which  Ducange 
cannot  always  find  a  meaning  or  etymology. 


*  Malala  makes  no  mention  of  this  dialogue ;  and  Lord  Mahon  expresses  hia 
surprise  that  Gibbon  should  have  adopted  this  improbable  tale  from  Theophanes, 
whose  "authority,  till  near  his  own  times,  is  so  slight,  that  we  should  never  trust 
him  more  than  we  can  help."    Life  of  Belisarius,  p.  54.— S, 


a.d.532.,]  THE  "NIKA."  165 

cised  against  our  name  and  color.  Let  us  die,  O  emperor! 
but  let  us  die  by  your  command  and  for  your  service  I"  But 
the  repetition  of  partial  and  passionate  invectives  degraded, 
in  their  eyes,  the  majesty  of  the  purple ;  they  renounced 
allegiance  to  the  prince  who  refused  justice  to  his  people, 
lamented  that  the  father  of  Justinian  had  been  born,  and 
branded  his  son  with  the  opprobrious  names  of  a  homicide, 
an  ass,  and  a  perjured  tyrant.  "Do  you  despise  your  lives?" 
cried  the  indignant  monarch.  The  blues  rose  with  fury 
from  their  seats,  their  hostile  clamors  thundered  in  the  hippo- 
drome, and  their  adversaries,  deserting  the  unequal  contest, 
spread  terror  and  despair  through  the  streets  of  Constantino- 
ple. At  this  dangerous  moment,  seven  notorious  assassins  of 
both  factions,  who  had  been  condemned  by  the  prsefect,  were 
carried  round  the  city,  and  afterwards  transported  to  the 
place  of  execution  in  the  suburb  of  Pera.  Four  were  imme- 
diately beheaded ;  a  fifth  was  hanged ;  but,  when  the  same 
punishment  was  inflicted  on  the  remaining  two,  the  rope 
broke,  they  fell  alive  to  the  ground,  the  populace  applauded 
their  escape,  and  the  monks  of  St.  Conon,  issuing  from  the 
neighboring  convent,  conveyed  them  in  a  boat  to  the  sanct- 
uary of  the  church.61  As  one  of  these  criminals  was  of  the 
blue,  and  the  other  of  the  green,  livery,  the  two  factions  were 
equally  provoked  by  the  cruelty  of  their  oppressor  or  the  in- 
gratitude of  their  patron,  and  a  short  truce  was  concluded  till 
they  had  delivered  their  prisoners  and  satisfied  their  revenge. 
The  palace  of  the  prsefect,  who  withstood  the  seditious  tor- 
rent, was  instantly  burned,  his  officers  and  guards  were  mas- 
sacred, the  prisons  were  forced  open,  and  freedom  was  re- 
stored to  those  who  could  only  use  it  for  the  public  destruc- 
tion. A  military  force  which  had  been  despatched  to  the 
aid  of  the  civil  magistrate  was  fiercely  encountered  by  an 
armed  multitude,  whose  numbers  and  boldness  continually  in- 
creased :  and  the  Heruli,  the  wildest  barbarians  in  the  service 
of  the  empire,  overturned  the  priests  and  their  relics,  which, 
from  a  pious  motive,  had  been  rashly  interposed  to  separate 

81  See  this  church  and  monastery  in  Ducange,  C.  P.  Christiana,  L  iv.  p.  182. 


186  DISTRESS  OF  JUSTINIAN.  [Ch.  XI« 

the  bloody  conflict.  The  tumult  was  exasperated  by  this 
sacrilege;  the  people  fought  with  enthusiasm  in  the  cause 
of  God ;  the  women,  from  the  roofs  and  windows,  showered 
stones  on  the  heads  of  the  soldiers,  who  darted  firebrands 
against  the  houses ;  and  the  various  flames,  which  had  been 
kindled  by  the  hands  of  citizens  and  strangers,  spread  with- 
out control  over  the  face  of  the  city.  The  conflagration  in- 
volved the  Cathedral  of  St.  Sophia,  the  baths  of  Zeuxippus, 
a  part  of  the  palace,  from  the  first  entrance  to  the  altar  of 
Mars,  and  the  long  portico  from  the  palace  to  the  Forum  of 
Constautine :  a  large  hospital,  with  the  sick  patients,  was  con- 
sumed ;  many  churches  and  stately  edifices  were  destroyed ; 
and  an  immense  treasure  of  gold  and  silver  was  either  melted 
or  lost.  From  such  scenes  of  horror  and  distress  the  wise 
and  wealthy  citizens  escaped  over  the  Bosphorus  to  the  Asi- 
atic side,  and  during  five  days  Constantinople  was  abandoned 
to  the  factions,  whose  watchword  Kika,  vanquish  !  has  given 
a  name  to  this  memorable  sedition.62 

As  long  as  the  factions  were  divided,  the  triumphant  b!ues 
and  desponding  greens  appeared  to  behold  with  the  same  in- 
The  distress  difference  the  disorders  of  the  State.  They  agreed 
of  justiuian.  ^Q  censure  the  corrupt  management  of  justice  and 
the  finance ;  and  the  two  responsible  ministers,  the  artful 
Tribonian  and  the  rapacious  John  of  Cappadocia,  were  loudly 
arraigned  as  the  authors  of  the  public  misery.  The  peaceful 
murmurs  of  the  people  would  have  been  disregarded :  they 
were  heard  with  respect  when  the  city  was  in  flames;  the 
quaestor  and  the  praefect  were  instantly  removed,  and  their 
offices  were  filled  by  two  senators  of  blameless  integrity. 
After  this  popular  concession  Justinian  proceeded  to  the  hip- 
podrome to  confess  his  own  errors  and  to  accept  the  repent- 
ance of  his  grateful  subjects ;  but  they  distrusted  his  assur- 
ances, though  solemnly  pronounced  in  the  presence  of  the 

62  The  history  of  the  Nika  sedition  is  extracted  from  Marcellinus  (in  Chron. 
[an.  532]),  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  26  [c.  24,  torn.  i.  p.  119,  edit.  Bonn]),  John 
Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  213-218  [edit.  Ox. ;  p.  473-477,  edit.  Bonn]),  Chron.  Paschal. 
(p.  336-340  [torn.  i.  p.  620  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]),  Theophanes  (Chronograph,  p.  154- 
158  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  278-286,  edit.  Bonn]),  and  Zonaras  (1.  xiv.  p.  61-63> 


A.D.  532.]  FIRMNESS  OF  THEODORA.  167 

holy  gospels ;  and  the  emperor,  alarmed  by  their  distrust,  re- 
treated with  precipitation  to  the  strong  fortress  of  the  palace. 
The  obstinacy  of  the  tumult  was  now  imputed  to  a  secret  and 
ambitious  conspiracy,  and  a  suspicion  was  entertained  that  the 
insurgents,  more  especially  the  green  faction,  had  been  sup- 
plied with  arms  and  money  by  Hypatius  and  Pompey,  two 
Patricians  who  could  neither  forget  with  honor,  nor  remem- 
ber with  safety,  that  they  were  the  nephews  of  the  Emperor 
Anastasius.  Capriciously  trusted,  disgraced,  and  pardoned 
by  the  jealous  levity  of  the  monarch,  they  had  appeared  as 
loyal  servants  before  the  throne,  and,  during  five  days  of  the 
tumult,  they  were  detained  as  important  hostages ;  till  at 
length,  the  fears  of  Justinian  prevailing  over  his  prudence, 
he  viewed  the  two  brothers  in  the  light  of  spies,  perhaps  of 
assassins,  and  sternly  commanded  them  to  depart  from  the 
palace.  After  a  fruitless  representation  that  obedience  might 
lead  to  involuntary  treason,  they  retired  to  their  houses,  and 
in  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day  Hypatius  was  surrounded 
and  seized  by  the  people,  who,  regardless  of  his  virtuous  re- 
sistance and  the  tears  of  his  wife,  transported  their  favorite 
to  the  Forum  of  Constantine,  and,  instead  of  a  diadem,  placed 
a  rich  collar  on  his  head.  If  the  usurper,  who  afterwards 
pleaded  the  merit  of  his  delay,  had  complied  with  the  advice 
of  his  senate,  and  urged  the  fury  of  the  multitude,  their  first 
irresistible  effort  might  have  oppressed  or  expelled  his  trem- 
bling competitor.  The  Byzantine  palace  enjoyed  a  free  com- 
munication with  the  sea,  vessels  lay  ready  at  the  garden-stairs, 
and  a  secret  resolution  was  already  formed  to  convey  the  em- 
peror, with  his  family  and  treasures,  to  a  safe  retreat  at  some 
distance  from  the  capital. 

Justinian  was  lost,  if  the  prostitute  whom  he  raised  from 
the  theatre  had  not  renounced  the  timidity  as  well  as  the  virt- 
Firmnessof  nes  °f  ner  sex-  I*1  the  midst  of  a  council  where 
Theodora.  Belisarius  was  present,  Theodora  alone  displayed 
the  spirit  of  a  hero,  and  she  alone,  without  apprehending  his 
future  hatred,  could  save  the  emperor  from  the  imminent 
danger  and  his  unworthy  fears.  "  If  flight,"  said  the  consort 
of  Justinian,  "  were  the  only  means  of  safety,  yet  I  should 


168  THE  SEDITION  SUPPRESSED.  [Ch.XL. 

disdain  to  fly.  Death  is  the  condition  of  our  birth,  but  they 
who  have  reigned  should  never  survive  the  loss  of  dignity 
and  dominion.  I  implore  Heaven  that  I  may  never  be  seen, 
not  a  day,  without  my  diadem  and  purple ;  that  I  may  no 
longer  behold  the  light  when  I  cease  to  be  saluted  with  the 
name  of  cpeen.  If  you  resolve,  O  Csesar  1  to  fly,  you  have 
treasures ;  behold  the  sea,  you  have  ships ;  but  tremble  lest 
the  desire  of  life  should  expose  you  to  wretched  exile  and 
ignominious  death.  For  my  own  part,  I  adhere  to  tbe  maxim 
of  antiquity,  that  the  throne  is  a  glorious  sepulchre."  The 
firmness  of  a  woman  restored  the  courage  to  deliberate  and 
act,  and  courage  soon  discovers  the  resources  of  the  most  des- 
perate situation.  It  was  an  easy  and  a  decisive  measure  to 
revive  the  animosity  of  the  factions ;  the  blues  were  astonish- 
ed at  their  own  guilt  and  folly,  that  a  trifling  injury  should 
provoke  them  to  conspire  with  their  implacable  enemies 
against  a  gracious  and  liberal  benefactor ;  they  again  proclaim- 
ed the  majesty  of  Justinian ;  and  the  greens,  with  their  up- 
The  sedition  start  emperor,  were  left  alone  in  the  hippodrome. 
is  oppressed.  TJie  fidelity  of  ^  guarc}s  was  doubtful;  but  the 

military  force  of  Justinian  consisted  in  three  thousand  vet- 
erans, who  had  been  trained  to  valor  and  discipline  in  the 
Persian  and  Illyrian  wars.  Under  the  command  of  Belisa- 
rius  and  Mundus,  they  silently  marched  in  two  divisions  from, 
the  palace,  forced  their  obscure  way  through  narrow  passages, 
expiring  flames,  and  falling  edifices,  and  burst  open  at  the 
same  moment  the  two  opposite  gates  of  the  hippodrome.  In 
this  narrow  space  the  disorderly  and  affrighted  crowd  was  in- 
capable of  resisting  on  either  side  a  firm  and  regular  attack ; 
the  blues  signalized  the  fury  of  their  repentance,  and  it  is 
computed  that  above  thirty  thousand  persons  were  slain  in 
the  merciless  and  promiscuous  carnage  of  the  day.  Hypatius 
was  dragged  from  his  throne,  and  conducted  with  his  brother 
Pompey  to  the  feet  of  the  emperor ;  they  implored  his  clem- 
ency ;  but  their  crime  was  manifest,  their  innocence  uncertain, 
and  Justinian  had  been  too  much  terrified  to  forgive.  The 
next  morning  the  two  nephews  of  Anastasius,  with  eighteen 
illustrious  accomplices,  of  patrician  or  consular  rank,  were 


A.D.  532.]         AGRICULTURE  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE.  169 

privately  executed  by  the  soldiers,  their  bodies  were  thrown 
into  the  sea,  their  palaces  razed,  and  their  fortunes  confiscated. 
The  hippodrome  itself  was  condemned,  during  several  years, 
to  a  mournful  silence ;  with  the  restoration  of  the  games  the 
same  disorders  revived,  and  the  blue  and  green  factions  con- 
tinued to  afflict  the  reign  of  Justinian,  and  to  disturb  the 
tranquillity  of  the  Eastern  empire.68 

III.  That  empire,  after  Rome  was  barbarous,  still  embraced 

the  nations  whom  she  had  conquered  beyond  the  Adriatic, 

and  as  far  as  the  frontiers  of  ^Ethiopia  and  Persia. 

Agriculture        x        .    .  .  .  »  . 

andmanu-      Justinian  reigned  over  sixty -lour  provinces  and 

fftctures  of 

the  Eastern  nine  hundred  and  thirty-five  cities  ;M  his  dominions 
were  blessed  by  nature  with  the  advantages  of  soil, 
situation,  and  climate,  and  the  improvements  of  human  art 
had  been  perpetually  diffused  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  from  ancient  Troy  to  the 
Egyptian  Thebes.  Abraham65  had  been  relieved  by  the  well- 
known  plenty  of  Egypt ;  the  same  country,  a  small  and  pop- 
ulous tract,  was  still  capable  of  exporting  each  year  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  thousand  quarters  of  wheat  for  the  use  of  Con- 
stantinople ;68  and  the  capital  of  Justinian  was  supplied  with 


63  Marcellinus  says,  in  general  terms,  "  Innumeris  populis  in  circo  trucidatis." 
Procopius  numbers  30,000  victims  [torn.  i.  p.  129,  edit.  Bonn] ;  and  the  35,000 
of  Theophanes  are  swelled  to  40,000  by  the  more  recent  Zonaras  [torn.  ii.  p.  63]. 
Such  is  the  usual  progress  of  exaggeration. 

84  Hierocles,  a  contemporary  of  Justinian,  composed  his  EuvfK&jjuoc  (Itineraria, 
p.  631),  or  review  of  the  Eastern  provinces  and  cities,  before  the  year  535  (Wes- 
seling,  in  Prsefat.  and  Not.  ad  p.  623,  etc.). 

ts  See  the  Book  of  Genesis  (xii.  10)  and  the  administration  of  Joseph.  The 
annals  of  the  Greeks  and  Hebrews  agree  in  the  early  arts  and  plenty  of  Egypt : 
but  this  antiquity  supposes  a  long  series  of  improvement ;  and  Warburton,  who  is 
almost  stifled  by  the  Hebrew,  calls  aloud  for  the  Samaritan,  chronology  (Divina 
Legation,  vol.  iii.  p.  29,  etc.).a 

81  Eight  millions  of  Roman  modii,  besides  a  contribution  of  80,000  aurei  for 


■  The  recent  extraordinary  discoveries  in  Egyptian  antiquities  strongly  confirm 
the  high  notion  of  the  early  Egyptian  civilization,  and  imperatively  demand  a  lon- 
ger period  for  their  development.  As  to  the  common  Hebrew  chronology,  as  far 
as  such  a  subject  is  capable  of  demonstration,  it  appears  to  me  to  have  been  framed, 
with  a  particular  view,  by  the  Jews  of  Tiberias.  It  was  not  the  chronology  of  tha 
Samaritans,  not  that  of  the  LXX,  not  that  of  Josephus,  not  that  of  St.  Paul. — Mt 


170  MANUFACTURES  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE.     [Ch.XL. 

the  manufactures  of  Sidon  fifteen  centuries  after  they  had 
been  celebrated  in  the  poems  of  Homer."  The  annual  pow« 
ers  of  vegetation,  instead  of  being  exhausted  by  two  thou- 
sand harvests,  were  renewed  and  invigorated  by  skilful  hus- 
bandry, rich  manure,  and  seasonable  repose.  The  breed  of 
domestic  animals  was  infinitely  multiplied.  Plantations, 
buildings,  and  the  instruments  of  labor  and  luxury,  which  are 
more  durable  than  the  term  of  human  life,  were  accumulated 
by  the  care  of  successive  generations.  Tradition  preserved, 
and  experience  simplified,  the  humble  practice  of  the  arts ; 
society  was  enriched  by  the  division  of  labor  and  the  facility 
of  exchange ;  and  every  Roman  was  lodged,  clothed,  and  sub- 
sisted by  the  industry  of  a  thousand  hands.  The  invention 
of  the  loom  and  distaff  has  been  piously  ascribed  to  the  gods. 
In  every  age  a  variety  of  animal  and  vegetable  productions, 
hair,  skins,  wool,  flax,  cotton,  and  at  length  silk,  have  been 
skilfully  manufactured  to  hide  or  adorn  the  human  body ; 
they  were  stained  with  an  infusion  of  permanent  colors,  and 
the  pencil  was  successfully  employed  to  improve  the  labors  of 
the  loom.  In  the  choice  of  those  colors68  which  imitate  the 
beauties  of  nature,  the  freedom  of  taste  and  fashion  was  in- 
dulged ;  but  the  deep  purple59  which  the  Phoenicians  extract- 
ed from  a  shell-fish  was  restrained  to  the  sacred  person  and 
palace  of  the  emperor,  and  the  penalties  of  treason  were  de- 


the  expenses  of  water-carriage,  from  which  the  subject  was  graciously  excused. 
See  the  thirteenth  Edict  of  Justinian  [c.  viii.]  ;  the  numbers  are  checked  and 
verified  by  the  agreement  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  texts. 

67  Homer's  Iliad,  vi.  289.  These  veils,  ttsttXoi  7ra.niroiiciK.oi,  were  the  work  of 
the  Sidonian  women.  But  this  passage  is  more  honorable  to  the  manufactures 
than  to  the  navigation  of  Phoenicia,  from  whence  they  had  been  imported  to  Troy 
in  Phrygian  bottoms. 

58  See  in  Ovid  (De  Arte  Amandi,  iii.  269,  etc.)  a  poetical  list  of  twelve  colors 
borrowed  from  flowers,  the  elements,  etc.  But  it  is  almost  impossible  to  discrim- 
inate by  words  all  the  nice  and  various  shades  both  of  art  and  nature. 

69  By  the  discovery  of  cochineal,  etc.,  we  far  surpass  the  colors  of  antiquity. 
Their  royal  purple  had  a  strong  smell,  and  a  dark  cast  as  deep  as  bull's  blood — 
"  Obscuritas  rubens  "  (says  Cassiodorus,Var.  1.  1,  c.  2)  "  nigredo  sanguinea."  The 
President  Goguet  (Origine  des  Loix  et  des  Arts,  part  ii.  1.  ii.  ch.  2,  p.  184-215] 
will  amuse  and  satisfy  the  reader.  I  doubt  whether  his  book,  especially  in  Eng* 
land,  is  as  well  known  as  it  deserves  to  be. 


a.d.532.]  USE  OF  SILK  BY  THE  ROMANS.  171 

nounced  against  the  ambitious  subjects  who  dared  to  usurp 
the  prerogative  of  the  throne.80 

I  need  not  explain  that  siW1  is  originally  spun  from  the 

bowels  of  a  caterpillar,  and  that  it  composes  the  golden  tomb 

from  whence  a  worm  emerges  in  the  form   of  a 

The  use  of 

Mikbythe      butterfly.      Till  the  reign    of   Justinian,  the  silk- 

Viomaiis.  "  ° 

worms  who  teed  on  the  leaves  of  the  white  mul- 
berry-tree were  confined  to  China ;  those  of  the  pine,  the  oak, 
and  the  ash  were  common  in  the  forests  both  of  Asia  and  Eu- 
rope; but  as  their  education  is  more  difficult,  and  their  prod- 
uce more  uncertain,  they  were  generally  neglected,  except  in 
the  little  island  of  Ceos,  near  the  coast  of  Attica.  A  thin 
gauze  was  procured  from  their  webs,  and  this  Cean  manufact- 
ure, the  invention  of  a  woman,  for  female  use,  was  long  ad- 
mired both  in  the  East  and  at  Rome.a  "Whatever  suspicions 
may  be  raised  by  the  garments  of  the  Medes  and  Assyrians, 
Virgil  is  the  most  ancient  writer  who  expressly  mentions  the 
soft  wool  which  was  combed  from  the  trees  of  the  Seres  or 

60  Historical  proofs  of  this  jealousy  have  been  occasionally  introduced,  and 
many  more  might  have  been  added ;  but  the  arbitrary  acts  of  despotism  were  jus- 
tified by  the  sober  and  general  declarations  of  law  (Codex  Theodosian.  1.  x.  tit. 
21,  leg.  3;  Codex  Justinian.  1.  xi.  tit.  8,  leg.  5).  An  inglorious  permission,  and 
necessary  restriction,  was  applied  to  the  mimce,  the  female  dancers  (Cod.  Theodos. 
1.  xv.  tit.  7,  leg.  11). 

61  In  the  history  of  insects  (far  more  wondei  ful  than  Ovid's  Metamorphoses) 
the  silk-worm  holds  a  conspicuous  place.  The  bombyx  of  the  isle  of  Ceos,  as  de- 
scribed by  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  xi.  26, 27,  with  the  notes  of  the  two  learned  Jes- 
uits, Hardouin  and  Brotier),  may  be  illustrated  by  a  similar  species  in  China  (Me- 
moiies  sur  les  Chinois,  torn.  ii.  p.  575-598)  ;  but  our  silk -worm,  as  well  as  the 
white  mulberry-tree,  were  unknown  to  Theophrastus  and  Pliny. 


3  The  first  ancient  writer  who  gives  any  information  respecting  the  use  of  silk 
is  Aristotle  (Hist.  Anim.  v.  c.  19),  whose  account  has  been  adopted  with  various 
modifications  by  Pliny,  Clemens  Alexandrians,  and  Basil.  Gibbon  has  fallen 
into  one  or  two  mistakes :  he  has  confounded  the  island  of  Ceos,  near  the  coast  of 
Attica,  with  the  island  of  Cos,  off  the  western  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  the  latter, 
and  not  Ceos,  being  celebrated  for  its  transparent  garments  ;  and  he  has  without 
authority  supposed  that  a  species  of  silk-worm  was  bred  in  this  island.  But  Aris- 
totle, after  describing  the  silk- worm  of  the  East,  only  says,  "Pamphile,  daughter 
of  Plates,  is  reported  to  have  first  woven  in  Cos."  It  is  therefore  probable  that 
the  raw  silk  from  the  interior  of  Asia  was  brought  to  Cos,  and  there  manufactured, 
in  the  same  way,  as  we  learn  from  Procopius,  that  it  was  brought  some  centuries 
later  to  be  woven  in  the  Phoenician  cities  of  Tyre  and  Berytus.  bee  Yates,  Tex- 
trinum  Aptiquorum,  p.  162  seq. — S. 


172  USE  OF  SILK  BY  THE  EOMANS.  [Ch.  XL. 

Chinese  f  and  this  natural  error,  less  marvellous  than  the 
truth,  was  slowly  corrected  by  the  knowledge  of  a  valuable 
insect,  the  first  artificer  of  the  luxury  of  nations.  That  rare 
and  elegant  luxury  was  censured,  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  by 
the  gravest  of  the  Eomans ;  and  Pliny,  in  affected  though  for- 
cible language,  has  condemned  the  thirst  of  gain,  which  ex- 
plored the  last  confines  of  the  earth  for  the  pernicious  pur- 
pose of  exposing  to  the  public  eye  naked  draperies  and  trans- 
parent matrons.69  A  dress  which  showed  the  turn  of  the 
limbs  and  color  of  the  skin  might  gratify  vanity  or  provoke 
desire  ;  the  silks  which  had  been  closely  woven  in  China  were 
sometimes  unravelled  by  the  Phoenician  women,  and  the  pre- 
cious materials  were  multiplied  by  a  looser  texture  and  the 
intermixture  of  linen  threads.64  Two  hundred  years  after  the 
age  of  Pliny  the  use  of  pure  or  even  of  mixed  silks  was  con- 
fined to  the  female  sex,  till  the  opulent  citizens  of  Kome  and 
the  provinces  were  insensibly  familiarized  with  the  example 
of  Elagabalus,  the  first  who,  by  this  effeminate  habit,  had  sul- 
lied the  dignity  of  an  emperor  and  a  man.  Aurelian  com- 
plained that  a  pound  of  silk  was  sold  at  Rome  for  twelve 
ounces  of  gold ;  but  the  supply  increased  with  the  demand, 
and  the  price  diminished  with  the  supply.  If  accident  or 
monopoly  sometimes  raised  the  value  even  above  the  stand- 
ard of  Aurelian,  the  manufacturers  of  Tyre  and  Berytus  were 
sometimes  compelled,  by  the  operation  of  the  same  causes, 
to  content  themselves  with  a  ninth  part  of  that  extravagant 

**  Georgic.  ii.  121.  "  Serica  quando  venerint  in  nsum  planissime  non  scio :  sus- 
picor  tamen  in  Julii  Caesaris  gevo,  nam  ante  non  invenio,"  says  Justus  Lipsius  (Ex- 
cursus i.  ad  Tacit.  Annal.  ii.  32).  See  Dion  Cassius  (1.  xliii.  [c.  24]  p.  358,  edit. 
Keimar),  and  Pausanias  (1.  vi.  [c.  26,  §  6-9]  p.  519),  the  first  who  describes,  how- 
ever strangely,  the  Seric  insect. 

v'a  Tarn  longinquo  orbe  petitur,  ut  in  publico  matrona  transluceat  *  *  *  ut  de- 
nudet  foeminas  vestis  (Tlin.  vi.  20 ;  xi.  26).  Varro  and  Publius  Syrus  had  al- 
ready played  on  the  Toga  vitrea,  ventus  textilis,  and  nebula  linea  (Horat.  Sermon. 
i.  2,  101,  with  the  notes  of  Torrentius  and  Dacier). 

64  On  the  texture,  colors,  names,  and  use  of  the  silk,  half-silk,  and  linen  gar- 
ments of  antiquity,  see  the  profound,  diffuse,  and  obscure  researches  of  the 
great  Salmasius  (in  Hist.  August,  p.  127,  309,  310,  339,  341,  342,  344,  388- 
391,  395,  513),  who  was  ignorant  of  the  most  common  trades  of  Dijon  or  Ley- 
den. 


ITS  IMPORTATION  FROM  CHINA.  173 

rate."  A  law  was  thought  necessary  to  discriminate  the 
dress  of  comedians  from  that  of  senators,  and  of  the  silk  ex- 
ported from  its  native  country  the  far  greater  part  was  con- 
sumed by  the  subjects  of  Justinian.  They  were  still  more 
intimately  acquainted  with  a  shell-fish  of  the  Mediterranean, 
surnamed  the  silk-worm  of  the  sea  :  the  fine  wool  or  hair  by 
which  the  mother-of-pearl  affixes  itself  to  the  rock  is  now 
manufactured  for  curiosity  rather  than  use;  and  a  robe  ob- 
tained from  the  same  singular  materials  was  the  gift  of  the 
Roman  emperor  to  the  satraps  of  Armenia.68 

A  valuable  merchandise  of  small  bulk  is  capable  of  defray- 
ing the  expense  of  land-carriage,  and  the  caravans  traversed 
importation  tne  whole  latitude  of  Asia  in  two  hundred  and 
b™iandand  forty-three  days  from  the  Chinese  Ocean  to  the  sea- 
8ea"  coast  of  Syria.     Silk  was  immediately  delivered  to 

the  Romans  by  the  Persian  merchants,67  who  frequented  the 
fairs  of  Armenia  and  Nisibis ;  but  this  trade,  which  in  the  in- 
tervals of  truce  was  oppressed  by  avarice  and  jealousy,  was 
totally  interrupted  by  the  long  wars  of  the  rival  monarchies. 
The  Great  King  might  proudly  number  Sogdiana,  and  even 
Serica,  among  the  provinces  of  his  empire,  but  his  real  do- 
minion was  bounded  by  the  Oxus,  and  his  useful  intercourse 
with  the  Sogdoites,  beyond  the  river,  depended  on  the  pleas- 
ure of  their  conquerors,  the  white  Huns  and  the  Turks,  who 
successively  reigned  over  that  industrious  people.  Yet  the 
most  savage  dominion  has  not  extirpated  the  seeds  of  agri 

65  Flavius  Vopiscus  in  Aarelian.  c.  45,  in  Hist.  August,  p.  224.  See  Salma- 
sius  ad  Hist.  Aug.  p.  392,  and  Plinian.  Exercitat.  in  Solinum,  p.  694,  695.  The 
Anecdotes  of  Procopius  (c.  25)  state  a  partial  and  imperfect  rate  of  the  price  of 
silk  in  the  time  of  Justinian. 

66  Procopius  de  iEdif.  1.  iii.  c.  1.  These  pinnes  de  mer  are  found  near  Smyrna, 
Sicily,  Corsica,  and  Minorca ;  and  a  pair  of  gloves  of  their  silk  was  presented  to 
Pope  Benedict  XrV. 

61  Procopius,  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  20 ;  1.  ii.  c.  25 ;  Gothic.  1.  iv.  c.  17.  Menander  in  Ex- 
cerpt. Legat.  p.  107  [edit.  Par. ;  p.  296,  edit.  Bonn].  Of  the  Parthian  or  Persian 
empire,  Isidore  of  Charax  (in  Stathmis  Parthicis,  p.  7,  8,  in  Hudson,  Geograph. 
Minor,  torn,  ii.)  has  marked  the  roads,  and  Ammianus  Marcellinus  (1.  xxiii.  c  6, 
p.  400)  has  enumerated  the  provinces.* 


a  See  St.  Martin,  Mem.  sur  l'Arm&iei,  vol.  ii.  p.  4X.— M. 


174:  IMPORTATION  OF  SILK.  [Ch.  XL. 

culture  and  commerce  in  a  region  which  is  celebrated  as  one 
of  the  four  gardens  of  Asia;  the  cities  of  Samarcand  and 
Bochara  are  advantageously  seated  for  the  exchange  of  its 
various  productions,  and  their  merchants  purchased  from  the 
Chinese68  the  raw  or  manufactured  silk  which  they  trans- 
ported into  Persia  for  the  use  of  the  Roman  empire.  In  the 
vain  capital  of  China  the  Sogdian  caravans  were  entertained 
as  the  suppliant  embassies  of  tributary  kingdoms,  and,  if  they 
returned  in  safety,  the  bold  adventure  was  rewarded  with 
exorbitant  gain.  But  the  difficult  and  perilous  march  from 
Samarcand  to  the  hrst  town  of  Shensi  could  not  be  per- 
formed in  less  than  sixty,  eighty,  or  one  hundred  days ;  as 
soon  as  they  had  passed  the  Jaxartes  they  entered  the  desert, 
and  the  wandering  hordes,  unless  they  are  restrained  by  ar- 
mies and  garrisons,  have  always  considered  the  citizen  and 
the  traveller  as  the  objects  of  lawful  rapine.  To  escape  the 
Tartar  robbers  and  the  tyrants  of  Persia,  the  silk-caravans  ex- 
plored a  more  southern  road :  they  traversed  the  mountains 
of  Thibet,  descended  the  streams  of  the  Ganges  or  the  Indus, 
and  patiently  expected,  in  the  ports  of  Guzerat  and  Malabar, 
the  annual  fleets  of  the  West.69  But  the  dangers  of  the  des- 
ert were  found  less  intolerable  than  toil,  hunger,  and  the  loss 
of  time;  the  attempt  was  seldom  renewed,  and  the  only  Eu- 
ropean who  has  passed  that  unfrequented  way  applauds  his 
own  diligence  that,  in  nine  months  after  his  departure  from 
Pekin,  he  reached  the  mouth   of  the   Indus.      The  ocean, 

68  The  blind  admiration  of  the  Jesuits  confounds  the  different  periods  of  the 
Chinese  history.  They  are  more  critically  distinguished  by  M.  de  Guignes  (Hist, 
des  Huns,  torn.  i.  part  i.  in  the  Tables,  part  ii.  in  the  Geography.  Memoires  de 
l'Acade'mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxxii.  xxxvi.  xlii.  xliii.),  who  discovers  the 
gradual  progress  of  the  truth  of  the  annals  and  the  extent  of  the  monarchy,  till 
the  Christian  era.  He  has  searched  with  a  curious  eye  the  connections  of  the 
Chinese  with  the  nations  of  the  West ;  but  these  connections  are  slight,  casual, 
and  obscure ;  nor  did  the  Romans  entertain  a  suspicion  that  the  Seres  or  Sinse 
possessed  an  empire  not  inferior  to  their  own. 

69  The  roads  from  China  to  Persia  and  Hindostan  may  be  investigated  in  the 
relations  of  Hackluyt  and  Thevenot  (the  ambassadors  of  Sharokh,  Anthony  Jen- 
kinson,  the  Pere  Greuber,  etc.  See  likewise  Hanway's  Travels,  vol.  i.  p.  345-357). 
A  communication  through  Thibet  has  been  lately  explored  by  the  English  sover- 
eigns of  Bengal 


A.D.532.]  IMPORTATION  OF  SILK.  175 

however,  was  open  to  the  free  communication  of  mankind. 
From  the  great  river  to  the  Tropic  of  Cancer  the  provinces 
of  China  were  subdued  and  civilized  by  the  emperors  of  tho 
North;  they  were  filled  about  the  time  of  the  Christian  era 
with  cities  and  men,  mulberry-trees  and  their  precious  inhab- 
itants; and  if  the  Chinese,  with  the  knowledge  of  the  com- 
pass, had  possessed  the  genius  of  the  Greeks  or  Phoenicians, 
they  might  have  spread  their  discoveries  over  the  southern 
hemisphere.  I  am  not  qualified  to  examine,  and  I  am  not 
disposed  to  believe,  their  distant  voyages  to  the  Persian  Gulf 
or  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  but  their  ancestors  might  equal 
the  labors  and  success  of  the  present  race,  and  the  sphere  of 
their  navigation  might  extend  from  the  isles  of  Japan  to  the 
Straits  of  Malacca,  the  Pillars,  if  we  may  apply  that  name,  of 
an  Oriental  Hercules.70  Without  losing  sight  of  land,  they 
might  sail  along  the  coast  to  the  extreme  promontory  of 
Achin,  which  is  annually  visited  by  ten  or  twelve  ships  laden 
with  the  productions,  the  manufactures,  and  even  the  artifi- 
cers of  China ;  the  island  of  Sumatra  and  the  opposite  penin- 
sula are  faintly  delineated71  as  the  regions  of  gold  and  silver, 
and  the  trading  cities  named  in  the  geography  of  Ptolemy 
may  indicate  that  this  wealth  was  not  solely  derived  from  the 
mines.  The  direct  interval  between  Sumatra  and  Ceylon  is 
about  three  hundred  leagues;  the  Chinese  and  Indian  navi- 
gators were  conducted  by  the  flight  of  birds  and  periodical 
winds,  and  the  ocean  might  be  securely  traversed  in  square- 
built  ships,  which,  instead  of  iron,  were  sewed  together  with 
the  strong  thread  of  the  cocoa-nut.      Ceylon,  Serendib,  or 


70  Por  the  Chinese  navigation  to  Malacca  and  Achin,  perhaps  to  Ceylon,  see 
Renaudot  (on  the  two  Mahometan  Travellers,  p.  8-11,  13-17,  141-157),  Dampier 
(vol.  ii.  p.  136),  the  Hist.  Philosophique  des  deux  Indes  (torn.  i.  p.  98),  and  the 
Hist.  Generale  des  Voyages  (torn.  vi.  p.  201). 

71  The  knowledge,  or  rather  ignorance,  of  Strabo,  Pliny,  Ptolemy,  Arrian, 
Marcian,  etc.,  of  the  countries  eastward  of  Cape  Comorin,  is  finely  illustrated  by 
D'Anville  (Antiquite  Ge'ographique  de  lTnde,  especially  p.  161-198).  Our  geog- 
raphy of  India  is  improved  by  commerce  and  conquest,  and  has  been  illustrated 
by  the  excellent  maps  and  memoirs  of  Major  Rennell.  If  he  extends  the  sphere 
of  his  inquiries  with  the  same  critical  knowledge  and  sagacity,  he  will  succeed, 

.and  may  surpass,  the  first  of  modern  geographers. 


176  INTRODUCTION  OF  SILK-WORMS.  [Ch.  XL, 

Taprobana  was  divided  between  two  hostile  princes,  one  of 
whom  possessed  the  mountains,  the  elephants,  and  the  lumi- 
nous  carbuncle,  and  the  other  enjoyed  the  more  solid  riches 
of  domestic  industry,  foreign  trade,  and  the  capacious  harbor 
of  Trinquemale,  which  received  and  dismissed  the  fleets  of  the 
East  and  West.  In  this  hospitable  isle,  at  an  equal  distance 
(as  it  was  computed)  from  their  respective  countries,  the  silk- 
merchants  of  China,  who  had  collected  in  their  voyages  aloes, 
cloves,  nutmeg,  and  sandal-wood,  maintained  a  free  and  ben- 
eficial commerce  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 
The  subjects  of  the  Great  King  exalted,  without  a  rival,  his 
power  and  magnificence ;  and  the  Roman,  who  confounded 
their  vanity  by  comparing  his  paltry  coin  with  a  gold  medal 
of  the  Emperor  Anastasius,  had  sailed  to  Ceylon,  in  an  Ethi- 
opian ship,  as  a  simple  passenger.72 

As  silk  became  of  indispensable  use,  the  Emperor  Justinian 

saw  with  concern  that  the  Persians  had  occupied  by  land  and 

sea  the   monopoly  of  this  important  supply,  and 

Introduction  r     J  .  r  iTfJi 

of siik-worms  that  the   wealth   01  Ins   sumects  was  continually 

into  Greece.  .  .  ;'  .  •* 

drained  by  a  nation  of  enemies  and  idolaters.  An 
active  government  would  have  restored  the  trade  of  Egypt 
and  the  navigation  of  the  Red  Sea,  which  had  decayed  with 
the  prosperity  of  the  empire ;  and  the  Roman  vessels  might 
have  sailed  for  the  purchase  of  silk  to  the  ports  of  Ceylon,  of 
Malacca,  or  even  of  China.  Justinian  embraced  a  more  hum- 
ble expedient,  and  solicited  the  aid  of  his  Christian  allies,  the 
^Ethiopians  of  Abyssinia,  who  had  recently  acquired  the  arts 
of  navigation,  the  spirit  of  trade,  and  the  seaport  of  Adulis,"  * 

12  The  Taprobane  of  Pliny  (vi.  24),  Solinus  (c.  56),  and  Salmas.  Plinianas  Ex- 
ereitat.  (p.  781,  782),  and  most  of  the  ancients,  who  often  confound  the  islands  of 
Ceylon  and  Sumatra,  is  more  clearly  described  by  Cosmas  Indicopleustes ;  yet 
even  the  Christian  topographer  has  exaggerated  its  dimensions.  His  information 
on  the  Indian  and  Chinese  trade  is  rare  and  curious  (1.  ii.  p.  138 ;  1.  xi.  p.  337, 
338,  edit.  Montfaucon  [Coll.  Nova  Patrum,  torn.  ii.  Paris,  1706]). 

"3  See  Procopius,  Persic.  (1.  ii.  c.  20  [1.  i.  c.  19]).  Cosmas  affords  some  inter- 
esting knowledge  of  the  port  and  inscription  of  Adulis  (Topograph.  Christ.  1.  ii. 
p.  139, 140-143),  and  of  the  trade  of  the  Axumites  along  the  African  coast  of 
Barbaria  or  Zingi  (p.  138, 139),  and  as  far  as  Taprobane  (1.  xi.  p.  339). 


*  Mr.  Salt  obtained  information  of  considerable  ruins  of  an  ancient  town  neat 


A.D.  532.]  INTRODUCTION  OF  SILK-WORMS.  177 

still  decorated  with  the  trophies  of  a  Grecian  conqueror. 
Along  the  African  coast  they  penetrated  to  the  equator  in 
search  of  gold,  emeralds,  and  aromatics ;  but  they  wisely  de- 
clined an  unequal  competition,  in  which  they  must  be  always 
prevented  by  the  vicinity  of  the  Persians  to  the  markets  of 
India :  and  the  emperor  submitted  to  the  disappointment  till 
his  wishes  were  gratified  by  an  unexpected  event.  The  Gos- 
pel had  been  preached  to  the  Indians:  a  bishop  already  gov- 
erned the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas  on  the  pepper  -  coast  of 
Malabar ;  a  church  was  planted  in  Ceylon,  and  the  mission- 
aries pursued  the  footsteps  of  commerce  to  the  extremities  of 
Asia.74  Two  Persian  monks  had  long  resided  in  China,  per- 
haps in  the  royal  city  of  Nankin,  the  seat  of  a  monarch  ad- 
dicted to  foreign  superstitions,  and  who  actually  received  an 
embassy  from  the  isle  of  Ceylon.  Amidst  their  pious  occu- 
pations they  viewed  with  a  curious  eye  the  common  dress  of 
the  Chinese,  the  manufactures  of  silk,  and  the  myriads  of  silk- 
worms, whose  education  (either  on  trees  or  in  houses)  had 
once  been  considered  as  the  labor  of  queens."  They  soon 
discovered  that  it  was  impracticable  to  transport  the  short- 
lived insect,  but  that  in  the  eggs  a  numerous  progeny  might 
be  preserved  and  multiplied  in  a  distant  climate.  Religion 
or  interest  had  more  power  over  the  Persian  monks  than  the 
love  of  their  country :  after  a  long  journey  they  arrived  at 
Constantinople,  imparted  their  project  to  the  emperor,  and 
were  liberally  encouraged  by  the  gifts  and  promises  of  Jus- 
tinian. To  the  historians  of  that  prince  a  campaign  at  the 
foot  of  Mount  Caucasus  has  seemed  more  deserving  of  a  mi- 
nute relation  than  the  labors  of  these  missionaries  of  com- 
merce, who  again  entered  China,  deceived  a  jealous  people  by 

74  See  the  Christian  missions  in  India,  in  Cosmas  (1.  iii.  p.  178,  179,  1.  xi,  p. 
337),  and  consult  Asseman.  Bibliot.  Orient,  (torn.  iv.  p.  413-518). 

,B  The  invention,  manufacture,  and  general  use  of  silk  in  China,  may  be  seen  in 
Duhalde  (Description  Ge'ne'rale  de  la  Chine,  torn.  ii.  p.  165,  205-223).  The  prov- 
ince of  Chekian  is  the  most  renowned  both  for  quantity  and  quality. 


Zulla,  called  Azoole,  which  answers  to  the  position  of  Adulis.  Mr.  Salt  was  pre- 
vented by  illness;  Mr.  Stuart,  whom  he  sent,  by  the  jealousy  of  the  natives,  from 
investigating  these  ruins:  of  their  existence  there  seems  no  doubt.  Salt's  Sec- 
ond Journey,  p.  452. — M. 

IT.— 12 


178  INTRODUCTION  OF  SILK-WORMrf.  [Ch.  XL. 

concealing  the  eggs  of  the  silk-worm  in  a  hollow  cane,  and  re- 
turned in  triumph  with  the  spoils  of  the  East.  Under  their 
direction  the  eggs  were  hatched  at  the  proper  season  by  the 
artificial  heat  of  dung ;  the  worms  were  fed  with  mulberry- 
leaves  ;  they  lived  and  labored  in  a  foreign  climate ;  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  butterflies  was  saved  to  propagate  the  race, 
and  trees  were  planted  to  supply  the  nourishment  of  the  rising 
generations.  Experience  and  reflection  corrected  the  errors 
of  a  new  attempt,  and  the  Sogdoite  ambassadors  acknowl 
edged  in  the  succeeding  reign  that  the  Romans  were  not  in- 
ferior to  the  natives  of  China  in  the  education  of  the  insects 
and  the  manufactures  of  silk,76  in  which  both  China  and  Con- 
stantinople have  been  surpassed  by  the  industry  of  modern 
Europe.  I  am  not  insensible  of  the  benefits  of  elegant  luxu- 
ry ;  yet  I  reflect  with  some  pain  that  if  the  importers  of  silk 
had  introduced  the  art  of  printing,  already  practised  by  the 
Chinese,  the  comedies  of  Menander  and  the  entire  decades  of 
Livy  would  have  been  perpetuated  in  the  editions  of  the  sixth 
century.  A  larger  view  of  the  globe  might  at  least  have  pro- 
moted the  improvement  of  speculative  science ;  but  the  Chris- 
tian geography  was  forcibly  extracted  from  texts  of  Scripture, 
and  the  study  of  nature  was  the  surest  symptom  of  an  un- 
believing mind.  The  orthodox  faith  confined  the  habitable 
world  to  one  temperate  zone,  and  represented  the  earth  as 
an  oblong  surface,  four  hundred  days'  journey  in  length,  two 
hundred  in  breadth,  encompassed  by  the  ocean  and  covered 
by  the  solid  crystal  of  the  firmament.77 

16  Procopius,  Bell.  Gothic,  iv.  c.  17.  Theophanes,  Byzant.  apud  Phot.  Cod. 
Ixxxiv.  [lxiv.]  p.  38  [edit.  Hoeschel. ;  p.  26  a,  edit.  Bekk.].  Zonaras,  torn.  ii.  1. 
xiv.  p.  69.  Pagi  (torn.  ii.  p.  602)  assigns  to  the  year  552  this  memorable  impor- 
tation. Menander  (in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  107  [p.  295,  296,  edit.  Bonn])  mentions 
the  admiration  of  the  Sogdoites ;  and  Theophylact  Simocatta  (1.  vii.  c.  9)  darkly 
represents  the  two  rival  kingdoms  in  (China)  the  country  of  silk. 

77  Cosmas,  surnamed  Indicopleustes,  or  the  Indian  navigator,  performed  his  voy- 
age about  the  year  522,  and  composed  at  Alexandria,  between  535  and  547,  Chris- 
tian Topography  (Montfaucon,  Praefat.  c.  i.),  in  which  he  refutes  the  impious  opin- 
ion that  the  earth  is  a  globe ;  and  Photius  had  read  this  work  (Cod.  xxxvi.  p.  9, 
10  [p.  7,  edit.  Bekk.]),  which  displays  the  prejudices  of  a  monk,  with  the  knowl. 
edge  of  a  merchant:  the  most  valuable  part  has  been  given  in  French  and  in 
Greek  by  Melchisedec  Thevenot  (Relations  Curieuses,  part  i.),  and  the  whole  is 


a.d.  532.]  STATE  OF  THE  REVENUE.  179 

IV,  The  subjects  of  Justinian  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
times  and  with  the  government.  Europe  was  overrun  by  the 
state  of  the  barbarians,  and  Asia  by  the  monks :  the  poverty  of 
revenue.  ^  West  discouraged  the  trade  and  manufactures 
of  the  East :  the  produce  of  labor  was  consumed  by  the  un- 
profitable servants  of  the  Church,  the  State,  and  the  army ; 
and  a  rapid  decrease  was  felt  in  the  fixed  and  circulating  cap- 
itals which  constitute  the  national  wealth.  The  public  dis- 
tress had  been  alleviated  by  the  economy  of  Anastasius,  and 
that  prudent  emperor  accumulated  an  immense  treasure  while 
he  delivered  his  people  from  the  most  odious  or  oppressive 
taxes.a  Their  gratitude  universally  applauded  the  abolition 
of  the  gold  of  affliction,  a  personal  tribute  on  the  industry  of 

since  published  in  a  splendid  edition  by  Pere  Montfaucon  (Collectio  Nova  Pa- 
trurn,  Paris,  1706,  2  vols,  in  fol.  torn.  ii.  p.  113-346).  But  the  editor,  a  theo- 
logian, might  blush  at  not  discovering  the  Nestorian  heresy  of  Cosmas,  which  has 
been  detected  by  La  Croze  (Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  40-56). 


a  See  the  character  of  Anastasius  in  Joannes  Lydus  de  Magistratibus,  1.  iii.  c. 
45,  46,  p.  230-232  [p.  238-240,  edit.  Bonn]).  His  economy  is  there  said  to  have 
degenerated  into  parsimony.  He  is  accused  of  having  taken  away  the  levying  of 
taxes  and  payment  of  the  troops  from  the  municipal  authorities  (the  decurionate) 
in  the  Eastern  cities,  and  intrusted  it  to  an  extortionate  officer  named  Mannus. 
But  he  admits  that  the  imperial  revenue  was  enormously  increased  by  this  meas- 
ure. A  statue  of  iron  had  been  erected  to  Anastasius  in  the  Hippodrome,  oa 
■"  hich  appeared  one  morning  this  pasquinade  :  — 

EtKova  <roi,f3aai\tv  KOff/JiofQope,  rr)vds  otdripov 

"2rr]<jafi(.v,  dug  \a\iciig  (ovaav,)  arifiortpav  (ird\X6vtAlXth.\ 
'Avri  <povov,  TrtviriQ  r  oAoijc,  \tfiov  ti  koi  opyijg 

Olg  Travra  (pOeipsi  err)  (j>i\oxpvi*o<tvvt). 
Ttirova  £r)  SkuAAj/c.  oXoi/v  aviQivro  Xdpvtdiv, 

"Aypiov  b)\ir\nrr)v  tovtov  ' Avaardaiov. 
AtidiOi  Kai  av,  SkvWcl,  tecuq  <ppim,  fir)  ae  ical  avrr}> 

Bpwtiy,  xa\Kur]v  Sai/iova  KipfiaTiaag. 

This  epigram  is  also  found  in  the  Anthology,  Jacobs,  vol.  iv.  p.  104,  with  eorae 
better  readings : 

This  iron  statue  meetly  do  we  place 

To  thee,  world- wasting  king,  than  brass  more  base; 

For  all  the  death,  the  penury,  famine,  woe, 

That  from  thy  wide-destroying  avarice  flow. 

This  fell  Charybdis,  Scylla,  near  to  thee, 

This  fierce  devouring  Anastasius,  see; 

And  tremble,  Scylla!  on  thee,  too,  his  greed, 

Coining  thy  brazen  deity,  may  feed. 

But  Lydus,  with  no  uncommon  inconsistency  in  such  writers,  proceeds  to  paint 
the  character  of  Anastasius  as  endowed  with  almost  every  virtue,  not  excepting 
the  mmost  liberality.  He  was  only  prevented  by  death  from  relieving  his  subjects 
altogether  from  the  capitation-tax,  which  he  greatly  diminished. — M. 


180  AVAKICE  AND  PROFUSION  OF  JUSTINIAN.       [Ch.  XL. 

the  poor/8  but  more  intolerable,  as  it  should  seem,  in  the  form 
than  in  the  substance,  since  the  flourishing  city  of  Edessa 
paid  only  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds  of  gold,  which  was 
collected  in  four  years  from  ten  thousand  artificers.™  Yet 
such  was  the  parsimony  which  supported  this  liberal  disposi- 
tion, that,  in  a  reign  of  twenty-seven  years,  Anastasius  saved 
from  his  annual  revenue  the  enormous  sum  of  thirteen  mill- 
ions sterling,  or  three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pounds 
of  gold.80  His  example  was  neglected,  and  his  treasure  was 
abused,  by  the  nephew  of  Justin.  The  riches  of  Justinian 
were  speedily  exhausted  by  alms  and  buildings,  by  ambitious 
wars,  and  ignominious  treaties.  His  revenues  were  found  in- 
adequate to  his  expenses.  Every  art  was  tried  to 
profusion  of    extort  from  the  people  the  gold  and  silver  which 

Justinian.  -i-i-i'ii-ie  n        • 

he  scattered  with  a  lavish  hand  irom  .Persia  to 
France  :81  his  reign  was  marked  by  the  vicissitudes,  or  rather 
by  the  combat,  of  rapaciousness  and  avarice,  of  splendor  and 
poverty ;  he  lived  with  the  reputation  of  hidden  treasures,88 
and  bequeathed  to  his  successor  the  payment  of  his  debts.83 

18  Evagrius  (1.  iii.  c.  39,  40)  is  minute  and  grateful,  but  angry  with  Zosimus  for 
calumniating  the  great  Constantine.  In  collecting  all  the  bonds  and  records  of 
the  tax,  the  humanity  of  Anastasius  was  diligent  and  artful :  fathers  were  some- 
times compelled  to  prostitute  their  daughters  (Zosim.  Hist.  1.  ii.  c.  38,  p.  165,  166, 
Lipsias,  1784  [p.  104,  edit.  Bonn.]).  Timotheus  of  Gaza  chose  such  an  event  for 
the  subject  of  a  tragedy  (Suidas,  torn.  iii.  p.  475),  which  contributed  to  the  abo- 
lition of  the  tax  (Cedrenus,  p.  357  [edit.  Par. :  torn.  i.  p.  627,  edit.  Bonn]) — a 
happy  instance  (if  it  be  true)  of  the  use  of  the  theatre. 

79  See  Josua  Stylites,  in  the  Bibliotheca  Orientalis  of  Asseman  (torn.  i.  p.  268). 
This  capitation-tax  is  slightly  mentioned  in  the  Chronicle  of  Edessa. 

80  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  19  [torn.  iii.  p.  113,  edit.  Bonn.])  fixes  this  sum  from 
the  report  of  the  treasurers  themselves.  Tiberius  had  vicies  ter  millies  ;  but  far 
different  was  his  empire  from  that  of  Anastasius. 

81  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  c.  30),  in  the  next  generation,  was  moderate  and  well  informed; 
and  Zonaras  (1.  xiv.  c.  61),  in  the  twelfth  century,  had  read  with  care,  and  thought 
without  prejudice  :  yet  their  colors  are  almost  as  black  as  those  of  the  Anecdotes. 

82  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  30)  relates  the  idle  conjectures  of  the  times.  The 
death  of  Justinian,  says  the  secret  historian,  will  expose  his  wealth  or  poverty. 

83  See  Corippus  de  Laudibus  Justini  Aug.  1.  ii.  v.  260,  etc.,  389,  etc. 

"Plurima  sunt  vivo  niminm  neglecta  parente, 
Unde  tot  exhaustus  contraxit  debita  fiscus." 
Centenaries  of  gold  were  brought  by  strong  arms  into  the  Hippodromes 
"Debita  persolvit  genitoris,  cauta  recepit." 


A.r>.532.]  VICES  OF  JUSTINIAN.  181 

Such  a  character  has  been  justly  accused  by  the  voice  of  the 
people  and  of  posterity:  but  public  discontent  is  credulous; 
private  malice  is  bold ;  and  a  lover  of  truth  will  peruse  with 
a  suspicious  eye  the  instructive  anecdotes  of  Procopius.  The 
secret  historian  represents  only  the  vices  cf  Justinian,  and 
those  vices  are  darkened  by  his  malevolent  pencil.  Ambig- 
uous actions  are  imputed  to  the  worst  motives :  error  is  con- 
founded with  guilt,  accident  with  design,  and  laws  with 
abuses;  the  partial  injustice  of  a  moment  is  dexterously  ap- 
plied as  the  general  maxim  of  a  reign  of  thirty-two  years : 
the  emperor  alone  is  made  responsible  for  the  faults  of  his 
officers,  the  disorders  of  the  times,  and  the  corruption  of  his 
subjects ;  and  even  the  calamities  of  nature,  plagues,  earth- 
quakes, and  inundations,  are  imputed  to  the  prince  of  the 
demons,  who  had  mischievously  assumed  the  form  of  Jus- 
tinian.84 

84  The  Anecdotes  (c.  11-14, 18,  20-30)  supply  many  facts  and  more  complaints.* 


a  The  work  of  Lydus  de  Magistratibus  (published  by  Hase  at  Paris,  1812,  and 
reprinted  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Byzantine  historians)  was  written  during  the 
reign  of  Justinian.  This  work  of  Lydus  throws  no  great  light  on  the  earlier  his- 
tory of  the  Roman  magistracy,  but  gives  some  curious  details  of  the  changes  and 
retrenchments  in  the  offices  of  state  which  took  place  at  this  time.  The  personal 
history  of  the  author,  with  the  account  of  his  early  and  rapid  advancement,  and 
the  emoluments  of  the  posts  which  he  successively  held,  with  the  bitter  disap- 
pointment which  he  expresses  at  finding  himself,  at  the  height  of  his  ambition,  in 
an  unpaid  place,  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  this  statement.  Gibbon  has  before 
(clu  iv.  n.  45,  and  ch.  xvii.  n.  112)  traced  the  progress  of  a  Roman  citizen  to  the 
highest  honors  of  the  State  under  the  empire;  the  steps  by  which  Lydus  reached 
his  humbler  eminence  may  likewise  throw  light  on  the  civil  service  at  this  period, 
lie  was  first  received  into  the  office  of  the  Praetorian  praefect;  became  a  notary 
in  that  office,  and  made  in  one  year  1000  golden  solidi,  and  that  without  extortion. 
His  place  and  the  influence  of  his  relatives  obtained  him  a  wife  with  400  pounds 
of  gold  for  her  dowry.  He  became  chief  chartularius,  with  an  annual  stipend  of 
24  solidi,  and  considerable  emoluments  for  all  the  various  services  which  he  per- 
formed. He  rose  to  an  Augustalis,  and  finally  to  the  dignity  of  Corniculus,  the 
highest,  and  at  one  time  the  most  lucrative,  office  in  the  department.  But  the 
Praetorian  praefect  had  gradually  been  deprived  of  his  powers  and  his  honors. 
He  lost  the  superintendence  of  the  supply  and  manufacture  of  arms;  the  uncon- 
trolled charge  of  the  public  posts;  the  levying  of  the  troops;  the  command  of  the 
army  in  war  when  the  emperors  ceased  nominally  to  command  in  person,  but 
really  through  the  Praetorian  praefect;  that  of  the  household  troops,  which  fell  to 
the  magister  aulas.  At  length  the  office  was  so  completely  stripped  of  its  power 
as  to  be  virtually  abolished  (see  de  Magist.  1.  iii.  c.  40,  p.  220  [p.  233  seq.  edit. 
Bonn.],  etc.).  This  diminution  of  the  office  of  the  praefect  desToyed  the  emolu- 
ments of  his  subordinate  officers,  and  Lydus  not  only  drew  n  revenue  from  his 
dignity,  but  expended  upon  it  all  the  gains  of  his  former  services. 

Lydus  gravely  refers  this  calamitous  and,  as  he  considers  it,  fatal  degradation 


182  PERNICIOUS  SAVINGS.  [Ch.XL. 

After  this  precaution  I  shall  briefly  relate  the  anecdotes  of 
avarice  and  rapine  under  the  following  heads :  I.  Justinian 
Pernicious  was  so  profuse  that  he  could  not  be  liberal.  The 
savings.  civil  and  military  officers,  when  they  were  admitted 
into  the  service  of  the  palace,  obtained  an  humble  rank  and  a 
moderate  stipend ;  they  ascended  by  seniority  to  a  station  of 
affluence  and  repose ;  the  annual  pensions,  of  which  the  most 
honorable  class  was  abolished  by  Justinian,  amounted  to  four 
hundred  thousand  pounds;  and  this  domestic  economy  was 
deplored  by  the  venal  or  indigent  courtiers  as  the  last  out- 
rage on  the  majesty  of  the  empire.  The  posts,  the  salaries  of 
physicians,  and  the  nocturnal  illuminations  were  objects  of 
more  general  concern ;  and  the  cities  might  justly  complain 
that  he  usurped  the  municipal  revenues  which  had  been  ap- 
propriated to  these  useful  institutions.  Even  the  soldiers 
were  injured ;  and  such  was  the  decay  of  military  spirit,  that 
they  were  injured  with  impunity.  The  emperor  refused,  at 
the  return  of  each  fifth  year,  the  customary  donative  of  five 
pieces  of  gold,  reduced  his  veterans  to  beg  their  bread,  and 
suffered  unpaid  armies  to  melt  away  in  the  wars  of  Italy  and 
Persia.     II.  The  humanity  of  his  predecessors  had 

Remittances.  .  "  ... 

always  remitted,  in  some  auspicious  circumstance 
of  their  reign,  the  arrears  of  the  public  tribute,  and  they  dex- 
terously assumed  the  merit  of  resigning  those  claims  which 
it  was  impracticable  to  enforce.  "Justinian, in  the  space  of 
thirty-two  years,  has  never  granted  a  similar  indulgence ;  and 
many  of  his  subjects  have  renounced  the  possession  of  those 
lands  whose  value  is  insufficient  to  satisfy  the  demands  of 
the  treasury.  To  the  cities  which  had  suffered  by  hostile 
inroads  Anastasius  promised  a  general  exemption  of  seven 
years :  the  provinces  of  Justinian  have  been  ravaged  by  the 
Persians  and  Arabs,  the  Huns  and  Sclavonians ;  but  his  vain 
and  ridiculous  dispensation  of  a  single  year  has  been  confined 
to  those  places  which  were  actually  taken  by  the  enemy." 


of  the  Pratorian  office,  to  the  alteration  in  the  style  of  the  official  documents 
from  Latin  to  Greek ;  and  refers  to  a  prophecy  of  a  certain  Ponteius,  which  con- 
nected the  ruin  of  the  Roman  empire  with  its  abandonment  of  its  language. 
Lydus  chiefly  owed  his  promotion  to  his  knowledge  of  Latin. — M. 


a.d.532.]  TAXES.  183 

Such  is  the  language  of  the  secret  historian,  who  expressly 
denies  that  any  indulgence  was  granted  to  Palestine  after  the 
revolt  of  the  Samaritans ;  a  false  and  odious  charge,  confuted 
by  the  authentic  record  which  attests  a  relief  of  thirteen  cen- 
tenaries of  gold  (fifty-two  thousand  pounds)  obtained  for  that 
desolate  province  by  the  intercession  of  St.  Sabas.85  III. 
Procopius  has  not  condescended  to  explain  the  system  of 
taxation,  which  fell  like  a  hail-storm  upon  the  land,  like  a 
devouring  pestilence  on  its  inhabitants:  but  we  should  be- 
come the  accomplices  of  his  malignity  if  we  imputed  to  Jus- 
tinian alone  the  ancient  though  rigorous  principle,  that  a 
whole  district  should  be  condemned  to  sustain  the  partial  loss 
of  the  persons  or  property  of  individuals.  The  Annona,  or 
supply  of  corn  for  the  use  of  the  army  and  capital, 
was  a  grievous  and  arbitrary  exaction,  which  ex- 
ceeded, perhaps  in  a  tenfold  proportion,  the  ability  of  the 
farmer ;  and  his  distress  was  aggravated  by  the  partial  injus- 
tice of  weights  and  measures,  and  the  expense  and  labor  of 
distant  carriage.  In  a  time  of  scarcity  an  extraordinary  req- 
uisition was  made  to  the  adjacent  provinces  of  Thrace,  Bi- 
thynia,  and  Phrygia :  but  the  proprietors,  after  a  wearisome 
journey  and  a  perilous  navigation,  received  so  inadequate  a 
compensation,  that  they  would  have  chosen  the  alternative  of 
delivering  both  the  corn  and  price  at  the  doors  of  their  gran- 
aries. These  precautions  might  indicate  a  tender  solicitude 
for  the  welfare  of  the  capital;  yet  Constantinople  did  not 
escape  the  rapacious  despotism  of  Justinian.  Till  his  reign 
the  straits  of  the  Bosphorus  and  Hellespont  were  open  to 
the  freedom  of  trade,  and  nothing  was  prohibited  except  the 
exportation  of  arms  for  the  service  of  the  barbarians.  At 
each  of  these  gates  of  the  city  a  praetor  was  stationed,  the 
minister  of  imperial  avarice ;  heavy  customs  were  imposed  on 
the  vessels  and  their  merchandise ;  the  oppression  was  retali- 
ated on  the  helpless  consumer ;  the  poor  were  afflicted  by  the 

85  One  to  Scythopolis,  capital  of  the  second  Palestine,  and  twelve  for  the  rest 
of  the  province.  Aleman.  (p.  59  [Procop.  torn.  iii.  p.  407,  408,  edit.  Bonn]) 
honestly  produces  this  fact  from  a  MS.  Life  of  St.  Sabas,  by  his  disciple  Cyril,  in 
the  Vatican  library,  and  since  published  by  Cotelerius. 


184  MONOPOLIES.  [Ch.XL. 

artificial  scarcity  and  exorbitant  price  of  the  market ;  and  a 
people  accustomed  to  depend  on  the  liberality  of  their  prince 
might  sometimes  complain  of  the  deficiency  of  water  and 
bread.88  The  aerial  tribute,  without  a  name,  a  law,  or  a  def- 
inite object,  was  an  annual  gift  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  pounds,  which  the  emperor  accepted  from  his  Prae- 
torian prsefect ;  and  the  means  of  payment  were  abandoned 
to  the  discretion  of  that  powerful  magistrate.  IV.  Even  such 
a  tax  was  less  intolerable  than  the  privilege  of  mo- 
nopolies,* which  checked  the  fair  competition  of 
industry,  and,  for  the  sake  of  a  small  and  dishonest  gain,  im- 
posed an  arbitrary  burden  on  the  wants  and  luxury  of  the 
subject.  "As  soon"  (I  transcribe  the  Anecdotes)  "as  the  ex- 
clusive sale  of  silk  was  usurped  by  the  imperial  treasurer,  a 
whole  people,  the  manufacturers  of  Tyre  and  Berytus,  was 
reduced  to  extreme  misery,  and  either  perished  with  hunger 
or  fled  to  the  hostile  dominions  of  Persia."  A  province  might 
suffer  by  the  decay  of  its  manufactures,  but  in  this  example 
of  silk  Procopius  has  partially  overlooked  the  inestimable  and 
lasting  benefit  which  the  empire  received  from  the  curiosity 
of  Justinian.  His  addition  of  one  seventh  to  the  ordinary 
price  of  copper-money  may  be  interpreted  with  the  same  can- 
dor ;  and  the  alteration,  which  might  be  wise,  appears  to  have 
been  innocent ;  since  he  neither  alloyed  the  purity  nor  en- 
hanced the  value  of  the  gold  coin,87  the  legal  measure  of  pub- 
lic and  private  payments.  V.  The  ample  jurisdiction  required 
by  the  farmers  of  the  revenue  to  accomplish  their  engage- 

86  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  232  [p.  488,  edit.  Bonn])  mentions  the  want  of  bread, 
and  Zonaras  (I.  xiv.  p.  63)  the  leaden  pipes,  which  Justinian,  or  his  servants,  stole 
from  the  aqueducts. 

87  For  an  aureus,  one  sixth  of  an  ounce  of  gold,  instead  of  210,  he  gave  no  more 
than  180  folles  or  ounces  of  copper.  A  disproportion  of  the  mint,  below  the  mar- 
ket price,  must  have  soon  produced  a  scarcity  of  small  money.  In  England,  twelve 
pence  in  copper  would  sell  for  no  more  than  seven  pence  (Smith's  Inquiry  into  the 
"Wealth  of  Nations,  vol.  i.  pr  49).  For  Justinian's  gold  coin,  see  Evagrius  (1.  iv. 
c.  30).  

*  Hullman  (Geschichte  des  Byzantinischen  Handels,  p.  15)  shows  that  the  des- 
potism of  the  government  was  aggravated  by  the  unchecked  rapacity  of  the  officers. 
This  state  monopoly,  even  of  corn,  wine,  and  oil,  was  in  force  at  the  time  of  the 
first  crusade. — M, 


A.D.  532.]  VENALITY.— TESTAMENTS.  185 

ments  might  be  placed  in  an  odious  light,  as  if  they  had  pur- 
chased from  the  emperor  the  lives  and  fortunes  of 
their  fellow -citizens.  And  a  more  direct  sale  of 
honors  and  offices  was  transacted  in  the  palace,  with  the  per- 
mission, or  at  least  with  the  connivance,  of  Justinian  and  The- 
odora. The  claims  of  merit,  even  those  of  favor,  were  disre- 
garded, and  it  was  almost  reasonable  to  expect  that  the  bold 
adventurer  who  had  undertaken  the  trade  of  a  magistrate 
should  find  a  rich  compensation  for  infamy,  labor,  danger,  the 
debts  which  he  had  contracted,  and  the  heavy  interest  which 
he  paid.  A  sense  of  the  disgrace  and  mischief  of  this  venal 
practice  at  length  awakened  the  slumbering  virtue  of  Justin- 
ian ;  and  he  attempted,  by  the  sanction  of  oaths88  and  penal- 
ties, to  guard  the  integrity  of  his  government :  but  at  the  end 
of  a  year  of  perjury  his  rigorous  edict  was  suspended,  and 
corruption  licentiously  abused  her  triumph  over  the  impo- 
tence of  the  laws.  VI.  The  testament  of  Eulalius,  count  of 
the  domestics,  declared  the  emperor  his  sole  heir, 
on  condition,  however,  that  he  should  discharge  his 
debts  and  legacies,  allow  to  his  three  daughters  a  decent  main- 
tenance, and  bestow  each  of  them  in  marriage,  with  a  portion 
of  ten  pounds  of  gold.  But  the  splendid  fortune  of  Eulalius 
had  been  consumed  by  fire,  and  the  inventory  of  his  goods 
did  not  exceed  the  trifling  sum  of  five  hundred  and  sixty-four 
pieces  of  gold.  A  similar  instance  in  Grecian  history  admon- 
ished the  emperor  of  the  honorable  part  prescribed  for  his  im- 
itation. He  checked  the  selfish  murmurs  of  the  treasury,  ap- 
plauded the  confidence  of  his  friend,  discharged  the  legacies 
and  debts,  educated  the  three  virgins  under  the  eye  of  the 
Empress  Theodora,  and  doubled  the  marriage-portion  which 
had  satisfied  the  tenderness  of  their  father.89     The  humanity 


88  The  oath  is  conceived  in  the  most  formidable  words  (Novell,  viii.  tit.  3). 
The  defaulters  imprecate  on  themselves,  quicquid  habent  telorum  armamentaria 
cceli ;  the  part  of  Judas,  the  leprosy  of  Giezi,  the  tremor  of  Cain,  etc.,  besides  all 
temporal  pains. 

89  A  similar  or  more  generous  act  of  friendship  is  related  by  Lucian  of  Eudam- 
Idas  of  Corinth  (in  Toxare,  c.  22,  23,  torn.  ii.  p.  530),  and  the  story  has  produced 
an  ingenious,  though  feeble,  comedy  of  Fontenelle. 


186  THE  MINISTERS  OF  JUSTINIAN.  [CH.XL. 

of  a  prince  (for  princes  cannot  be  generous)  is  entitled  to 
some  praise ;  yet  even  in  this  act  of  virtue  we  may  discover 
the  inveterate  custom  of  supplanting  the  legal  or  natural  heirs 
which  Procopius  imputes  to  the  reign  of  Justinian.  His 
charge  is  supported  by  eminent  names  and  scandalous  exam- 
ples ;  neither  widows  nor  orphans  were  spared ;  and  the  art 
of  soliciting,  or  extorting,  or  supposing  testaments,  was  bene- 
ficially practised  by  the  agents  of  the  palace.  This  base  and 
mischievous  tyranny  invades  the  security  of  private  life  ;  and 
the  monarch  who  has  indulged  an  appetite  for  gain  will  soon 
be  tempted  to  anticipate  the  moment  of  succession,  to  in- 
terpret wealth  as  an  evidence  of  guilt,  and  to  proceed,  from 
the  claim  of  inheritance,  to  the  power  of  confiscation.  TIL 
Among  the  forms  of  rapine  a  philosopher  may  be  permitted 
to  name  the  conversion  of  pagan  or  heretical  riches  to  the 
use  of  the  faithful;  but  in  the  time  of  Justinian  this  holy 
plunder  was  condemned  by  the  sectaries  alone,  who  became 
the  victims  of  his  orthodox  avarice.90 

Dishonor  might  be  ultimately  reflected  on  the  character  of 
Justinian ;  but  much  of  the  guilt,  and  still  more  of  the  profit, 
The  ministers  was  intercepted  by  the  ministers,  who  were  seldom 
of  Justinian.  promoted  for  their  virtues,  and  not  always  selected 
for  their  talents.91  The  merits  of  Tribonian  the  quaestor  will 
hereafter  be  weighed  in  the  reformation  of  the  Roman  law ; 
but  the  economy  of  the  East  was  subordinate  to  the  Prasto- 
rian  prsefect;  and  Procopius  has  justified  his  anecdotes  by 
the  portrait  which  he  exposes,  in  his  public  history,  of  the  no- 
torious vices  of  John  of  Cappadocia.92*    His  knowledge  was 

90  John  Malala,  torn.  ii.  p.  101,  102, 103  [p.  171-173,  edit.  Oxon. ;  439,  440, 
edit.  Bonn], 

91  One  of  these,  Anatolius,  perished  in  an  earthquake — doubtless  a  judgment! 
The  complaints  and  clamors  of  the  people  in  Agathias  (L'v.  p.  146, 147  [edit.  Par. ; 
p.  284  seq.,  edit.  Bonn])  are  almost  an  echo  of  the  anecdote.  The  aliena  pecunia 
reddenda  of  Corippus  (L  ii.  381,  etc.  [Laud.  Just.  Min.])  is  not  very  honorable  to 
Justinian's  memory. 

92  See  the  history  and  character  of  John  of  Cappadocia  in  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i. 
c.  24,  25 ;  1.  ii.  c.  30.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  13.  Anecdot.  c.  2,  1 7,  22).  The  agreement 
of  the  history  and  anecdotes  is  a  mortal  wound  to  the  reputation  of  the  prsefect. 


This  view,  particularly  of  the  cruelty  of  John  of  Cappadocia,  is  confirmed  by 


a-D.532.]  JOHN  OF  CAPPADOCIA.  187 

not  borrowed  from  the  schools,"  and  his  style  was  scarcely 
johu  of  legible ;  but  he  excelled  in  the  powers  of  native 
cappadocia.  genjUSj  to  suggest  the  wisest  counsels,  and  to  lind 
expedients  in  the  most  desperate  situations.  The  corruption 
of  his  heart  was  equal  to  the  vigor  of  his  understanding.  Al- 
though he  was  suspected  of  magic  and  pagan  superstition, 
he  appeared  insensible  to  the  fear  of  God  or  the  reproaches 
of  man ;  and  his  aspiring  fortune  was  raised  on  the  death  of 
thousands,  the  poverty  of  millions,  the  ruin  of  cities,  and  the 
desolation  of  provinces.  From  the  dawn  of  light  to  the  mo- 
ment of  dinner,  he  assiduously  labored  to  enrich  his  master 
and  himself  at  the  expense  of  the  Roman  world;  the  remain- 
der of  the  day  was  spent  in  sensual  and  obscene  pleasures,9 
and  the  silent  hours  of  the  night  were  interrupted  by  the  per- 
petual dread  of  the  justice  of  an  assassin.  His  abilities,  per- 
haps his  vices,  recommended  him  to  the  lasting  friendship  of 
Justinian :  the  emperor  yielded  with  reluctance  to  the  fury 
of  the  people;  his  victory  was  displayed  by  the  immediate 
restoration  of  their  enemy;  and  they  felt  above  ten  years,  un- 
der his  oppressive  administration,  that  he  was  stimulated  by 
revenge,  rather  than  instructed  by  misfortune.  Their  mur- 
murs served  only  to  fortify  the  resolution  of  Justinian ;  but 
the  prsefect,  in  the  insolence  of  favor,  provoked  the  resent- 
ment of  Theodora,  disdained  a  power  before  which  every 
knee  was  bent,  and  attempted  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord  be- 
tween the  emperor  and  his  beloved  consort.  Even  Theodora 
herself  was  constrained  to  dissemble,  to  wait  a  favorable  mo- 
ment, and,  by  an  artful  conspiracy,  to  render  John  of  Cap- 

93  Ov  yap  aXXo  ovdtv  Iq  ypa/s/iaTiffTOv  Qoitwv  Zpa9tv,  on  firj  ypafifLara,  Kai 
ravra  jea/cd  KaKwg  ypa^/ai—a  forcible  expression  [Pers.  i.  c.  24]. 


the  testimony  of  Joannes  Lydus,  who  was  in  the  office  of  the  prefect,  and  eye-wit- 
ness of  the  tortures  inflicted  by  his  command  on  the  miserable  debtors,  or  supposed 
debtors,  of  the  State.  He  mentions  one  horrible  instance  of  a  respectable  old  man, 
with  whom  he  was  personally  acquainted,  who,  being  suspected  of  possessing  mon- 
ey, was  hung  up  bv  the  hands  till  he  was  dead.  Lydus  de  Magist.  lib.  iii.  c.  57, 
p".  254  [p.  251,  editl  Bonn].—  M. 

a  Joannes  Lydus  is  diffuse  on  this  subject,  lib.  iii.  c.  65,  p.  268  [p.  250,  er^t. 
Bonn].  But  the  indignant  virtue  of  Lydus  seems  greatly  stimulated  by  the  l  ss 
of  his  official  fees,  which  he  ascribes  to  the  innovations  of  the  minister. — M. 


188  JOHN  OF  CAPPADOCIA.  [Ch.  XL. 

padocia  the  accomplice  of  his  own  destruction.*  At  a  time 
when  Belisarius,  unless  he  had  been  a  hero,  must  have  shown 
himself  a  rebel,  his  wife  Antonina,  who  enjoyed  the  secret 
confidence  of  the  empress,  communicated  his  feigned  discon- 
tent to  Enphemia,  the  daughter  of  the  prsefect ;  the  credu- 
lous virgin  imparted  to  her  father  the  dangerous  project ;  and 
John,  who  might  have  known  the  value  of  oaths  and  prom- 
ises, was  tempted  to  accept  a  nocturnal,  and  almost  treasona- 
ble, interview  with  the  wife  of  Belisarius.  An  ambuscade 
of  guards  and  eunuchs  had  been  posted  by  the  command  of 
Theodora ;  they  rushed  with  drawn  swords  to  seize  or  to  pun- 
ish the  guilty  minister:  he  was  saved  by  the  fidelity  of  his 
attendants ;  but,  instead  of  appealing  to  a  gracious  sovereign 
who  had  privately  warned  him  of  his  danger,  he  pusillani- 
mously  fled  to  the  sanctuary  of  the  Church.  The  favorite  of 
Justinian  was  sacrificed  to  conjugal  tenderness  or  domestic 
tranquillity ;  the  conversion  of  a  prgefect  into  a  priest  extin- 
guished his  ambitious  hopes ;  but  the  friendship  of  the  em- 
peror alleviated  his  disgrace,  and  he  retained  in  the  mild  ex- 
ile of  Cyzicus  an  ample  portion  of  his  riches.  Such  imper- 
fect revenge  could  not  satisfy  the  unrelenting  hatred  of  The- 
odora ;  the  murder  of  his  old  enemy,  the  Bishop  of  Cyzicus, 
afforded  a  decent  pretence ;  and  John  of  Cappadocia,  whose  ac- 
tions had  deserved  a  thousand  deaths,  was  at  last  condemned 
for  a  crime  of  which  he  was  innocent.  A  great  minister, 
who  had  been  invested  with  the  honors  of  consul  and  patri- 
cian, was  ignominiously  scourged  like  the  vilest  of  malefac- 
tors ;  a  tattered  cloak  was  the  sole  remnant  of  his  fortunes ; 
he  was  transported  in  a  bark  to  the  place  of  his  banishment 
at  Antinopolis,  in  Upper  Egypt,  and  the  Prasfect  of  the  East 
begged  his  broad  through  the  cities  which  had  trembled  at 
his  name.  Daring  an  exile  of  seven  years,  his  life  was  pro- 
tracted and  threatened  by  the  ingenious  cruelty  of  Theodora ; 


a  According  to  Lydus,  Theodora  disclosed  the  crimes  and  unpopularity  of  the 
minister  to  Justinian,  but  the  emperor  had  not  the  courage  to  remove,  and  was 
unable  to  replace,  a  servant  under  whom  his  finances  seemed  to  prospei-.  He  at- 
tributes the  sedition  and  conflagration  called  the  vikcl  (see  p.  164)  to  the  popular  re- 
sentment against  the  tyranny  of  John,  lib.  iii.  c.  70,  p.  278  [p.  265,  edit.  Bonn], 
Unfortunately  there  is  a  large  gap  in  his  work  just  at  this  period. — M. 


A.D.532.]  EDIFICES  AND  ARCHITECTS.  189 

and  when  her  deatli  permitted  the  emperor  to  recall  a  servant 
whom  he  had  abandoned  with  regret,  the  ambition  of  John  of 
Cappadocia  was  reduced  to  the  humble  duties  of  the  sacerdo- 
tal profession.  His  successors  convinced  the  subjects  of  Jus- 
tinian that  the  arts  of  oppression  might  still  be  improved  by 
experience  and  industry ;  the  frauds  of  a  Syrian  banker  were 
introduced  into  the  administration  of  the  finances;  and  the 
example  of  the  prsefect  was  diligently  copied  by  the  quaestor, 
the  public  and  private  treasurer,  the  governors  of  provinces, 
and  the  principal  magistrates  of  the  Eastern  empire.94 

V.  The  edifices  of  Justinian  were  cemented  with  the  blood 

and  treasure  of  his  people;  but  those  stately  structures  ap- 

.  peared  to  announce  the  prosperity  of  the  empire, 

nndarcM-       and  actually  displayed  the  skill  of  their  architects. 

tccls 

Both  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  arts  which 
depend  on  mathematical  science  and  mechanical  power  were 
cultivated  under  the  patronage  of  the  emperors ;  the  fame  of 
Archimedes  was  rivalled  by  Proclus  and  Anthemius ;  and  if 
their  miracles  had  been  related  by  intelligent  spectators,  they 
might  now  enlarge  the  speculations,  instead  of  exciting  the 
distrust,  of  philosophers.  A  tradition  has  prevailed  that  the 
Roman  fleet  was  reduced  to  ashes  in  the  port  of  Syracuse  by 
the  burning-glasses  of  Archimedes  ;95  and  it  is  asserted  that 
a  similar  expedient  was  employed  by  Proclus  to  destroy  the 


94  The  chronology  of  Procopius  is  loose  and  obscure ;  but  with  the  aid  of  Pag;. 
I  can  discern  that  John  was  appointed  Praatorian  Prtefect  of  the  East  in  the  year 
530 ;  that  he  was  removed  in  January,  532 — restored  before  June,  533 — banished 
in  541 — and  recalled  between  June,  548,  and  April  1,  549.  Aleman.  (p.  96,  97 
[Procop.  torn.  iii.  p.  449,  450,  edit.  Bonn])  gives  the  list  of  his  ten  successors — & 
rapid  series  in  a  part  of  a  single  reign. a 

95  This  conflagration  is  hinted  by  Lucian  (in  Hippia,  c.  2)  and  Galen  (1.  iii.  de 
Temperamentis,  torn.  i.  p.  81,  edit.  Basil)  in  the  second  century.  A  thousand 
years  afterwards  it  is  positively  affirmed  by  Zonaras  (1.  ix.  p.  424)  on  the  faith  of 
Dion  Cassius,  by  Tzetzes  (Chiliad  ii.  119,  etc.),  Eustathius  (ad  Iliad.  E.  p.  338), 
and  the  scholiast  of  Lucian.  See  Fabricius  (Biblioth.  Grac.  1.  iii.  c.  22,  torn.  ii. 
p.  551,  552  [edit.  Hamb.  1716]),  to  whom  I  am  more  or  less  indebted  for  several 
of  these  quotations. 

*  Lydus  gives  a  high  character  of  Phocas,  his  successor,  torn.  iii.  c.  72,  p.  288 
[p.  267,  edit.  Bonn].— M. 


100  EDIFICES  AND  ARCHITECTS.  [CH.XL. 

Gothic  vessels  in  the  harbor  of  Constantinople,  and  to  pro- 
tect his  benefactor  Anastasius  against  the  bold  enterprise  of 
Vitalian.98  A  machine  was  fixed  on  the  walls  of  the  city, 
consisting  of  a  hexagon  mirror  of  polished  brass,  with  many- 
smaller  and  movable  polygons  to  receive  and  reflect  the  rays 
of  the  meridian  sun ;  and  a  consuming  flame  was  darted,  to 
the  distance,  perhaps,  of  two  hundred  feet.97  The  truth  of 
these  two  extraordinary  facts  is  invalidated  by  the  silence  of 
the  most  authentic  historians  ;  and  the  use  of  burning-glasses 
was  never  adopted  in  the  attack  or  defence  of  places.98  Yet 
the  admirable  experiments  of  a  French  philosopher90  have  de- 
monstrated the  possibility  of  such  a  mirror ;  and,  since  it  is 
possible,  I  am  more  disposed  to  attribute  the  art  to  the  great- 
est mathematicians  of  antiquity,  than  to  give  the  merit  of  the 
fiction  to  the  idle  fancy  of  a  monk  or  a  sophist.  According 
to  another  story,  Proclus  applied  sulphur  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Gothic  fleet  ;100  in  a  modern  imagination,  the  name  of 
sulphur  is  instantly  connected  with  the  suspicion  of  gunpow- 
der, and  that  suspicion  is  propagated  by  the  secret  arts  of  his 
disciple  Anthemius.101     A  citizen  of  Tralles,  in  Asia,  had  five 


96  Zonaras  (1.  xiv.  p.  55)  affirms  the  fact,  without  quoting  any  evidence. 

91  Tzetzes  describes  the  artifice  of  these  burning-glasses,  which  he  had  read,  per- 
haps with  no  learned  eyes,  in  a  mathematical  treatise  of  Anthemius.  That  trea- 
tise, wepl  irapaSoZuiv  /j.r]xavr)fidTU)v,  has  been  lately  published,  translated,  and  il- 
lustrated by  M.  Dupuys,  a  scholar  and  a  mathematician  (Memoires  de  l'Acade"mie 
des  Inscriptions,  torn.  xlii.  p.  392-451). 

98  In  the  siege  of  Syracuse,  by  the  silence  of  Polybius,  Plutarch,  Livy  ;  in  the 
siege  of  Constantinople,  by  that  of  Marcellinus  and  all  the  contemporaries  of  the 
Bixth  century. 

99  Without  any  previous  knowledge  of  Tzetzes  or  Anthemius,  the  immortal 
Buffon  imagined  and  executed  a  set  of  burning-glasses,  with  which  he  could  in- 
flame planks  at  the  distance  of  200  feet  (Supplement  a  l'Hist.  Naturefle,  torn.  i.  p. 
399-483,  quarto  edition).  What  miracles  would  not  his  genius  have  performed 
for  the  public  service,  with  royal  expense,  and  in  the  strong  sun  of  Constantinople 
or  Syracuse ! 

100  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  120-124  [p.  403-406,  edit.  Bonn])  relates  the  fact ; 
but  he  seems  to  confound  the  names  or  persons  of  Proclus  and  Marinus. 

101  Agathias,  1.  v.  p.  149-152  [edit.  Par.  ;  p.  289-294,  edit.  Bonn].  The  merit 
of  Anthemius  as  an  architect  is  loudly  praised  by  Procopius  (de  iEdif.  1.  i.  c.  1 
[torn.  iii.  p.  174,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Paulus  Silentiarius  (part  i.  134,  etc.  [p.  15,  edit, 
Bonn]). 


A.7).  5:J2.]  EDIFICES  AND  ARCHITECTS.  191 

sons,  who  were  all  distinguished  in  their  respective  profes- 
sions by  merit  and  success.  Olympius  excelled  in  the  knowl- 
edge and  practice  of  the  Roman  jurisprudence.  Dioscorus 
and  Alexander  became  learned  physicians;  but  the  skill  of 
the  former  wras  exercised  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-citizens, 
while  his  more  ambitious  brother  acquired  wrealth  and  repu- 
tation at  Rome.  The  fame  of  Metrodorus  the  grammarian, 
and  of  Anthemius  the  mathematician  and  architect,  reached 
the  ears  of  the  Emperor  Justinian,  who  invited  them  to  Con- 
stantinople ;  and  while  the  one  instructed  the  rising  genera- 
tion in  the  schools  of  eloquence,  the  other  filled  the  capital 
and  provinces  with  more  lasting  monuments  of  his  art.  In  a 
trifling  dispute  relative  to  the  walls  or  windows  of  their  con- 
tiguous houses,  he  had  been  vanquished  by  the  eloquence  of 
his  neighbor  Zeno ;  but  the  orator  was  defeated  in  his  turn 
by  the  master  of  mechanics,  whose  malicious,  though  harm- 
less, stratagems  are  darkly  represented  by  the  ignorance  of 
Agathias.  In  a  lower  room,  Anthemius  arranged  several  ves- 
sels or  caldrons  of  water,  each  of  them  covered  by  the  wide 
bottom  of  a  leathern  tube,  which  rose  to  a  narrow  top,  and 
was  artificially  conveyed  among  the  joists  and  rafters  of  the 
adjacent  building.  A  fire  was  kindled  beneath  the  caldron ; 
the  steam  of  the  boiling  water  ascended  through  the  tubes ; 
the  house  was  shaken  by  the  efforts  of  imprisoned  air,  and  its 
trembling  inhabitants  might  wonder  that  the  city  was  uncon- 
scious of  the  earthquake  which  they  had  felt.  At  another 
time,  the  friends  of  Zeno,  as  they  sat  at  table,  were  dazzled  by 
the  intolerable  light  which  flashed  in  their  eyes  from  the  re- 
flecting mirrors  of  Anthemius ;  they  were  astonished  by  the 
noise  which  he  produced  from  the  collision  of  certain  mi- 
nute and  sonorous  particles ;  and  the  orator  declared  in  trag- 
ic style  to  the  senate,  that  a  mere  mortal  must  yield  to  the 
power  of  an  antagonist  who  shook  the  earth  with  the  tri- 
dent of  Neptune,  and  imitated  the  thunder  and  lightning  of 
Jove  himself.  The  genius  of  Anthemius,  and  his  colleague 
Isidore,  the  Milesian,  was  excited  and  employed  by  a  prince 
whose  taste  for  architecture  had  degenerated  into  a  mischiev- 
ous and  costly  passion.     His  favorite  architects  submitted 


192  CHURCH  OF  ST.  SOPHIA.  [Ch.  XL. 

their  designs  and  difficulties  to  Justinian,  and  discreetly  con- 
fessed how  much  their  laborious  meditations  were  surpassed 
by  the  intuitive  knowledge  or  celestial  inspiration  of  an  em- 
peror whose  views  were  always  directed  to  the  benefit  of  his 
people,  the  glory  of  his  reign,  and  the  salvation  of  his  soul.10* 
The  principal  church,  which  was  dedicated  by  the  founder 
of  Constantinople  to  Saint  Sophia,  or  the  eternal  wisdom,  had 
„     •    .        been  twice  destroyed  by  fire ;  after  the  exile  of 

Foundation  J  . 

of  the  church  John  Chrysostom,  and  during  the  Nika  of  the  blue 

of  St.  Sophia.  .  J         .      ■ '       ,T  &       ,.  ,     ,  , 

and  green  factions.  JNo  sooner  did  the  tumult  sub- 
side than  the  Christian  populace  deplored  their  sacrilegious 
rashness ;  but  they  might  have  rejoiced  in  the  calamity,  had 
they  foreseen  the  glory  of  the  new  temple,  which  at  the  end 
of  forty  days  was  strenuously  undertaken  by  the  piety  of  Jus- 
tinian.'03 The  ruins  were  cleared  away,  a  more  spacious  plan 
was  described,  and,  as  it  required  the  consent  of  some  pro- 
prietors of  ground,  they  obtained  the  most  exorbitant  terms 
from  the  eager  desires  and  timorous  cc^cience  of  the  mon- 
arch.    Anthemius  formed  the  design,  and  his  genius  directed 


102  See  Procopius  (de  JEdificis,  1.  i.  c.  1,  2 ;  1.  ii.  c.  3).  He  relates  a  coincidence 
of  dreams  which  supposes  some  fraud  in  Justinian  or  his  architect.  They  both 
saw,  in  a  vision,  the  same  plan  for  stopping  an  inundation  at  Dara.  A  stone- 
quarry  near  Jerusalem  was  revealed  to  the  emperor  (1.  v.  c.  6  [torn.  iii.  p.  323, 
edit.  Bonn]) :  an  angel  was  tricked  into  the  perpetual  custody  of  St.  Sophia  (Ano- 
nym, de  Antiq.  C  P.  1.  iv.  p.  70). 

103  Among  the  crowd  of  ancients  and  moderns  who  have  celebrated  the  edifice 
of  St.  Sophia,  I  shall  distinguish  and  follow,  1.  Four  original  spectators  and  his- 
torians: Procopius  (de  ^Edific.  1.  i.  c.  1),  Agathias  (1.  v.  p.  152,  153  [p.  296,  297, 
edit.  Bonn]),  Paul  Silentiarius  (in  a  poem  of  1026  hexameters,  ad  calcem  Anna? 
Comnen.  Alexiad. ),  and  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  c.  31).  2.  Two  legendary  Greeks  of  a 
later  period  :  George  Codinus  (de  Origin.  O  P.  p.  64-74  [edit.  Par.  •  p.  130-148, 
edit.  Bonn]),  and  the  anonymous  writer  of  Banduri  (Imp.  Orient,  torn.  i.  1.  iv.  p. 
65-80).  3.  The  great  Byzantine  antiquarian,  Ducange  (Comment,  ad  Paul  Silen- 
tiar.  p.  525-598,  and  C.  P.  Christ.  1.  iii.  p.  5-78).  4.  Two  French  travellers— 
the  one,  Peter  Gyllius  (de  Topograph.  C.  P.  1.  ii.  c.  3,  4)  in  the  sixteenth  ;  the  oth- 
er, Grelot  (Voyage  de  C.  P.  p.  95-164,  Paris,  1680,  in  4to) :  he  has  given  plans, 
prospects,  and  inside  views  of  St.  Sophia;  and  his  plans,  though  on  a  smaller 
scale,  appear  more  correct  than  those  of  Ducange.  I  have  adopted  and  reduced 
the  measures  of  Grelot:  but  as  no  Christian  can  now  ascend  the  dome,  the  height 
is  borrowed  from  Evagrius,  compared  with  Gyllius,  Greaves,  and  the  Oriental  ge« 
ographer. 


i 


A.D.  532.]  CHUKCII  OF  ST.  SOPHIA.  193 

the  hands  of  ten  thousand  workmen,  whose  payment  in  pieces 
of  fine  silver  was  never  delayed  beyond  the  evening.  The 
emperor  himself,  clad  in  a  linen  tunic,  surveyed  each  day 
their  rapid  progress,  and  encouraged  their  diligence  by  his  fa- 
miliarity, his  zeal,  and  his  rewards.  The  new  cathedral  of 
St.  Sophia  was  consecrated  by  the  patriarch,  five  years,  eleven 
months,  and  ten  days  from  the  first  foundation ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  solemn  festival  Justinian  exclaimed  with  devout 
vanity,  "  Glory  be  to  God,  who  hath  thought  me  worthy  to 
accomplish  so  great  a  work;  I  have  vanquished  thee,  O  Solo- 
mon !"104  But  the  pride  of  the  Roman  Solomon,  before  twenty 
years  had  elapsed,  was  humbled  by  an  earthquake,  which  over- 
threw the  eastern  part  of  the  dome.  Its  splendor  was  again 
restored  by  the  perseverance  of  the  same  prince ;  and  in  the 
thirty-sixth  year  of  his  reign  Justinian  celebrated  the  second 
dedication  of  a  temple  which  remains,  after  twelve  centuries, 
a  stately  monument  of  his  fame.  The  architecture  of  St.  So- 
phia, which  is  now  converted  into  the  principal  mosque,  has 
been  imitated  by  the  Turkish  sultans,  and  that  venerable  pile 
continues  to  excite  the  fond  admiration  of  the  Greeks,  and 
.  .  the  more  rational  curiosity  of  European  travellers. 
The  eye  of  the  spectator  is  disappointed  by  an  ir- 
regular prospect  of  half-domes  and  shelving  roofs :  the  west- 
ern front,  the  principal  approach,  is  destitute  of  simplicity 
and  magnificence ;  and  the  scale  of  dimensions  has  been  much 
surpassed  by  several  of  the  Latin  cathedrals.  But  the  archi- 
tect who  first  erected  an  aerial  cupola  is  entitled  to  the  praise 
of  bold  design  and  skilful  execution.  The  dome  of  Saint  So- 
phia, illuminated  by  four-and-twenty  windows,  is  formed  with 
so  small  a  curve,  that  the  depth  is  equal  only  to  one  sixth  of 


104  Solomon's  temple  was  surrounded  with  courts,  porticoes,  etc. ;  but  the  prop- 
er structure  of  the  house  of  God  was  no  more  (if  we  take  the  Egyptian  or  Hebrew- 
cubit  at  22  inches)  than  55  feet  in  height,  36|  in  breadth,  and  110  in  length — a 
small  parish  church,  says  Prideaux  (Connection,  vol.  i.  p.  Hi,  folio) ;  but  few  sanct- 
uaries could  be  valued  at  four  or  five  millions  sterling ! a 


•  Hist,  of  Jews,  vol.  i.  p.  257.— M. 

IV.— 13 


194  CHURCH  OF  ST.  SOPHIA.  [Ch.  XL. 

and  fifteen  feet,  and  the  lofty  centre,  where  a  crescent  has 
supplanted  the  cross,  rises  to  the  perpendicular  height  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  feet  above  the  pavement.  The  circle 
which  encompasses  the  dome  lightly  reposes  on  four  strong 
arches,  and  their  weight  is  firmly  supported  by  four  massy 
piles,  whose  strength  is  assisted  on  the  northern  and  southern 
sides  by  four  columns  of  Egyptian  granite.  A  Greek  cross, 
inscribed  in  a  quadrangle,  represents  the  form  of  the  edifice ; 
the  exact  breadth  is  two  hundred  and  forty-three  feet,  and 
two  hundred  and  sixty-nine  may  be  assigned  for  the  extreme 
length,  from  the  sanctuary  in  the  east  to  the  nine  western 
doors  which  open  into  the  vestibule,  and  from  thence  into  the 
narthex  or  exterior  portico.  That  portico  was  the  humble 
station  of  the  penitents.  The  nave  or  body  of  the  church, 
was  filled  by  the  congregation  of  the  faithful;  but  the  two 
sexes  were  prudently  distinguished,  and  the  upper  and  lower 
galleries  were  allotted  for  the  more  private  devotion  of  the 
women.  Beyond  the  northern  and  southern  piles,  a  balus- 
trade, terminated  on  either  side  by  the  thrones  of  the  emper- 
or and  the  patriarch,  divided  the  nave  from  the  choir ;  and 
the  space,  as  far  as  the  steps  of  the  altar,  was  occupied  by  the 
clergy  and  singers.  The  altar  itself,  a  name  which  insensibly 
became  familiar  to  Christian  ears,  was  placed  in  the  eastern 
recess,  artificially  built  in  the  form  of  a  demicylinder ;  and 
this  sanctuary  communicated  by  several  doors  with  the  sac- 
risty, the  vestry,  the  baptistery,  and  the  contiguous  buildings, 
subservient  either  to  the  pomp  of  worship  or  the  private  use 
of  the  ecclesiastical  ministers.  The  memory  of  past  calami- 
ties inspired  Justinian  with  a  wise  resolution,  that  no  wood, 
except  for  the  doors,  should  be  admitted  into  the  new  edifice ; 
and  the  choice  of  the  materials  was  applied  to  the  strength, 
the  lightness,  or  the  splendor  of  the  respective  parts.  The 
solid  piles  which  sustained  the  cupola  were  composed  of  huge 
blocks  of  freestone,  hewn  into  squares  and  triangles,  fortified 
by  circles  of  iron,  and  firmly  cemented  by  the  infusion  of 
lead  and  quicklime ;  but  the  weight  of  the  cupola  was  dimin- 
ished by  the  levity  of  its  substance,  which  consists  either  of 
pumice-stone  that  floats  in  the  water,  or  of  bricks,  from  the 


A.D.  532.1  CHURCH  OF  ST.  SOPHIA.  195 

isle  of  Rhodes,  five  times  less  ponderous  than  the  ordinary 
sort.  The  whole  frame  of  the  edifice  was  constructed  of 
brick ;  but  those  base  materials  were  concealed  by  a  crust  of 
marble ;  and  the  inside  of  St.  Sophia,  the  cupola,  the  two 
larger  and  the  six  smaller  semidomes,  the  walls,  the  hundred 
columns,  and  the  pavement,  delight  even  the  eyes  of  barba- 
rians with  a  rich  and  variegated  picture. 

A  poet,105  who  beheld  the  primitive  lustre  of  St.  Sophia,  enu- 
merates the  colors,  the  shades,  and  the  spots  of  ten  or  twelve 
marbles,  jaspers,  and  porphyries,  which  nature  had 
profusely  diversified,  and  which  were  blended  and 
contrasted  as  it  were  by  a  skilful  painter.  The  triumph  of 
Christ  was  adorned  with  the  last  spoils  of  paganism,  but  the 
greater  part  of  these  costly  stones  was  extracted  from  the 
quarries  of  Asia  Minor,  the  isles  and  continent  of  Greece, 
Egypt,  Africa,  and  Gaul.  Eight  columns  of  porphyry,  which 
Aurelian  had  placed  in  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  were  offered 
by  the  piety  of  a  Roman  matron ;  eight  others  of  green  mar- 
ble were  presented  by  the  ambitious  zeal  of  the  magistrates 
of  Ephesus :  both  are  admirable  by  their  size  and  beauty,  but 
every  order  of  architecture  disclaims  their  fantastic  capitals. 
A  variety  of  ornaments  and  figures  was  curiously  expressed 
in  mosaic ;  and  the  images  of  Christ,  of  the  Virgin,  of  saints, 
and  of  angels,  which  have  been  defaced  by  Turkish  fanati- 
cism, were  dangerously  exposed  to  the  superstition  of  the 
Greeks.  According  to  the  sanctity  of  each  object,  the  pre- 
cious metals  were  distributed  in  thin  leaves  or  in  solid  mass- 
es.    The  balustrade  of  the  choir,  the  capitals  of  the  pillars, 

105  Paul  Silentiarius,  in  dark  and  poetic  language,  describes  the  various  stones 
and  marbles  that  were  era  ployed  in  the  edifice  of  St.  Sophia  (P.  ii.  ver.  129,  133, 
etc.  etc.  [p.  27  seq.  edit.  Bonn]) :  1.  The  Carystian — pale,  with  iron  veins.  2. 
The  Phrygian — of  two  sorts,  both  of  a  rosy  hue;  the  one  with  a  white  shade,  the 
other  purple,  with  silver  flowers.  3.  The  Porphyry  of  Egypt — with  small  stars. 
4.  The  green  marble  of  Laconia.  5.  The  Carian — from  Mount  Iassis,  with  ob- 
lique veins,  white  and  red.  6.  The  Lydian— pale,  with  a  red  flower.  7.  The 
African,  or  Mauritanian — of  a  gold  or  saffron  hue.  8.  The  Celtic — black,  with 
•white  veins.  9.  The  Bosphoric — white,  with  black  edges.  Besides  the  Procon- 
nesian,  which  formed  the  pavement;  the  Thessalian,  Molossian,  etc.,  which  are 
less  distinctly  paiate£ 


196  CHURCHES  AND  PALACES.  [Ch.  XL. 

the  ornaments  of  the  doors  and  galleries,  were  of  gilt  bronze. 
The  spectator  was  dazzled  by  the  glittering  aspect  of  the  cu- 
pola. The  sanctuary  contained  forty  thousand  pounds'  weight 
of  silver,  and  the  holy  vases  and  vestments  of  the  altar  were 
of  the  purest  gold,  enriched  with  inestimable  gems.  Before 
the  structure  of  the  church  had  arisen  two  cubits  above  the 
ground,  forty-five  thousand  two  hundred  pounds  were  already 
consumed,  and  the  whole  expense  amounted  to 
three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand.  Each  reader, 
according  to  the  measure  of  his  belief,  may  estimate  their 
value  either  in  gold  or  silver;  but  the  sum  of  one  million 
sterling  is  the  result  of  the  lowest  computation.  A  magnifi- 
cent temple  is  a  laudable  monument  of  national  taste  and 
religion,  and  the  enthusiast  who  entered  the  dome  of  St.  So- 
phia might  be  tempted  to  suppose  that  it  was  the  residence, 
cr  even  the  workmanship,  of  the  Deity.  Yet  how  dull  is  the 
artifice,  how  insignificant  is  the  labor,  if  it  be  compared  with 
the  formation  of  the  vilest  insect  that  crawls  upon  the  sur- 
face of  the  temple ! 

So  minute  a  description  of  an  edifice  which  time  has  re- 
spected may  attest  the  truth  and  excuse  the  relation  of  the 
churches  innumerable  works,  both  in  the  capital  and  prov- 
and  palaces.  jncegj  which  Justinian  constructed  on  a  smaller  scale 
and  less  durable  foundations.108  In  Constantinople  alone,  and 
the  adjacent  suburbs,  he  dedicated  twenty-five  churches  to 
the  honor  of  Christ,  the  Virgin,  and  the  saints.  Most  of 
these  churches  were  decorated  with  marble  and  gold;  and 
their  various  situation  was  skilfully  chosen  in  a  populous 
square  or  a  pleasant  grove,  on  the  margin  of  the  sea-shore,  or 
on  some  lofty  eminence  which  overlooked  the  continents  of 
Europe  and  Asia.  The  Church  of  the  Holy  Apostles  at  Con. 
Btantinople,  and  that  of  St.  John  at  Ephesus,  appear  to  have 

106  The  six  books  of  the  Edifices  of  Procopius  are  thus  distributed :  the  first 
is  confined  to  Constantinople ;  the  second  includes  Mesopotamia  and  Syria ;  tha 
third,  Armenia  and  the  Euxine  ;  the  fourth,  Europe ;  the  fifth,  Asia  Minor  and 
Palestine ;  the  sixth,  Egypt  and  Africa.  Italy  is  forgot  by  the  emperor  or  the 
historian,  who  published  this  work  of  adulation  before  the  date  (a.d.  555)  of  its 
final  conquest. 


A.D.  532.]  CHUKCHES  AND  PALACES  197 

been  framed  on  the  same  model :  their  domes  aspired  to  im- 
itate the  cupolas  of  St.  Sophia,  but  the  altar  was  more  judi- 
ciously placed  under  the  centre  of  the  dome,  at  the  junction 
of  four  stately  porticoes,  which  more  accurately  expressed  the 
figure  of  the  Greek  cross.  The  Virgin  of  Jerusalem  might 
exult  in  the  temple  erected  by  her  imperial  votary  on  a  most 
ungrateful  spot,  which  afforded  neither  ground  nor  materials 
to  the  architect.  A  level  was  formed  by  raising  part  of  a 
deep  valley  to  the  height  of  the  mountain.  The  stones  of  a 
neighboring  quarry  were  hewn  into  regular  forms ;  each  block 
was  fixed  on  a  peculiar  carriage  drawn  by  forty  of  the  strong- 
est oxen,  and  the  roads  were  widened  for  the  passage  of  such 
enormous  weights.  Lebanon  furnished  her  loftiest  cedars  for 
the  timbers  of  the  church ;  and  the  seasonable  discovery  of 
a  vein  of  red  marble  supplied  its  beautiful  columns,  two  of 
which,  the  supporters  of  the  exterior  portico,  were  esteemed 
the  largest  in  the  world.  The  pious  munificence  of  the  em- 
peror was  diffused  over  the  Holy  Land ;  and  if  reason  should 
condemn  the  monasteries  of  both  sexes  which  were  built  or 
restored  by  Justinian,  yet  charity  must  applaud  the  wells 
which  he  sunk,  and  the  hospitals  which  he  founded,  for  the 
relief  of  the  weary  pilgrims.  The  schismatical  temper  of 
Egypt  was  ill  entitled  to  the  royal  bounty :  but  in  Syria  and 
Africa  some  remedies  were  applied  to  the  disasters  of  wars 
and  earthquakes,  and  both  Carthage  and  Antioch,  emerging 
from  their  ruins,  might  revere  the  name  of  their  gracious  ben- 
efactor.1" Almost  every  saint  in  the  calendar  acquired  the 
honors  of  a  temple — almost  every  city  of  the  empire  obtain- 
ed the  solid  advantages  of  bridges,  hospitals,  and  aqueducts ; 
but  the  severe  liberality  of  the  monarch  disdained  to  indulge 
his  subjects  in  the  popular  luxury  of  baths  and  theatres. 
While  Justinian  labored  for  the  public  service,  he  was  not 
unmindful  of  his  own  dignity  and  ease.  The  Byzantine  pal- 
ace, which  had  been  damaged  by  the  conflagration,  was  re- 
stored with  new  magnificence ;  and  some  notion  may  be  con- 

1OT  Justinian  once  gave  forty-five  centenaries  of  gold  (£180,000)  for  the  repairi 
of  Antioch  after  the  earthquake  (John  Malala,  torn.  ii.  p.  146-149  [p.  422-424, 
edit.  Bonn]), 


198  FORTIFICATION  OF  EUROPE.  LCH.XI* 

ceived  of  the  whole  edifice  by  the  vestibule  or  hall,  which, 
from  the  doors  perhaps,  or  the  roof,  was  surnamed  choice,  or 
the  brazen.  The  dome  of  a  spacious  quadrangle  was  support 
ed  by  massy  pillars ;  the  pavement  and  walls  were  incrusted 
with  many-colored  marbles — the  emerald  green  of  Laconia, 
the  fiery  red,  and  the  white  Phrygian  stone,  intersected  with 
veins  of  a  sea-green  hue.  The  mosaic  paintings  of  the  dome 
and  sides  represented  the  glories  of  the  African  and  Italian 
triumphs.  On  the  Asiatic  shore  of  the  Propontis,  at  a  small 
distance  to  the  east  of  Chalcedon,  the  costly  palace  and  gar- 
dens of  Herseum108  were  prepared  for  the  summer  residence 
of  Justinian,  and  more  especially  of  Theodora.  The  poets  of 
the  age  have  celebrated  the  rare  alliance  of  nature  and  art,  the 
harmony  of  the  nymphs  of  the  groves,  the  fountains,  and  the 
waves ;  yet  the  crowd  of  attendants  who  followed  the  court 
complained  of  their  inconvenient  lodgings,109  and  the  nymphs 
were  too  often  alarmed  by  the  famous  Porphyrio,  a  whale  of 
ten  cubits  in  breadth  and  thirty  in  length,  who  was  stranded 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Sangaris  after  he  had  infested  more 
than  half  a  century  the  seas  of  Constantinople.110 

The  fortifications  of  Europe  and  Asia  were  multiplied  by 
Justinian  ;  but  the  repetition  of  those  timid  and  fruitless  pre- 
Fortiflcation  cautions  exposes,  to  a  philosophic  eye,  the  debility 
of  Europe.  of  tlie  empire.»i  From  Belgrade  to  the  Euxine, 
from  the  conflux  of  the  Save  to  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  a 

108  For  the  Herseum,  the  palace  of  Theodora,  see  Gyllius  (de  Bosphoro  Thracio, 
I.  iii.  c.  xi.),  Aleman.  (Not.  ad  Anec.  p.  80,  81  [Procop.  torn.  iii.  p.  431,  432,  edit. 
Bonn],  who  quotes  several  epigrams  of  the  Anthology),  and  Ducange  (C.  P. 
Christ.  1.  iv.  c.  13,  p.  175,  17(1). 

109  Compare,  in  the  Edifices  (1.  i.  c.  11)  and  in  the  Anecdotes  (c.  8,  15),  the 
different  styles  of  adulation  and  malevolence:  stripped  of  the  paint,  or  cleansed 
from  the  dirt,  the  object  appears  to  be  the  same. 

110  Procopius,  Goth.  iii.  29 ;  most  probably  a  stranger  and  wanderer,  as  the 
Mediterranean  does  not  breed  whales.  Balsenas  quoque  in  nostra  maria  penetrant 
(Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  ix.  2  [5]).  Between  the  polar  circle  and  the  tropic,  the  ceta- 
ceous animals  of  the  ocean  grow  to  the  length  of  50,  80,  or  100  feet.  (Hist,  des 
Voyages,  torn.  xv.  p.  289.     Pennant's  British  Zoology,  vol.  iii.  p.  35.) 

1,1  Montesquieu  observes  (torn.  iii.  p.  503,  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  la 
Decadence  des  Romains,  ch.  xx.)  that  Justinian's  empire  was  like  Fiance  in  tha 
time  of  the  Norman  inroads— never  so  weak  as  when  every  village  was  fortified- 


A.D  532.]  FORTIFICATION  OF  EUROPE,  199 

chain  of  above  fourscore  fortified  places  was  extended  along 
the  banks  of  the  great  river.  Single  watch-towers  were 
changed  into  spacious  citadels ;  vacant  walls,  which  the  en- 
gineers contracted  or  enlarged  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
ground,  were  filled  with  colonies  or  garrisons :  a  strong  fort- 
ress defended  the  ruins  of  Trajan's  bridge;112  and  several  mil- 
itary stations  affected  to  spread  beyond  the  Danube  the  pride 
of  the  Roman  name.  But  that  name  was  divested  of  its  ter- 
rors ;  the  barbarians,  in  their  annual  inroads,  passed  and  con- 
temptuously repassed  before  these  useless  bulwarks ;  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  frontier,  instead  of  reposing  under  the  shad- 
ow of  the  general  defence,  were  compelled  to  guard  with  inces- 
sant vigilance  their  separate  habitations.  The  solitude  of  an- 
cient cities  was  replenished  ;  the  new  foundations  of  Justin- 
ian acquired,  perhaps  too  hastily,  the  epithets  of  impregnable 
and  populous;  and  the  auspicious  place  of  his  own  nativity 
attracted  the  grateful  reverence  of  the  vainest  of  princes. 
Under  the  name  of  Justiniana  prima,  the  obscure  village  of 
Tauresium  became  the  seat  of  an  archbishop  and  a  prasfect, 
whose  jurisdiction  extended  over  seven  warlike  provinces  of 
Illyricum  ;113  and  the  corrupt  appellation  of  Giustendil  still 
indicates,  about  twenty  miles  to  the  south  of  Sophia,  the  resi- 
dence of  a  Turkish  sanjak.114  For  the  use  of  the  emper- 
or's countrymen,  a  cathedral,  a  palace,  and  an  aqueduct  were 

112  Procopins  affirms  (1.  iv.  c.  6  [torn.  iiL  p.  289,  edit.  Bonn])  that  the  Danube 
was  stopped  by  the  ruins  of  the  bridge.  Had  Apollodorus,  the  architect,  left  a  de- 
scription of  his  own  work,  the  fabulous  wonders  of  Dion  Cassius  (1.  lxviii.  [c.  13J 
p.  1 129)  would  have  been  corrected  by  the  genuine  picture.  Trajan's  bridge  con- 
sisted of  twenty  or  twenty-two  stone  piles  with  wooden  arches  ;  the  river  is  shal- 
low, the  current  gentle,  and  the  whole  interval  no  more  than  443  (Reimar  ad 
Dion,  from  Marsigli)  or  515  toises  (D'Anville,  Ge'ographie  Ancienne,  torn.  i.  p. 
305). 

113  Of  the  two  Dacias,  Mediterranean  and  Ripensis,  Dardania.  Prsevalitana,  the 
second  Msesia,  and  the  second  Macedonia.  See  Justinian  (Novell,  xi.  [Prsef.]), 
who  speaks  of  his  castles  beyond  the  Danube,  and  of  homines  semper  bellicis  su- 
doribus  inhterentes. 

114  See  D'Anville  (Memoires  de  1'Acade'mie, etc.,  torn.  xxxi.  p.  289, 290).  Rycaut 
(Present  State  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  p.  97,  316),  Marsigli  (Stato  Militare  del  Im- 
perio  Ottomano,  p.  130).  The  sanjak  of  Giustendil  is  one  of  the  twenty  under  tha 
begierbeg  of  Rumelia,  and  his  district  maintains  48  zaims  and  588  timariots. 


200  FORTIFICATION  OF  EUROPE.  [Ch.  XI* 

speedily  constructed;  the  public  and  private  edifices  were 
adapted  to  the  greatness  of  a  royal  city ;  and  the  strength  of 
the  walls  resisted,  during  the  lifetime  of  Justinian,  the  un- 
skilful assaults  of  the  Huns  and  Sclavonians.  Their  progress 
was  sometimes  retarded,  and  their  hopes  of  rapine  were  dis- 
appointed, by  the  innumerable  castles  which,  in  the  provinces 
of  Da'cia,  Epirus,  Thessaly,  Macedonia,  and  Thrace,  appeared 
to  cover  the  whole  face  of  the  country.  Six  hundred  of 
these  forts  were  built  or  repaired  by  the  emperor;  but  it 
seems  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  far  greater  part  consist- 
ed only  of  a  stone  or  brick  tower  in  the  midst  of  a  square  or 
circular  area,  which  was  surrounded  by  a  wall  and  ditch,  and 
afforded  in  a  moment  of  danger  some  protection  to  the  peas- 
ants and  cattle  of  the  neighboring  villages.115  Yet  these  mil- 
itary works,  which  exhausted  the  public  treasure,  could  not 
remove  the  just  apprehensions  of  Justinian  and  his  European 
subjects.  The  warm  baths  of  Anchialus,  in  Thrace,  were  ren- 
dered as  safe  as  they  were  salutary ;  but  the  rich  pastures  of 
Thessalonica  were  foraged  by  the  Scythian  cavalry ;  the  de- 
licious vale  of  Tempe,  three  hundred  miles  from  the  Danube, 
was  continually  alarmed  by  the  sound  of  war;116  and  no  un- 
fortified spot,  however  distant  or  solitary,  could  securely  en- 
joy the  blessings  of  peace.  The  straits  of  Thermopylae, 
which  seemed  to  protect,  but  which  had  so  often  betrayed, 
the  safety  of  Greece,  were  diligently  strengthened  by  the  la- 
bors of  Justinian.  From  the  edge  of  the  sea-shore,  through 
the  forests  and  valleys,  and  as  far  as  the  summit  of  the  Thes- 
salian  mountains,  a  strong  wall  was  continued  which  occupied 
every  practicable  entrance.  Instead  of  a  hasty  crowd  of  peas- 
ants, a  garrison  of  two  thousand  soldiers  was  stationed  along 
the  rampart,  granaries  of  corn  and  reservoirs  of  water  were 
provided  for  their  use,  and.  by  a  precaution  that  inspired  the 


1,6  These  fortifications  may  be  compared  tc  the  castles  in  Mingrelia  (Chardin, 
Voyages  en  Perse,  torn.  i.  p.  60,  131) — a  natural  picture. 

116  The  valley  of  Tempe  is  situate  along  the  river  Peneus,  between  the  hills  of 
Ossa  and  Olympus ;  it  is  only  five  miles  long,  and  in  some  places  no  more  than 
120  feet  in  breadth.  Its  verdant  beauties  are  elegantly  described  by  Pliny  (Hist 
Natur.  1.  iv.  15),  and  more  diffusely  by  iElian  (Hist.  Var.  1.  iii.  c.  L\ 


a.d.532.]  FORTIFICATION  OF  EUROPE.  201 

cowardice  which  it  foresaw,  convenient  fortresses  were  erect- 
ed for  their  retreat.  The  walls  of  Corinth,  overthrown  by 
an  earthquake,  and  the  mouldering  bulwarks  of  Athens  and 
Platcea,  were  carefully  restored ;  the  barbarians  were  discour- 
aged by  the  prospect  of  successive  and  painful  sieges,  and  the 
naked  cities  of  Peloponnesus  were  covered  by  the  fortifica- 
tions of  the  isthmus  of  Corinth.  At  the  extremity  of  Eu- 
rope, another  peninsula,  the  Thracian  Chersonesus,  runs  three 
days'  journey  into  the  sea,  to  form,  with  the  adjacent  shores 
of  Asia,  the  straits  of  the  Hellespont.  The  intervals  between 
eleven  populous  towns  were  filled  by  lofty  woods,  fair  past- 
ures, and  arable  lands ;  and  the  isthmus,  of  thirty-seven  sta- 
dia or  furlongs,  had  been  fortified  by  a  Spartan  general  nine 
hundred  years  before  the  reign  of  Justinian.117  In  an  age  of 
freedom  and  valor  the  slightest  rampart  may  prevent  a  sur- 
prise; and  Procopius  appears  insensible  of  the  superiority 
of  ancient  times,  while  he  praises  the  solid  construction  and 
double  parapet  of  a  wall  whose  long  arms  stretched  on  either 
side  into  the  sea,  but  whose  strength  was  deemed  insufficient 
to  guard  the  Chersonesus,  if  each  city,  and  particularly  Gal- 
lipoli  and  Sestus,  had  not  been  secured  by  their  peculiar  forti- 
fications. The  long  wall,  as  it  was  emphatically  styled,  was  a 
work  as  disgraceful  in  the  object  as  it  was  respectable  in  the 
execution.  The  riches  of  a  capital  diffuse  themselves  over 
the  neighboring  country,  and  the  territory  of  Constantinople, 
a  paradise  of  nature,  was  adorned  with  the  luxurious  gardens 
and  villas  of  the  senators  and  opulent  citizens.  But  their 
wealth  served  only  to  attract  the  bold  and  rapacious  barba- 
rians ;  the  noblest  of  the  Romans,  in  the  bosom  of  peace- 
ful indolence,  were  led  away  into  Scythian  captivity;  and 
their  sovereign  might  view  from  his  palace  the  hostile  flames 
which  were  insolently  spread  to  the  gates  of  the  imperial 
city.  At  the  distance  only  of  forty  miles,  Anastasius  was 
constrained  to  establish  a  last  frontier ;  his  long  wall  of  sixty 
miles,  from  the  Propontis  to  the  Euxine,  proclaimed  the  im- 

111  Xenophon  Hellenic.  1.  iii.  c.  2.  After  a  long  and  tedious  conversation  with 
the  Byzantine  declaimers,  how  refreshing  is  the  truth,  the  simplicity,  the  elegance 
of  an  Attic  writer! 


202  SECURITY  OF  ASIA.  [Ch.  XL. 

potence  of  his  arms ;  and  as  the  danger  became  more  immi 
nent,  new  fortifications  were  added  by  the  indefatigable  pru- 
dence of  Justinian.118 

Asia  Minor,  after  the  submission  of  the  Isaurians,1"  remain- 
ed without  enemies  and  without  fortifications.  Those  bold 
security  of  savages,  who  had  disdained  to  be  the  subjects  of 
theiacoDquest  Grallienus,  persisted  two  hundred  and  thirty  years 
ofisamia.  jn  a  Ji£e  0f  independence  and  rapine.  The  most 
successful  princes  respected  the  strength  of  the  mountains 
and  the  despair  of  the  natives :  their  fierce  spirit  was  some- 
times soothed  with  gifts,  and  sometimes  restrained  by  terror; 
and  a  military  count,  with  three  legions,  fixed  his  permanent 
and  ignominious  station  in  the  heart  of  the  Eoman  prov- 
inces.120 But  no  sooner  was  the  vigilance  of  power  relaxed  or 
diverted,  than  the  light-armed  squadrons  descended  from  the 
hills,  and  invaded  the  peaceful  plenty  of  Asia.  Although  the 
Isaurians  were  not  remarkable  for  stature  or  bravery,  want 
rendered  them  bold,  and  experience  made  them  skilful  in  the 
exercise  of  predatory  war.  They  advanced  with  secrecy  and 
speed  to  the  attack  of  villages  and  defenceless  towns ;  their 
flying  parties  have  sometimes  touched  the  Hellespont,  the 
Euxine,  and  the  gates  of  Tarsus,  Antioch,  or  Damascus  ;12' 
and  the  spoil  was  lodged  in  their  inaccessible  mountains,  be- 
fore the  Eoman  troops  had  received  their  orders,  or  the  dis- 
tant province  had  computed  its  loss.  The  guilt  of  rebellion 
and  robbery  excluded  them  from  the  rights  of  national  ene- 
mies ;  and  the  magistrates  were  instructed  by  an  edict,  that 
the  trial  or  punishment  of  an  Isaurian,  even  on  the  festival  of 

118  See  the  long  wall  in  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  [iii.]  c.  38).  This  whole  article  is  drawn 
from  the  fourth  hook  of  the  Edifices,  except  Anchialns  (1.  iii.  c.  7). 

119  Turn  back  to  vol.  i.  p.  569.  In  the  course  of  this  history  I  have  sometimes 
mentioned,  and  much  oftener  slighted,  the  hasty  inroads  of  the  Isaurians,  which 
were  not  attended  with  any  consequences. 

120  Trebellius  PoUio  in  Hist.  August,  p.  197  [Triginta  Tyr.  25],  who  lived  under 
Diocletian,  or  Constantine.  See  likewise  Pancirolus  ad  Notit.  Imp.  Orient,  c.  115, 
141.  See  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  ix.  tit.  35,  leg.  37  [7],  with  a  copious  collective  Anno- 
tation of  Godefroy,  torn.  iii.  p.  256,  257. 

121  See  the  full  and  wide  extent  of  their  inroads  in  Philostorgius  (Hist.  Eccles. 
I.  xi.  c.  8),  with  Godefroy's  learned  Dissertations. 


a.d.532.]  SECURITY  OF  ASIA.  203 

Easter,  was  a  meritorious  act  of  justice  and  piety."*  If  the 
captives  were  condemned  to  domestic  slavery,  they  maintain- 
ed, with  their  sword  or  dagger,  the  private  quarrel  of  their 
masters ;  and  it  was  found  expedient  for  the  public  tranquilli- 
ty to  prohibit  the  service  of  such  dangerous  retainers.  When 
their  countryman  Tarcalissseus  or  Zeno  ascended  the  throne, 
lie  invited  a  faithful  and  formidable  band  of  Isaurians,  who 
insulted  the  court  and  city,  and  were  rewarded  by  an  annual 
tribute  of  five  thousand  pounds  of  gold.  But  the  hopes  of 
fortune  depopulated  the  mountains,  luxury  enervated  the 
hardiness  of  their  minds  and  bodies,  and,  in  proportion  as 
they  mixed  with  mankind,  they  became  less  qualified  for  the 
enjoyment  of  poor  and  solitary  freedom.  After  the  death  of 
Zeno,  his  successor  Anastasius  suppressed  their  pensions,  ex- 
posed their  persons  to  the  revenge  of  the  people,  banished 
them  from  Constantinople,  and  prepared  to.  sustain  a  war 
which  left  only  the  alternative  of  victory  or  servitude.  A 
brother  of  the  last  emperor  usurped  the  title  of  Augustus ; 
his  cause  was  powerfully  supported  by  the  arms,  the  treas- 
ures, and  the  magazines  collected  by  Zeno ;  and  the  native 
Isaurians  must  have  formed  the  smallest  portion  of  the  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  barbarians  under  his  standard,  which 
was  sanctified  for  the  first  time  by  the  presence  of  a  fighting 
bishop.  Their  disorderly  numbers  were  vanquished  in  the 
plains  of  Phrygia  by  the  valor  and  discipline  of  the  Goths, 
but  a  war  of  six  years  almost  exhausted  the  cour- 

a.d.  492-498. 

age  of  the  emperor.123  The  Isaurians  retired  to 
their  mountains,  their  fortresses  were  successively  besieged 
and  ruined,  their  communication  with  the  sea  was  intercepted, 
the  bravest  of  their  leaders  died  in  arms,  the  surviving  chiefs 
before  their  execution  were  dragged  in  chains  through  the 

122  Cod.  Justinian.  1.  ix.  tit.  12,  leg.  10.  The  punishments  are  severe — a  fine 
of  a  hundred  pounds  of  gold,  degradation,  and  even  death.  The  public  peace 
might  afford  a  pretence,  but  Zeno  was  desirous  of  monopolizing  the  valor  and  ser- 
vice of  the  Isaurians. 

123  The  Isaurian  war  and  the  triumph  of  Anastasius  are  briefly  and  darkly  rep- 
resented by  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  106,  107  [p.  393,  394,  edit.  Bonn]),  Evagrius 
(1.  iii.  c.  35),  Theophanes  (p.  118-120  [edit.  Par.  ;  torn.  i.  p.  212-215,  edit.  Bonn]), 
and  the  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus. 


204  FORTIFICATIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  [Ch.  XL, 

hippodrome,  a  colony  of  their  youth  was  transplanted  into 
Thrace,  and  the  remnant  of  the  people  submitted  to  the  Ro- 
man government.  Yet  some  generations  elapsed  before  their 
minds  were  reduced  to  the  level  of  slavery.  The  populoui 
villages  of  Mount  Taurus  were  filled  with  horsemen  and 
archers;  they  resisted  the  imposition  of  tributes;  but  they 
recruited  the  armies  of  Justinian ;  and  his  civil  magistrates, 
the  Proconsul  of  Cappadocia,  the  Count  of  Isauria,  and  the 
Praetors  of  Lycaonia  and  Pisidia,  were  invested  with  military 
power  to  restrain  the  licentious  practice  of  rapes  and  assassi- 
nations.124 

If  we  extend  our  view  from  the  tropic  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Tanais,  we  may  observe,  on  one  hand,  the  precautions  of  Jus- 
Fortifications  tinian  to  curb  the  savages  of  ^Ethiopia,128  and,  on 
plrS'from  tne  other,  the  long  walls  which  he  constructed  in 
thefSiau*0  Crimsea  for  the  protection  of  his  friendly  Goths,  a 
frontier.  colony  of  three  thousand  shepherds  and  warriors.128 
From  that  peninsula  to  Trebizond  the  eastern  curve  of  the 
Euxine  was  secured  by  forts,  by  alliance,  or  by  religion  ;  and 
the  possession  of  Lazica,  the  Colchos  of  ancient,  the  Mingre- 
lia  of  modern,  geography,  soon  became  the  object  of  an  im- 
portant war.  Trebizond,  in  after-times  the  seat  of  a  roman- 
tic empire,  was  indebted  to  the  liberality  of  Justinian  for  a 


124  ;Fortes  ea  regio  (says  Justinian)  viros  habet,  nee  in  ullo  differt  ab  Isauria ; 
though  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  18  [torn.  i.  p.  96,  edit.  Bonn])  marks  an  essential 
difference  between  their  military  character ;  yet  in  former  times  the  Lycaoniana 
and  Pisidians  had  defended  their  liberty  against  the  Great  King  (Xenophon,  Anab- 
asis, 1.  iii.  c.  2).  Justinian  introduces  some  false  and  ridiculous  erudition  of  the 
ancient  empire  of  the  Pisidians,  and  of  Lycaon,  who,  after  visiting  Rome  (long 
before  iEneas),  gave  a  name  and  people  to  Lycaonia  (Novell.  24,  25,  27,  30). 

125  See  Procopius  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  19.  The  altar  of  national  concord,  of  annual 
sacrifice  and  oaths,  which  Diocletian  had  erected  in  the  isle  of  Elephantine,  was 
demolished  by  Justinian  with  less  policy  than  zeal. 

126  Procopius  de  ^Edificiis,  1.  iii.  c.  7  [p.  262,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Bell.  Goth.  iv.  c.  3, 
4  [p.  469  seq.  edit.  Bonn].  These  unambitious  Goths  had  refused  to  follow  the 
standard  of  Theodoric.  As  late  as  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century  the  name 
and  nation  might  be  discovered  between  Caffa  and  the  Straits  of  Azoph  (D'An- 
ville,  Memoires  de  l'Acade'mie,  torn.  xxx.  p.  240).  They  well  deserved  the  curi- 
osity of  Busbequius  (p.  321-326)  ;  but  seem  to  have  vanished  in  the  more  recent 
account  of  the  Missions  du  Levant  (torn,  i.),  Tott,  Peysonnel,  etc. 


h.v.  492-498.]      FORTIFICATIONS  OF  THE  EMPIIiE.  205 

church,  an  aqueduct,  and  a  castle,  whose  ditches  are  hewn  in 
the  solid  rock.  From  that  maritime  city  a  frontier  line  of 
five  hundred  miles  may  be  drawn  to  the  fortress  of  Cir- 
cesium,  the  last  Roman  station  on  the  Euphrates.137  Above 
Trebizond  immediately,  and  live  days'  journey  to  the  south, 
the  country  rises  into  dark  forests  and  craggy  mountains,  a8 
savage  though  not  so  lofty  as  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees.  In 
this  rigorous  climate,128  where  the  snows  seldom  melt,  the 
fruits  are  tardy  and  tasteless ;  even  honey  is  poisonous :  the 
most  industrious  tillage  would  be  confined  to  some  pleasant 
valleys,  and  the  pastoral  tribes  obtained  a  scanty  sustenance 
from  the  flesh  and  milk  of  their  cattle.  The  ChalyMans129 
derived  their  name  and  temper  from  the  iron  quality  of  the 
soil ;  and,  since  the  days  of  Cyrus,  they  might  produce,  under 
the  various  appellations  of  Chaldseans  and  Zanians,  an  unin- 
terrupted prescription  of  war  and  rapine.  Under  the  reign 
of  Justinian  they  acknowledged  the  god  and  the  emperor  of 
the  Romans,  and  seven  fortresses  were  built  in  the  most  ac- 
cessible passes  to  exclude  the  ambition  of  the  Persian  mon- 
arch.130 The  principal  source  of  the  Euphrates  descends  from 
the  Chalybian  mountains,  and  seems  to  flow  towards  the  west 
and  the  Euxine :  bending  to  the  southwest,  the  river  passes 

127  For  the  geography  and  architecture  of  this  Armenian  border  see  the  Per- 
sian Wars  and  Edifices  (1.  ii.  c.  4-7 ;  1.  iii.  c.  2-7)  of  Procopius. 

128  The  country  is  described  by  Tournefort  (Voyage  au  Levant,  torn.  iii.  lettre 
xvii.  xviii.).  That  skilful  botanist  soon  discovered  the  plant  that  infects  the 
honey  (Plin.  xxi.  44,  45):  he  observes  that  the  soldiers  ofLucullus  might  indeed 
be  astonished  at  the  cold,  since,  even  in  the  plain  ofErzerum,  snow  sometimes 
falls  in  June,  and  the  harvest  is  seldom  finished  before  September.  The  hills  of 
Armenia  are  below  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude ;  but  iu  the  mountainous  coun- 
try which  I  inhabit  it  is  well  known  that  an  ascent  of  some  hours  carries  the  trav- 
eller from  the  climate  of  Languedoc  to  that  of  Norway ;  and  a  general  theory  has 
been  introduced  that,  under  the  line,  an  elevation  of  2400  toises  is  equivalent  to 
the  cold  of  the  polar  circle  (Remond,  Observations  sur  les  Voyages  de  Coxe  dans 
la  Suisse,  torn.  ii.  p.  104). 

129  The  identity  or  proximity  of  the  Chalybians,  or  Chaldaaans,  may  be  investi- 
gated in  Strabo  (1.  xii.  p.  825,  826  [p.  548,  549,  edit.  Casaub.]),  Cellarius  (Geo- 
graph.  Antiq.  torn.  ii.  p.  202-204),  and  Freret  (Mem.  de  l'Acade'mie,  torn.  iv.  p. 
594).  Xenophon  supposes,  in  his  romance  (Cyropaed.  1.  iii.  [c.  2],  the  same  bar« 
barians  against  whom  he  had  fought  in  his  retreat  (Anabasis,  1.  iv.  [c.  &]). 

13f"  Procopius,  Persic,  1.  i.  c.  15 ;  De  iEdific.  1.  iiL  c  6. 


206  FORTIFICATIONS  OF  THE  EMPIEE.  [Ch.  XL. 

under  the  walls  of  Satala  and  Melitene  (which  were  restored 
by  Justinian  as  the  bulwarks  of  the  lesser  Armenia),  and  grad- 
ually approaches  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  till  at  length,  re- 
pelled by  Mount  Taurus,131  the  Euphrates  inclines  his  long 
and  flexible  course  to  the  southeast  and  the  Gulf  of  Persia. 
Among  the  Roman  cities  beyond  the  Euphrates  we  distin- 
guish two  recent  foundations,  which  were  named  from  Theo- 
dosius  and  the  relics  of  the  martyrs,  and  two  capitals,  Amida 
and  Edessa,  which  are  celebrated  in  the  history  of  every  age. 
Their  strength  was  proportioned  by  Justinian  to  the  danger 
of  their  situation.  A  ditch  and  palisade  might  be  sufficient 
to  resist  the  artless  force  of  the  cavalry  of  Scythia,  but  more 
elaborate  works  were  required  to  sustain  a  regular  siege 
against  the  arms  and  treasures  of  the  Great  King.  His  skil- 
ful engineers  understood  the  methods  of  conducting  deep 
mines,  and  of  raising  platforms  to  the  level  of  the  rampart. 
He  shook  the  strongest  battlements  with  his  military  engines, 
and  sometimes  advanced  to  the  assault  with  a  line  of  movable 
turrets  on  the  backs  of  elephants.  In  the  great  cities  of  the 
East  the  disadvantage  of  space,  perhaps  of  position,  was  com- 
pensated by  the  zeal  of  the  people,  who  seconded  the  garrison 
in  the  defence  of  their  country  and  religion ;  and  the  fabu- 
lous promise  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  Edessa  should  never  be 
taken,  tilled  the  citizens  with  valiant  confidence,  and  chilled 
the  besiegers  with  doubt  and  dismay.132  The  subordinate 
towns  of  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia  were  diligently  strength- 
ened, and  the  posts  which  appeared  to  have  any  command  of 
ground  or  water  were  occupied  by  numerous  forts  substantial- 
ly built  of  stone,  or  more  hastily  erected  writh  the  obvious  ma- 

131  Ni  Taurus  obstet  in  nostra  maria  venturus  (Pomponius  Mela,  iii.  8).  Pliny, 
a  poet  as  well  as  a  naturalist  (v.  20),  personifies  the  river  and  mountain  and  de- 
scribes their  combat.  See  the  course  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  in  the  excel- 
lent treatise  of  D'Anville. 

132  procopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  12  [torn.  i.  p.  208,  edit.  Bonn])  tells  the  story  with 
the  tone,  half  sceptical,  half  superstitious,  of  Herodotus.  The  promise  was  not 
in  the  primitive  lie  of  Eusebius,  but  dates  at  least  from  the  year  400 ;  and  a  third 
lie,  the  Veronica,  was  soon  raised  on  the  two  former  (Evagrius,  I.  iv.  c.  27).  As 
Edessa  has  been  taken,  Tillemont  must  disclaim  the  promise  (Me'm.  Eccles.  torn, 
i  p.  362,  383,  617). 


A.D.  488.]  DEATH  OF  PEEOZES,  KING  OF  PERSIA.  207 

terials  of  earth  and  brick.  The  eye  of  Justinian  investigated 
every  spot,  and  his  cruel  precautions  might  attract  the  waf 
into  some  lonely  vale,  whose  peaceful  natives,  connected  by 
trade  and  marriage,  were  ignorant  of  national  discord  and  the 
quarrels  of  princes.  Westward  of  the  Euphrates  a  sandy  des- 
ert extends  above  six  hundred  miles  to  the  Red  Sea.  Nature 
had  interposed  a  vacant  solitude  between  the  ambition  of  two 
rival  empires;  the  Arabians, till  Mahomet  arose,  were  formi- 
dable only  as  robbers ;  and  in  the  proud  security  of  peace  the 
fortifications  of  Syria  were  neglected  on  the  most  vulnerable 
side. 

But  the  national  enmity,  at  least  the  effects  of  that  enmity, 
had  been  suspended  by  a  truce  which  continued  above  four- 
score years.     An  ambassador  from  the   Emperor 
Perozes,         Zeno  accompanied  the  rash  and  unfortunate  Pero- 
Pe"JL°  zesa  in  his  expedition  against  the  lSTepthalites,b  or 

White  Huns,  whose  conquests  had  been  stretched 
from  the  Caspian  to  the  heart  of  India,  whose  throne  was 
enriched  with  emeralds,133  and  whose  cavalry  was  supported 
by  a  line  of  two  thousand  elephants.134  The  Persians0  were 
twice  circumvented,  in  a  situation  which  made  valor  useless 
and  flight  impossible,  and  the  double  victory  of  the  Huns 

133  They  were  purchased  from  the  merchants  of  Adulis  who  traded  to  India 
(Cosmas,  Topograph.  Christ.  1.  si.  p.  339) ;  yet,  in  the  estimate  of  precious  stones, 
the  Scythian  emerald  was  the  first,  the  Bactrian  the  second,  the  ^Ethiopian  only 
the  third  (Hill's  Theophrastus,  p.  61,  etc.,  92).  The  production,  mines,  etc.,  of 
emeralds,  are  involved  in  darkness ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  we  possess  any  of 
the  twelve  sorts  known  to  the  ancients  (Goguet,  Origine  des  Loix,  etc.,  part  ii.  1. 
ii.  c.  2,  art.  3).  In  this  war  the  Huns  got,  or  at  least  Perozes  lost,  the  finest  pearl 
in  the  world,  of  which  Procopius  relates  a  ridiculous  fable. 

134  The  Indo-Scythas  continued  to  reign  from  the  time  of  Augustus  (Dionyfl. 
Perieget.  1088,  with  the  Commentary  of  Eustathius,  in  Hudson,  Geograph.  Mi- 
nor, torn,  iv.)  to  that  of  the  elder  Justin  (Cosmas,  Topograph.  Christ.  1.  xi.  p. 
338,  339).  On  their  origin  and  conquests  see  D'Anville  (sur  lTnde,  p.  18,  45, 
etc.,  69,  85,  89).     In  the  second  century  they  were  masters  of  Larice  or  Guzerat. 


*  Firouz  the  Conqueror— unfortunately  so  named.  See  St.  Martin,  vol.  vi.  p. 
439.— M. 

b  Respecting  this  people,  more  properly  called  Ephthalites,  see  editor's  note, 
rol.iii.  p.  121.— S. 

c  According  to  the  Persian  historians,  he  was  misled  by  guides  who  used  tha 
old  stratagem  of  Zopyrus.     Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  101. — M. 


208  THE  PERSIAN  WAR.  [Ch.  XE, 

was  achieved  by  military  stratagem.  They  dismissed  their 
royal  captive  after  he  had  submitted  to  adore  the  majesty  of 
a  barbarian,  and  the  humiliation  was  poorly  evaded  by  th& 
casuistical  subtlety  of  the  Magi,  who  instructed  Perozes  to 
direct  his  attention  to  the  rising  sun.a  The  indignant  suc- 
cessor of  Cyrus  forgot  his  danger  and  his  gratitude ;  he  re- 
newed the  attack  with  headstrong  fury,  and  lost  both  his 
army  and  his  life.135  The  death  of  Perozes  abandoned  Persia 
to  her  foreign  and  domestic  enemies,b  and  twelve  years  of 
confusion  elapsed  before  his  son  Cabades  or  Kobad  could  em- 
brace any  designs  of  ambition  or  revenge.  The  unkind  par- 
simony of  Anastasius  was  the  motive  or  pretence 
Bian  war.  of  a  Roman  war  ;186  the  Huns  and  Arabs  marched 
under  the  Persian  standard,  and  the  fortifications 
of  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia  were  at  that  time  in  a  ruinous 
or  imperfect  condition.  The  emperor  returned  his  thanks  to 
the  governor  and  people  of  Martyropolis  for  the  prompt  sur- 
render of  a  city  which  could  not  be  successfully  defended, 
and  the  conflagration  of  Theodosiopolis  might  justify  the 
conduct  of  their  prudent  neighbors.  Amida  sustained  a  long 
and  destructive  siege :  at  the  end  of  three  months  the  loss  of 
fifty  thousand  of  the  soldiers  of  Cabades  was  not  balanced 
by  any  prospect  of  success,  and  it  was  in  vain  that  the  Magi 
deduced  a  flattering  prediction  from  the  indecency  of  the 

135  See  the  fate  of  Phirouz  or  Perozes  and  its  consequences,  in  Procopius  (Per- 
sic. 1.  i.  c.  3-6),  who  may  be  compared  with  the  fragments  of  Oriental  history 
(D'Herbelot,  Bibliot.  Orient,  p.  351,  and  Texeira,  History  of  Persia,  translated 
or  abridged  by  Stephens,  1.  i.  c.  32,  p.  132-138).  The  chronology  is  ably  ascer- 
tained by  Asseman  (Bibliot.  Orient,  torn.  iii.  p.  396-427). 

126  The  Persian  war,  under  the  reigns  of  Anastasius  and  Justin,  may  be  col- 
lected from  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  7,  8,  9),  Theophanes  (in  Chronograph,  p. 
124-127  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  222-229,  edit.  Bonn]),  Evagrius  (I.  iii.  c.  37), 
Marcellinus  (in  Chron.  p.  47  [p.  372  seq.,  edit.  Sirmond.]),  and  Josua  Stylites 
(apud  Asseman,  torn.  i.  p.  272-281). 


*  In  the  MS.  Chronicle  of  Tabary  it  is  said  that  the  Moubedan  Mobed,  or  Grand 
Pontiff',  opposed  with  all  his  influence  the  violation  of  the  treaty.  St.  Martin,  vol. 
vii.  p.  254.— M. 

b  When  Firoze  advanced,  Khoosh-Nuaz  (the  king  of  the  Huns)  presented  on 
the  point  of  a  lance  the  treaty  to  which  he  had  sworn,  and  exhorted  him  yet  to 
desist  before  he  destroyed  his  fame  forever.     Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  103.— M. 


a.d.  502-605.]  FOETIFICATIONS  OF  DARA.  209 

women*  on  the  ramparts,  who  had  revealed  their  most  secret 
charms  to  the  eyes  of  the  assailants.  At  length,  in  a  silent 
night,  they  ascended  the  most  accessible  tower,  which  was 
guarded  only  by  some  monks,  oppressed,  after  the  duties  of  a 
festival,  with  sleep  and  wine.  Scaling-ladders  were  applied 
at  the  dawn  of  day ;  the  presence  of  Cabades,  his  stern  com- 
mand, and  his  drawn  sword,  compelled  the  Persians  to  van- 
quish, and,  before  it  was  sheathed,  fourscore  thousand  of  the 
inhabitants  had  expiated  the  blood  of  their  companions.  Af- 
ter the  siege  of  Amida  the  war  continued  three  years,  and  the 
unhappy  frontier  tasted  the  full  measure  of  its  calamities. 
The  gold  of  Anastasius  was  offered  too  late,  the  number  of 
his  troops  was  defeated  by  the  number  of  their  generals,  the 
country  was  stripped  of  its  inhabitants,  and  both  the  living 
and  the  dead  were  abandoned  to  the  wild  beasts  of  the  des- 
ert. The  resistance  of  Edessa  and  the  deficiency  of  spoil  in- 
clined the  mind  of  Cabades  to  peace ;  he  sold  his  conquests 
for  an  exorbitant  price ;  and  the  same  line,  though  marked 
with  slaughter  and  devastation,  still  separated  the  two  em- 
pires. To  avert  the  repetition  of  the  same  evils,  Anastasius 
resolved  to  found  a  new  colony,  so  strong  that  it  should  defy 
the  power  of  the  Persian,  so  far  advanced  towards  Assyria 
that  its  stationary  troops  might  defend  the  province  by  the 
menace  or  operation  of  offensive  war.  For  this  purpose  the 
Portifica-  town  of  Dara,1"  fourteen  miles  from  Nisibis,  and 
tionsofDara.  .four  da78»  journey  from  the  Tigris,  was  peopled 
and  adorned :  the  hasty  works  of  Anastasius  were  improved 
by  the  perseverance  of  Justinian,  and,  without  insisting  on 
place*  less  important,  the  fortifications  of  Dara  may  represent 
the  military  architecture  of  the  age.  The  city  was  surround- 
ed with  two  walls,  and  the  interval  between  them,  of  fifty 


137  The  description  of  Dara  is  amply  and  correctly  given  by  Procopius  (Persic. 
}.  i.  c.  10 ;  1.  ii.  c.  13 ;  De  ^dific.  1.  ii.  c.  1,  2,  3 ;  1.  iii.  c.  5).  See  the  situation  in 
D'Anville  (l'Euphrate  et  le  Tigre,  p.  53,  54,  55),  though  he  seems  to  double  the 
interval  between  Dara  and  Nisibis. 


•  Gibbon  should  have  written  "some  prostitutes."    Proc.  Pers.  vol.  L  c.  7  [p. 
861-M. 

XV.— 14 


210  FORTIFICATIONS  OF  DARA.  [Ch.XL. 

paces,  afforded  a  retreat  to  the  cattle  of  the  besieged.  The 
inner  wall  was  a  monument  of  strength  and  beauty :  it  meas- 
ured sixty  feet  from  the  ground,  and  the  height  of  the  towers 
was  cne  hundred  feet;  the  loopholes, from  whence  an  enemy 
might  be  annoyed  with  missile  weapons,  were  small,  but  nu- 
merous ;  the  soldiers  were  planted  along  the  rampart,  under 
the  shelter  of  doable  galleries ;  and  a  third  platform,  spacious 
and  secure,  was  raised  on  the  summit  of  the  towers.  The  ex- 
terior wall  appears  to  have  been  less  lofty,  but  more  solid, 
and  each  tower  was  protected  by  a  quadrangular  bulwark.  A 
hard  rocky  soil  resisted  the  tools  of  the  miners,  and  on  the 
southeast,  where  the  ground  was  more  tractable,  their  ap- 
proach was  retarded  by  a  new  work,  which  advanced  in  the 
shape  of  a  half-moon.  The  double  and  treble  ditches  were 
tilled,  with  a  stream  of  water,  and  in  the  management  of  the 
river  the  most  skilful  labor  was  employed  to  supply  the  in- 
habitants, to  distress  the  besiegers,  and  to  prevent  the  mis- 
chiefs of  a  natural  or  artificial  inundation.  Dara  continued 
more  than  sixty  years  to  fulfil  the  wishes  of  its  founders  and 
to  provoke  the  jealousy  of  the  Persians,  who  incessantly  com- 
plained that  this  impregnable  fortress  had  been  constructed 
in  manifest  violation  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between  the  two 
empires.11 

Between  the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian  the  countries  of  Col- 
chos,  Iberia,  and  Albania  are  intersected  in  every  direction 


a  The  situation  (of  Dara)  does  not  appear  to  give  it  strength,  as  it  must  have 
been  commanded  on  three  sides  by  the  mountains,  but  opening  on  the  south  to- 
wards the  plains  of  Mesopotamia.  The  foundation  of  the  walls  and  towers,  built 
of  large  hewn  stone,  may  be  traced  across  the  valley  and  over  a  number  of  low 
rocky  hills  which  branch  out  from  the  foot  of  Mount  Masius.  The  circumference 
I  conceive  to  be  nearly  two  miles  and  a  half;  and  a  small  stream,  which  flows 
ihiough  the  middle  of  the  place,  has  induced  several  Koordish  and  Armenian  fam- 
ilies to  fix  their  residence  within  the  ruins.  Besides  the  walls  and  towers,  the  re- 
mains of  many  other  buildings  attest  the  former  grandeur  of  Dara:  a  considera- 
ble part  of  the  space  within  the  walls  is  arched  and  vaulted  underneath,  and  in  one 
place  we  perceived  a  large  cavern,  supported  by  four  ponderous  columns,  some- 
what resembling  the  great  cistern  of  Constantinople. ,  In  the  centre  of  the  village 
are  the  ruins  of  a  palace  (probably  that  mentioned  by  Trocopius)  or  church,  one 
hundred  paces  in  length  and  sixty  in  breadth.  The  foundations,  which  ars  quite 
entire,  consist  of  a  prodigious  number  of  subterraneous  vaulted  chambers,  entered 
by  a  narrow  passage  forty  paces  in  length.  The  gate  is  still  standing:  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  wall  has  bid  defiance  to  time,  etc.  M 'Donald  Kinneir'a  Jour* 
ney,  p.  438. — M. 


a.d.  503-505.]  THE  IBERIAN  GATES.  211 

by  tlie  brandies  of  Mount  Caucasus,  and  the  two  principal 
gates,  or  passes,  from  north  to  south,  have  been  fre- 

The  Caspian     *         '         l  >  .  ' 

or  Iberian  quently  confounded  in  the  geography  both  of  the 
ancients  and  moderns.  The  name  of  Caspian  or 
Albanian  gates  is  properly  applied  to  Derbend,138  which  oc- 
cupies a  short  declivity  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea; 
the  city,  if  we  give  credit  to  local  tradition,  had  been  founded 
by  the  Greeks,  and  this  dangerous  entrance  was  fortified  by 
the  kings  of  Persia  with  a  mole,  double  walls,  and  doors  of 
iron.  The  Iherian  gates139 a  are  formed  by  a  narrow  passage 
of  six  miles  in  Mount  Caucasus,  which  opens  from  the  north- 
ern side  of  Iberia  or  Georgia  into  the  plain  that  reaches  to 
the  Tanais  and  the  Yolga.  A  fortress,  designed  by  Alexan- 
der perhaps,  or  one  of  his  successors,  to  command  that  impor- 
tant pass,  had  descended  by  right  of  conquest  or  inheritance 
to  a  prince  of  the  Huns,  who  offered  it  for  a  moderate  price 
to  the  emperor;  but  while  Anastasius  paused,  while  he  tim- 
orously computed  the  cost  and  the  distance,  a  more  vigilant 
rival  interposed,  and  Cabades  forcibly  occupied  the  straits 
of  Caucasus.  The  Albanian  and  Iberian  gates  excluded  the 
horsemen  of  Scythia  from  the  shortest  and  most  practicable 
roads,  and  the  whole  front  of  the  mountains  was  covered  by 
the  rampart  of  Gog  and  Magog,  the  long  wall  which  has  ex- 
cited the  curiosity  of  an  Arabian  caliph140  and  a  Russian  con- 

138  Por  the  city  and  pass  of  Derbend  see  D'Herbelot  (Bibliot.  Orient,  p.  157, 
291,  807),  Petit  de  la  Croix  (Hist,  de  Gengisean,  1.  iv.  ch.  9),  Histoire  Genealo- 
gique  des  Tatars  (torn.  i.  p.  120),  Olearius  (Voyage  en  Perse,  p.  1039-1041),  and 
Corneille  le  Bruyn  (Voyages,  torn.  i.  p.  146, 147) :  his  view  may  be  compared  with 
the  plan  of  Olearius,  who  judges  the  wall  to  be  of  shells  and  gravel  hardened  by 
fcims. 

139  Procopius,  though  with  some  confusion,  always  denominates  them  Caspian 
(Persic.  1.  i.  c.  10).  The  pass  is  now  styled  Tatar-topa,  the  Tartar-gates  (D'An- 
ville,  Geographic  Ancienne,  torn.  ii.  p.  119,  120). 

140  The  imaginary  rampart  of  Gog  and  Magog,  which  was  seriously  explored 


a  The  narrative  of  Colonel  Monteith  in  the  Journal  of  the  Geographical  Society 
of  London,  vol.  iii.  pt.  i.  p.  39,  clearly  shows  that  tliere  are  but  two  passes  between 
the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian ;  the  central,  the  Caucasian,  or,  as  Colonel  Mon- 
teith calls  it,  the  Caspian  Gates,  and  the  pass  of  Derbend,  though  it  is  practica- 
ble to  turn  this  position  (of  Derbend)  by  a  road  a  few  miles  distant,  through  the 
mountains,  p.  40. — M. 


212  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  ATHENS.  [Ch.  XI* 

queror.1"  According  to  a  recent  description,  huge  stones, 
seven  feet  thick,  twenty-one  feet  in  length  or  height,  are  ar- 
tificially joined,  without  iron  or  cement,  to  compose  a  wall 
which  runs  above  three  hundred  miles  from  the  shores  of 
Derbend,  over  the  hills  and  through  the  valleys  of  Daghestan 
and  Georgia.  Without  a  vision  such  a  work  might  be  under- 
taken by  the  policy  of  Cabades;  without  a  miracle  it  might 
be  accomplished  by  his  son,  so  formidable  to  the  Romans  un- 
der the  name  of  Chosroes,  so  dear  to  the  Orientals  under  the 
appellation  of  Nushirwan.  The  Persian  monarch  held  in  his 
hand  the  keys  both  of  peace  and  war;  but  he  stipulated  in 
every  treaty  that  Justinian  should  contribute  to  the  expense 
of  a  common  barrier  which  equally  protected  the  two  em- 
pires from  the  inroads  of  the  Scythians.148 

VII.  Justinian  suppressed  the  schools  of  Athens  and  the 
consulship  of  Rome,  which  had  given  so  many  sages  and  he- 
roes to  mankind.  Both  these  institutions  had  long  since  de- 
generated from  their  primitive  glory,  yet  some  reproach  may 
be  justly  inflicted  on  the  avarice  and  jealousy  of  a  prince  by 
whose  hand  such  venerable  ruins  were  destroyed. 

Athens,  after  her  Persian  triumphs,  adopted  the  philosophy 
of  Ionia  and  the  rhetoric  of  Sicily ;  and  these  studies  became 
The  schools  *ae  patrimony  of  a  city  whose  inhabitants,  about 
of  Athens.  thirty  thousand  males,  condensed,  within  the  period 
of  a  single  life,  the  genius  of  ages  and  millions.  Our  sense  of 
the  dignity  of  human  nature  is  exalted  by  the  simple  recollec- 
tion that  Isocrates143  was  the  companion  of  Plato  and  Xeno- 

and  believed  by  a  caliph  of  the  ninth  century,  appears  to  be  derived  from  the 
gates  of  Mount  Caucasus,  and  a  vague  report  of  the  wall  of  China  (Geograph.  Nu- 
biensis,  p.  267-270 ;  Me'moires  de  l'Acade'mie,  torn.  xxxi.  p.  210-219). 

141  See  a  learned  dissertation  of  Baier,  de  muro  Caucaseo,  in  Comment.  Acad. 
Petropol.  ann.  1726,  torn.  i.  p.  425-463;  but  it  is  destitute  of  a  map  or  plan. 
When  the  czar  Peter  I.  became  master  of  Derbend  in  the  year  1722,  the  measure 
of  the  wall  was  found  to  be  3285  Russian  orgygice,  or  fathom,  each  of  seven  feet 
English  ;  in  the  whole  somewhat  more  than  four  miles  in  length. 

142  See  the  fortifications  and  treaties  of  Chosroes  or  Nushirwan,  in  Procopius 
(Persic.  1.  i.  c.  16,  22  ;  1.  ii.)  and  D'Herbelot  (p.  682). 

143  The  life  of  Isocrates  extends  from  Olymp.  lxxxvi.  1,  to  ex.  3  (ante  Christ. 
436-338).    See  Dionys.  Halicarn.  torn.  ii.  p.  149, 150,  edit.  Hudson.    Plutarch  (siva 


jU>.  5013-505.]  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  ATHENS.  213 

phon ;  that  he  assisted,  perhaps  with  the  historian  Thucydides 
at  the  first  representations  of  the  (Edipus  of  Sophocles  and  the 
Jphigenia  of  Euripides ;  and  that  his  pupils  ^Eschines  and  De- 
mosthenes contended  for  the  crown  of  patriotism  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Aristotle,  the  master  of  Theophrastus,  who  taught  at 
Athens  with  the  founders  of  the  Stoic  and  Epicurean  sects.144 
The  ingenuous  youth  of  Attica  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  their 
domestic  education,  which  was  communicated  without  envy 
to  the  rival  cities.  Two  thousand  disciples  heard  the  lessons 
of  Theophrastus  ;"*  the  schools  of  rhetoric  must  have  been 
still  more  populous  than  those  of  philosophy;  and  a  rapid 
succession  of  students  diffused  the  fame  of  their  teachers  as 
far  as  the  utmost  limits  of  the  Grecian  language  and  name. 
Those  limits  were  enlarged  by  the  victories  of  Alexander; 
the  arts  of  Athens  survived  her  freedom  and  dominion ;  and 
the  Greek  colonies  which  the  Macedonians  planted  in  Egypt, 
and  scattered  over  Asia,  undertook  long  and  frequent  pilgrim- 
ages to  worship  the  Muses  in  their  favorite  temple  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ilissus.  The  Latin  conquerors  respectfully  lis- 
tened to  the  instructions  of  their  subjects  and  captives ;  the 
names  of  Cicero  and  Horace  were  enrolled  in  the  schools  of 
Athens ;  and  after  the  perfect  settlement  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, the  natives  of  Italy,  of  Africa,  and  of  Britain,  conversed 
in  the  groves  of  the  Academy  with  their  fellow-students  of 
the  East.  The  studies  of  philosophy  and  eloquence  are  con- 
genial to  a  popular  state,  which  encourages  the  freedom  of  in- 
quiry, and  submits  only  to  the  force  of  persuasion.  In  the 
republics  of  Greece  and  Rome  the  art  of  speaking  was  the 
powerful  engine  of  patriotism  or  ambition ;  and  the  schools 
of  rhetoric  poured  forth  a  colony  of  statesmen  and  legislators. 
"When  the  liberty  of  public  debate  was  suppressed,  the  orator, 

anonymus),  in  Vit.  X.  Oratorura,  p.  1538-1543,  edit.  H.  Steph.  Phot.  cod.  cclix. 
p.  1453  [p.  486  b,  edit.  Bekk.]. 

144  The  schools  of  Athens  are  copiously  though  concisely  represented  in  tha 
Fortuna  Attica  of  Meursiusi  (c.  viii.  p.  59-73,  in  torn.  i.  Opp.).  For  the  state  and 
arts  of  the  city,  see  the  first  book  of  Pausanias,  and  a  small  tract  of  Dicaearchus 
(in  the  second  volume  of  Hudson's  Geographers),  who  wrote  about  Olymp.  cxvii. 
(Dodwell's  Dissertat.  sect.  4). 

145  Diogen.  Laert.  de  Vit.  Philosoph.  1.  v.  [c.  2]  segm.  37,  p.  289. 


214  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  ATHENS.  [Oh.  XL. 

in  the  honorable  profession  of  an  advocate,  might  plead  the 
cause  of  innocence  and  justice ;  he  might  abuse  his  talents  in 
the  more  profitable  trade  of  panegyric ;  and  the  same  precepts 
continued  to  dictate  the  fanciful  declamations  of  the  sophist, 
and  the  chaster  beauties  of  historical  composition.  The  sys- 
tems which  professed  to  unfold  the  nature  of  God,  of  man, 
and  of  the  universe,  entertained  the  curiosity  of  the  philo- 
sophic student ;  and  according  to  the  temper  of  his  mind,  he 
might  doubt  with  the  Sceptics,  or  decide  with  the  Stoics,  sub- 
limely speculate  with  Plato,  or  severely  argue  with  Aristotle. 
The  pride  of  the  adverse  sects  had  fixed  an  unattainable  term 
of  moral  happiness  and  perfection :  but  the  race  was  glorious 
and  salutary ;  the  disciples  of  Zeno,  and  even  those  of  Epicu- 
rus, were  taught  both  to  act  and  to  suffer ;  and  the  death  of 
Petronius  was  not  less  effectual  than  that  of  Seneca  to  hum- 
ble a  tyrant  by  the  discovery  of  his  impotence.  The  light 
of  science  could  not  indeed  be  confined  within  the  walls  of 
Athens.  Her  incomparable  writers  address  themselves  to  the 
human  race ;  the  living  masters  emigrated  to  Italy  and  Asia ; 
Berytus,  in  later  times,  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  law ; 
astronomy  and  physic  were  cultivated  in  the  museum  of  Al- 
exandria; but  the  Attic  schools  of  rhetoric  and  philosophy 
maintained  their  superior  reputation  from  the  Peloponnesian 
war  to  the  reign  of  Justinian.  Athens,  though  situate  in  a 
barren  soil,  possessed  a  pure  air,  a  free  navigation,  and  the 
monuments  of  ancient  art.  That  sacred  retirement  was  sel- 
dom disturbed  by  the  business  of  trade  or  government ;  and 
the  last  of  the  Athenians  were  distinguished  by  their  lively 
wit,  the  purity  of  their  taste  and  language,  their  social  man- 
ners, and  some  traces,  at  least  in  discourse,  of  the  magnanimi- 
ty of  their  fathers.  In  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  the  Academy 
of  the  Platonists,  the  Lycc&um  of  the  Peripatetics,  the  Portico 
of  the  Stoics,  and  the  Garden  of  the  Epicureans,  were  planted 
with  trees  and  decorated  with  statues;  and  the  philosophers, 
instead  of  being  immured  in  a  cloister,  delivered  their  instruc- 
tions in  spacious  and  pleasant  walks,  which,  at  different  hours, 
were  consecrated  to  the  exercises  of  the  mind  and  body.  The 
genius  of  the  founders  still  lived  in  those  venerable  seats; 


a.d.  C02-505.]  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  ATHENS.  215 

the  ambition  of  succeeding  to  the  masters  of  human  reason 
excited  a  generous  emulation ;  and  the  merit  of  the  candidates 
was  determined,  on  each  vacancy,  by  the  free  voices  oi  an  en- 
lightened people.  The  Athenian  professors  were  paid  by 
their  disciples :  according  to  their  mutual  wants  and  abilities, 
the  price  appears  to  have  varied  from  a  mina  to  a  talent ; 
and  Isocrates  himself,  who  derides  the  avarice  of  the  sophists, 
required,  in  his  school  of  rhetoric,  about  thirty  pounds  from 
each  of  his  hundred  pupils.  The  wages  of  industry  are  just 
and  honorable,  yet  the  same  Isocrates  shed  tears  at  the  first 
receipt  of  a  stipend :  the  Stoic  might  blush  when  he  was  hired 
to  preach  the  contempt  of  money ;  and  I  should  be  sorry  to 
discover  that  Aristotle  or  Plato  so  far  degenerated  from  the 
example  of  Socrates  as  to  exchange  knowledge  for  gold.  But 
some  property  of  lands  and  houses  was  settled,  by  the  per- 
mission of  the  laws,  and  the  legacies  of  deceased  friends,  on 
the  philosophic  chairs  of  Athens.  Epicurus  bequeathed  to  his 
disciples  the  gardens  which  he  had  purchased  for  eighty  minse, 
or  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  with  a  fund  sufficient  for 
their  frugal  subsistence  and  monthly  festivals  ;146  and  the  pat- 
rimony of  Plato  afforded  an  annual  rent,  which,  in  eight  cen- 
turies, was  gradually  increased  from  three  to  one  thousand 
pieces  of  gold.147  The  schools  of  Athens  were  protected  by 
the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  of  the  Roman  princes.  The  li- 
brary, which  Hadrian  founded,  was  placed  in  a  portico  adorn- 
ed with  pictures,  statues,  and  a  roof  of  Alabaster,  and  support- 
ed by  one  hundred  columns  of  Phrygian  marble.  The  pub- 
lic salaries  were  assigned  by  the  generous  spirit  of  the  Anto- 
nines ;  and  each  professor,  of  politics,  of  rhetoric,  of  the  Pla- 
tonic, the  Peripatetic,  the  Stoic,  and  the  Epicurean  philoso- 
phy, received  an  annual  stipend  of  ten  thousand  drachmae,  or 


146  See  the  Testament  of  Epicurus  in  Diogen.  Laert.  1.  x.  [c.  1]  segm.  16-20,  p. 
611,  612.  A  single  epistle  (ad  Familiares,  xiii.  1)  displays  the  injustice  of  the 
Areopagus,  the  fidelity  of  the  Epicureans,  the  dexterous  politeness  of  Cicero,  and 
the  mixture  of  contempt  and  esteem  with  which  the  Roman  senators  considered 
the  philosophy  and  philosophers  of  Greece. 

141  Damascius,  in  Vit.  Isidor.  apud  Fhotium,  cod.  ccxlii.  p.  1057  [p.  346  a,  edit 
Bekk.]. 


216  SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  ATHENS.     [Ch.XL, 

more  than  three  hundred  pounds  sterling.148  After  the  death 
of  Marcus,  these  liberal  donations,  and  the  privileges  attached 
to  the  thrones  of  science,  were  abolished  and  revived,  dimin- 
ished and  enlarged ;  but  some  vestige  of  royal  bounty  may  be 
found  under  the  successors  of  Constantine ;  and  their  arbi- 
trary choice  of  an  unworthy  candidate  might  tempt  the  phi- 
losophers of  Athens  to  regret  the  days  of  independence  and 
poverty.149  It  is  remarkable  that  the  impartial  favor  of  the 
Antonines  was  bestowed  on  the  four  adverse  sects  of  philoso- 
phy, which  they  considered  as  equally  useful,  or  at  least  as 
equally  innocent.  Socrates  had  formerly  been  the  glory  and 
the  reproach  of  his  country ;  and  the  first  lessons  of  Epicurus 
so  strangely  scandalized  the  pious  ears  of  the  Athenians,  that 
by  his  exile,  and  that  of  his  antagonists,  they  silenced  all  vain 
disputes  concerning  the  nature  of  the  gods.  But  in  the  en- 
suing year  they  recalled  the  hasty  decree,  restored  the  liberty 
of  the  schools,  and  were  convinced  by  the  experience  of  ages 
that  the  moral  character  of  philosophers  is  not  affected  by  the 
diversity  of  their  theological  speculations.160 

The  Gothic  arms  were  less  fatal  to  the  schools  of  Athens 

than  the  establishment  sf  a  new  religion,  whose  ministers 

superseded  the  exercise  of  reason,  resolved  every 

Thpv  are  snD- 

pressed  by      question  by  an  article  of  faith,  and  condemned  the 

Justinian.  . * '    •  "  .  '  T 

mndel  or  sceptic  to  eternal  flames.  In  many  a 
volume  of  laborious  controversy  they  exposed  the  weakness 
of  the  understanding  and  the  corruption  of  the  heart,  insulted 

148  See  Lucian  (in  Eunuch,  torn.  ii.  [c.  3  seq.]  p.  350-359,  edit.  Reitz),  Philos- 
tratus  (in  Vit.  Sophist.  1.  ii.  c.  2),  and  Dion  Cassius,  or  Xiphilin  (1.  lxxi.  [c.  31] 
p.  1195),  with  their  editors  Du  Soul,  Olearius,  and  Reimar,  and,  above  all,  Salma- 
sius  (ad  Hist.  August,  p.  72).  A  judicious  philosopher  (Smith's  Wealth  of  Na- 
tions, vol.  ii.  p.  340-374)  prefers  the  free  contributions  of  the  students  to  a  fixed 
stipend  for  the  professor. 

149  Brucker,  Hist.  Crit.  Philosoph.  torn.  ii.  p.  310,  etc. 

160  The  birth  of  Epicurus  is  fixed  to  the  year  342  before  Christ  (Bayle),  Olym- 
piad cix.  3 ;  and  he  opened  his  school  at  Athens,  Olymp.  cxviii.  3,  306  years  be- 
fore the  same  era.  This  intolerant  law  (Athenseus,  1.  xiii.  p.  610 ;  Diogen.  Laert. 
1.  v.  [c.  2],  s.  38,  p.  290 ;  Julius  Pollux,  ix.  5)  was  enacted  in  the  same  or  the 
succeeding  year  (Sigonius,  Opp.  torn.  v.  p.  62  ;  Menagius,  ad  Diogen.  Laert.  p. 
204 ;  Corsini,  Fasti  Attici,  torn.  ir.  p.  67, 68).  Theophrastus,  chief  of  the  Peri* 
patetics,  and  disciple  of  Aristotle,  was  involved  in  the  same  i 


AN  ANTHENIAN  PHILOSOPHER  TEACHING  IN  THE 

GROVES  OF  THE  ACADEMY  Page  216 

Gibbon's  Rome,  Vol.  IV.  Painting  by  Theodore  Grosse 


a.d.  485-529.]        PROCLUS  AND  HIS  SUCCESSORS.  217 

human  nature  in  the  sages  of  antiquity,  and  proscribed  the 
spirit  of  philosophical  inquiry,  so  repugnant  to  the  doctrine, 
or  at  least  to  the  temper,  of  a  humble  believer.  The  surviv- 
ing sect  of  the  Platonists,  whom  Plato  would  have  blushed  to 
acknowledge,  extravagantly  mingled  a  sublime  theory  with 
the  practice  of  superstition  and  magic ;  and  as  they  remain- 
ed alone  in  the  midst  of  a  Christian  world,  they  indulged 
a  secret  rancor  against  the  goverumeut  of  the  Church  and 
State,  whose  severity  was  still  suspended  over  their  heads. 
About  a  century  after  the  reign  of  Julian,1"  Pro- 

Proclns.  .  *\  i.i  ,  m  i  . 

cms  was  permitted  to  teach  in  the  philosophic 
chair  of  the  Academy  ;  and  such  was  his  industry,  that  he 
frequently,  in  the  same  day,  pronounced  five  lessons,  and  com- 
posed seven  hundred  lines.  His  sagacious  mind  explored  the 
deepest  questions  of  morals  and  metaphysics,  and  he  vent- 
ured to  urge  eighteen  arguments  against  the  Christian  doc- 
trine of  the  creation  of  the  world.  But  in  the  intervals  of 
study  he  personally  conversed  with  Pan,  iEsculapius,  and  Mi- 
nerva, in  whose  mysteries  he  was  secretly  initiated,  and  whose 
prostrate  statues  he  adored  ;  in  the  devout  persuasion  that  the 
philosopher,  who  is  a  citizen  of  the  universe,  should  be  the 
priest  of  its  various  deities.  An  eclipse  of  the  sun  announced 
his  approaching  end ;  and  his  Life,  with  that  of  his  scholar 
Isidore,168  compiled  by  two  of  their  most  learned  disciples,  ex- 
hibits a  deplorable  picture  of  the  second  childhood 

His  sue-  L  x  .     , 

cessors,  of  human  reason.     Yet  the  golden  chain,  as  it  was 

A.  i>.  485-629 

fondly  styled,  of  the  Platonic  succession,  contin- 
ued forty-four  years,  from  the  death  of  Proclus  to  the  edict 

151  This  is  no  fanciful  era:  the  pagans  reckoned  their  calamities  from  the  reign 
of  their  hero.  Proclus,  whose  nativity  is  marked  by  his  horoscope  (a.d.  412, 
February  8,  at  C.  P.),  died  124  years  airb  'lovXiavov  fiacTikstxjQ,  a.d.  485  (Marin, 
in  Vita  Procli,  c.  36). 

162  The  Life  of  Proclus,  by  Marinus,  was  published  by  Fabricius  (Hamburg, 
1700,  et  ad  calcem  Biblioth.  Latin.  Lond.  1703).  See  Suidas  (torn.  iii.  p.  185, 
186),  Fabricius  (Biblioth.  Grsec.  1.  v.  c.  26,  p.  449-552),  and  Brucker  (Hist.  Crit. 
Philosoph.  torn.  ii.  p.  319-326). 

163  The  Life  of  Isidore  was  composed  by  Damascius  (apud  Photium,  cod.  ccxlii 
p.  1028-1076  [p.  335-353,  edit.  Bekk.]).  See  the  last  age  of  the  pagan  philoso- 
phers in  Brucker  Ctom.  ii.  p.  341-351). 


218  THE  LAST  OP  THE  PHILOSOPHERS.  [Ch.XL. 

of  Justinian/64  which  imposed  a  perpetual  silence  on  the 
schools  of  Athens,  and  excited  the  grief  and  indignation  of 
the  few  remaining  votaries  of  Grecian  science  and  supersti- 
tion. Seven  friends  and  philosophers — Diogenes  and  Herini- 
as,  Eulalins  and  Priscian,  Damascius,  Isidore,  and  Simplicius — 
who  dissented  from  the  religion  of  their  sovereign,  embraced 
the  resolution  of  seeking  in  a  foreign  land  the  freedom  which 
was  denied  in  their  native  country.  They  had  heard,  and 
they  credulously  believed,  that  the  republic  of  Plato  was  re- 
alized in  the  despotic  government  of  Persia,  and  that  a  patri- 
ot king  reigned  over  the  happiest  and  most  virtuous  of  na- 
tions. They  were  soon  astonished  by  the  natural  discovery 
that  Persia  resembled  the  other  countries  of  the  globe ;  that 
Chosroes,  who  affected  the  name  of  a  philosopher,  was  vain, 
cruel,  and  ambitious ;  that  bigotry,  and  a  spirit  of  intolerance, 
prevailed  among  the  Magi ;  that  the  nobles  were  haughty, 
the  courtiers  servile,  and  the  magistrates  unjust;  that  the 
guilty  sometimes  escaped,  and  that  the  innocent  were  often 
oppressed.  The  disappointment  of  the  philosophers  provoked 
them  to  overlook  the  real  virtues  of  the  Persians ;  and  they 
were  scandalized,  more  deeply  perhaps  than  became  their  pro- 
fession, with  the  plurality  of  wives  and  concubines,  the  incest- 
uous marriages,  and  the  custom  of  exposing  dead  bodies  to  the 
dogs  and  vultures,  instead  of  hiding  them  in  the  earth,  or  con- 
suming them  with  fire.  Their  repentance  was  expressed  by 
a  precipitate  return,  and  they  loudly  declared  that  they  had 
rather  die  on  the  borders  of  the  empire  than  enjoy  the  wealth 
and  favor  of  the  barbarian.  From  this  journey,  however,  they 
derived  a  benefit  which  reflects  the  purest  lustre  on  the  char- 
acter of  Chosroes.  He  required  that  the  seven  sages  who  had 
visited  the  court  of  Persia  should  be  exempted 

The  last  of  ^ 

tbe  piiiios-      from  the  penal  laws  which  Justinian  enacted  against 

ophers.  x  .  ,  ° 

his  pagan  subjects;    and  this  privilege,  expressly 
stipulated  in  a  treaty  of  peace,  was  guarded  by  the  vigilance 

154  The  suppression  of  the  schools  of  Athens  is  recorded  by  John  Malala  (torn, 
ii.  p.  187  [p.  451,  edit.  Bonn],  sub  Decio  Cos.  Sol.),  and  an  anonymous  Chroni- 
cle in  the  Vatican  library  (apud  Alenian.  p.  106  [Procop.  torn.  ill.  p.  459,  edit. 
Bona]). 


a.d.541.]      EXTINCTION  OF  THE  ROMAN  CONSULSHIP.  219 

of  a  powerful  mediator.1"  Simplicius  and  his  companions 
ended  their  lives  in  peace  and  obscurity ;  and  as  they  left  no 
disciples,  they  terminate  the  long  list  of  Grecian  philosophers, 
who  may  be  justly  praised,  notwithstanding  their  defects,  as 
the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  of  their  contemporaries.  The 
writings  of  Simplicius  are  now  extant.  His  physical  and 
metaphysical  commentaries  on  Aristotle  have  passed  away 
with  the  fashion  of  the  times ;  but  his  moral  interpretation 
of  Epictetus  is  preserved  in  the  library  of  nations,  as  a  classic 
book,  most  excellently  adapted  to  direct  the  will,  to  purify 
the  heart,  and  to  confirm  the  understanding,  by  a  just  confi- 
dence in  the  nature  both  of  God  and  man. 

About  the  same  time  that  Pythagoras  first  invented  the 

appellation  of  philosopher,  liberty  and  the  consulship  were 

founded  at  Rome  by  the  elder  Brutus.     The  revo- 

The  Roman  .  J  . 

consulship      lutions  of  the  consular  omce,  which  may  be  viewed 

extinguished     .  ,  '  ^ 

by  Justinian,  m  the  successive  lights  of  a  substance,  a  shadow, 
and  a  name,  have  been  occasionally  mentioned  in 
the  present  history.  The  first  magistrates  of  the  republic  had 
been  chosen  by  the  people,  to  exercise,  in  the  senate  and  in 
the  camp,  the  powers  of  peace  and  war,  which  were  afterwards 
translated  to  the  emperors.  But  the  tradition  of  ancient  dig- 
nity was  long  revered  by  the  Romans  and  barbarians.  A 
Gothic  historian  applauds  the  consulship  of  Theodoric  as  the 
height  of  all  temporal  glory  and  greatness  ;166  the  king  of  It- 
aly himself  congratulates  those  annual  favorites  of  fortune 
who,  without  the  cares,  enjoyed  the  splendor  of  the  throne  ; 
and  at  the  end  of  a  thousand  years,  two  consuls  were  created 
by  the  sovereigns  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  giving  a  date  to  the  year  and  a  festival  to  the  peo- 
ple.    But  the  expenses  of  this  festival,  in  which  the  wealthy 


155  Agathias  (1.  ii.  p.  69,  70,  71  [edit.  Par. ;  p.  130-136,  edit.  Bonn])  relates 
this  curious  story.  Chosroes  ascended  the  throne  in  the  year  531,  and  made  his 
first  peace  with  the  Romans  in  the  beginning  of  533,  a  date  most  compatible  with 
his  young  fame  and  the  old  age  of  Isidore  (Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  iii.  p. 
404  ;  Pagi,  torn.  ii.  p.  543,  550). 

156  Cassiodor.  Variarum  Epist.  vi.  1.  Jornandes,  c.  57,  p.  696,  edit.  Grot.  Quo<J 
summum  bonum  primumque  in  mundo  decus  edicitur. 


220  EXTINCTION  OF  THE  KOMAN  CONSULSHIP.      [Ch.  XL. 

and  the  vain  aspired  to  surpass  their  predecessors,  insensibly 
arose  to  the  enormous  sum  of  fourscore  thousand  pounds ; 
the  wisest  senators  declined  a  useless  honor  which  involved 
the  certain  ruin  of  their  families,  and  to  this  reluctance  I 
should  impute  the  frequent  chasms  in  the  last  age  of  the  con- 
sular Fasti.  The  predecessors  of  Justinian  had  assisted  from 
the  public  treasures  the  dignity  of  the  less  opulent  candi- 
dates; the  avarice  of  that  prince  preferred  the  cheaper  and 
more  convenient  method  of  advice  and  regulation.1"  Seven 
processions  or  spectacles  were  the  number  to  which  his  edict 
confined  the  horse  and  chariot  races,  the  athletic  sports,  the 
music  and  pantomimes  of  the  theatre,  and  the  hunting  of  wild 
beasts;  and  small  pieces  of  silver  were  discreetly  substituted 
to  the  gold  medals,  which  had  always  excited  tumult  and 
drunkenness  when  they  were  scattered  with  a  profuse  hand 
among  the  populace.  Notwithstanding  these  precautions  and 
his  own  example,  the  succession  of  consuls  finally  ceased  in 
the  thirteenth  year  of  Justinian,  whose  despotic  temper  might 
he  gratified  by  the  silent  extinction  of  a  title  which  admon- 
ished the  Romans  of  their  ancient  freedom.168  Yet  the  an- 
nual consulship  still  lived  in  the  minds  of  the  people ;  they 
fondly  expected  its  speedy  restoration ;  they  applauded  the 
gracious  condescension  of  successive  princes,  by  whom  it  was 
assumed  in  the  first  year  of  their  reign ;  and  three  centuries 
elapsed,  after  the  death  of  Justinian,  before  that  obsolete  dig- 
nity, which  had  been  suppressed  by  custom,  could  be  abolish- 
ed by  law.169  The  imperfect  mode  of  distinguishing  each 
year  by  the  name  of  a  magistrate  was  usefully  supplied  by 
the  date  of  a  permanent  era:  the  creation  of  the  world, 
according  to   the   Septuagint  version,  was  adopted   by   the 

161  See  the  regulations  of  Justinian  (Novell,  cv.),  dated  at  Constantinople,  July 
5,  and  addressed  to  Strategius,  treasurer  of  the  empire. 

158  pr0cophis,  in  Anecdot.  c.  26  [torn.  iii.  p.  144,  edit.  Bonn].  Aleman.  p.  106 
[p.  459,  edit.  Bonn].  In  the  eighteenth  year  after  the  consulship  of  Basilius,  ac- 
cording to  the  reckoning  of  Mareellinus,  Victor,  Marius,  etc.,  the  secret  history 
was  composed,  and,  in  the  eyes  of  Procopius,  the  consulship  was  finally  abolished. 

159  By  Leo,  the  philosopher  (Novell,  xciv.  a.d.  886-911).  See  Pagi  (Dissertat. 
Hypnticn,  p.  325-362)  and  Ducange  (Gloss.  Grasc.  p.  1635, 1636).  Even  the  title 
was  vilified :  ■consulatus  codicilli  *  *  *  vilescunt,  says  the  emperor  himself. 


A.D.  541.]      EXTINCTION  OF  THE  ROMAN  CONSULSHIP.  221 

Greeks  ;,M  and  the  Latins,  since  the  age  of  Charlemagne,  have 
computed  their  time  from  the  birth  of  Christ.181 

160  According  to  Julius  Africanus,  etc.,  the  world  was  created  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember, 5508  years,  three  months,  and  twenty-five  days  before  the  birth  of  Christ 
(see  Pezron,  Antiquite"  des  Terns  deTendue,  p.  20-28) ;  and  this  era  has  been  used 
by  the  Greeks,  the  Oriental  Christians,  and  even  by  the  Russians,  till  the  reign  of 
Peter  I.  The  period,  however  arbitrary,  is  clear  and  convenient.  Of  the  7296 
years  which  are  supposed  to  elapse  since  the  creation,  we  shall  find  3000  of  igno- 
rance and  darkness;  2000  either  fabulous  or  doubtful;  1000  of  ancient  history, 
commencing  with  the  Persian  empire,  and  the  republics  of  Rome  and  Athens; 
1000  from  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  West  to  the  discovery  of  America ; 
and  the  remaining  296  will  almost  complete  three  centuries  of  the  modern  state 
of  Europe  and  mankind.  I  regret  this  chronology,  so  far  preferable  to  our  double 
and  perplexed  method  of  counting  backwards  and  forwards  the  years  before  and 
aftev  the  Christian  era. 

161  The  era  of  the  world  has  prevailed  in  the  East  since  the  sixth  general  coun- 
cil (a.d.  681).  In  the  West  the  Christian  era  was  first  invented  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury :  it  was  propagated  in  the  eighth  by  the  authority  and  writings  of  venerable 
Bede ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  tenth  that  the  use  became  legal  and  popular.  See 
l'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates,  Dissert.  Preliminaire,  p.  iii.  xii. ;  Dictionnaire  Diplo- 
matique, torn,  i,  p,  329-337  j  the  works  of  a  laborious  society  of  Benedictine 
monks. 


222  JUSTINIAN  KESOLVES  TO  INVADE  AFRICA.     [Ch.XLI. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

Conquests  of  Justinian  in  the  West. — Character  and  first  Campaigns  of  Belisa- 
rius. — He  invades  and  subdues  the  Vandal  Kingdom  of  Africa. — His  Triumph. 
— The  Gothic  War. — He  recovers  Sicily,  Naples,  and  Eome. — Siege  of  Rome 
by  the  Goths. — Their  Retreat  and  Losses. — Surrender  of  Ravenna. — Glory  of 
Belisarius. — His  domestic  Shame  and  Misfortunes. 

When  Justinian   ascended   the   throne,  about  fifty  years 
after  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire,  the  kingdoms  of  the 
Goths  and  Yandals  had  obtained  a  solid,  and,  as  it 
resolves         might  seem,  a  legal  establishment  both  in  Europe 
Afrfca?  and  Africa.     The  titles  which  Roman  victory  had 

inscribed  were  erased  with  equal  justice  by  the 
sword  of  the  barbarians ;  and  their  successful  rapine  derived 
a  more  venerable  sanction  from  time,  from  treaties,  and  from 
the  oaths  of  fidelity,  already  repeated  by  a  second  or  third 
generation  of  obedient  subjects.  Experience  and  Christian- 
ity had  refuted  the  superstitious  hope  that  Rome  was  found- 
ed by  the  gods  to  reign  forever  over  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
But  the  proud  claim  of  perpetual  and  indefeasible  domin- 
ion, which  her  soldiers  could  no  longer  maintain,  was  firm- 
ly asserted  by  her  statesmen  and  lawyers,  whose  opinions 
have  been  sometimes  revived  and  propagated  in  the  modern 
schools  of  jurisprudence.  After  Rome  herself  had  been  strip- 
ped of  the  imperial  purple,  the  princes  of  Constantinople  as- 
sumed the  sole  and  sacred  sceptre  of  the  monarchy ;  demand- 
ed, as  their  rightful  inheritance,  the  provinces  which  had 
been  subdued  by  the  consuls  or  possessed  by  the  Caesars ;  and 
feebly  aspired  to  deliver  their  faithful  subjects  of  the  West 
from  the  usurpation  of  heretics  and  barbarians.  The  execu- 
tion of  this  splendid  design  was  in  some  degree  reserved 
for  Justinian.  During  the  five  first  years  of  his  reign  he 
reluctantly  waged  a  costly  and  unprofitable  war  against  the 


A..I>.  523-530.]  STATE  OF  THE  VANDALS.  223 

Persians,  till  his  pride  submitted  to  his  ambition,  and  he 
purchased,  at  the  price  of  four  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
pounds  sterling,  the  benefit  of  a  precarious  truce,  which,  in 
the  language  of  both  nations,  was  dignified  with  the  appella- 
tion of  the  endless  peace.  The  safety  of  the  East  enabled  the 
emperor  to  employ  his  forces  against  the  Yandals ;  and  the 
internal  state  of  Africa  afforded  an  honorable  motive,  and 
promised  a  powerful  support,  to  the  Roman  arms.1 

According  to  the  testament  of  the  founder,  the  African 
kingdom  had  lineally  descended  to  Hilderic,  the  eldest  of  the 
state  of  the     Vandal  princes.     A  mild  disposition  inclined  the 


Vandals, 
ilderic, 


A.  D. 


son  of  a  tyrant,  the  grandson  of  a  conqueror,  to  pre- 
fer the  counsels  of  clemency  and  peace,  and  his  ac- 
cession was  marked  by  the  salutary  edict  which  restored  two 
hundred  bishops  to  their  churches,  and  allowed  the  free  pro- 
fession of  the  Athanasian  creed.2  But  the  Catholics  accept- 
ed with  cold  and  transient  gratitude  a  favor  so  inadequate 
to  their  pretensions,  and  the  virtues  of  Hilderic  offended  the 
prejudices  of  his  countrymen.  The  Arian  clergy  presumed 
to  insinuate  that  he  had  renounced  the  faith,  and  the  soldiers 
more  loudly  complained  that  he  had  degenerated  from  the 
courage,  of  his  ancestors.  His  ambassadors  were  suspected  of 
a  secret  and  disgraceful  negotiation  in  the  Byzantine  court ; 
and  his  general,  the  Achilles,3  as  he  was  named,  of  the  Van- 

1  The  complete  series  of  the  Vandal  war  is  related  by  Procopius  in  a  regular 
and  elegant  narrative  (1.  i.e.  9-25;  1.  ii.  c.  1-13);  and  happy  would  be  my  lot 
could  I  always  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  such  a  guide.  From  the  entire  and  dili- 
gent perusal  of  the  Greek  text  I  have  a  right  to  pronounce  that  the  Latin  and 
French  versions  of  Grotius  and  Cousin  may  not  be  implicitly  trusted  ;  yet  the 
President  Cousin  has  been  often  praised,  and  Hugo  Grotius  was  the  first  scholar 
of  a  learned  age.* 

2  See  Kuinart,  Hist.  Persecut.  Vandal,  c.  xii.  p.  589  [edit.  Par.  1694].  His  best 
evidence  is  drawn  from  the  Life  of  St.  Fulgentius,  composed  by  one  of  his  disciples, 
transcribed  in  a  great  measure  in  the  Annals  of  Baronius,  and  printed  in  several 
great  collections  (Catalog.  Bibliot.  Bunavianse,  torn.  i.  vol.  ii.  p.  1258). 

3  For  what  quality  of  the  mind  or  body  ?  For  speed,  or  beauty,  or  valor  ? — In 
what  language  did  the  Vandals  read  Homer? — Did  he  speak  German? — The  Lat- 


*  It  will  be  seen,  however,  from  some  of  the  subsequent  notes,  that  Gibbon  has 
occasionally  followed  the  French  version  of  Cousin,  to  the  neglect  of  the  original 
Greek.—  & 


224:  GELIMEE.  tCH.  XLL 

dais,  lost  a  battle  against  the  naked  and  disorderly  Moors. 
The  public  discontent  was  exasperated  by  Gelimer,  whose 
Geiimer,  aoe>  descent,  and  military  fame  gave  him  an  appar- 
A.D.530-534.  ent  tjt]e  to  ^g  succession ;  he  assumed,  with  the 
consent  of  the  nation,  the  reins  of  government,  and  his  un- 
fortunate sovereign  sunk  without  a  struggle  from  the  throne 
to  a  dungeon,  where  he  was  strictly  guarded  with  a  faithful 
counsellor,  and  his  unpopular  nephew  the  Achilles  of  the 
Vandals.  But  the  indulgence  which  Hilderic  had  shown  to 
his  Catholic  subjects  had  powerfully  recommended  him  to 
the  favor  of  Justinian,  who,  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  sect, 
could  acknowledge  the  use  and  justice  of  religious  toleration : 
their  alliance,  while  the  nephew  of  Justin  remained  in  a  pri- 
vate station,  was  cemented  by  the  mutual  exchange  of  gifts 
and  letters,  and  the  Emperor  Justinian  asserted  the  cause  of 
royalty  and  friendship.  In  two  successive  embassies  he  ad- 
monished the  usurper  to  repent  of  his  treason,  or  to  abstain, 
at  least,  from  any  further  violence  which  might  provoke  the 
displeasure  of  God  and  of  the  Romans,  to  reverence  the  laws 
of  kindred  and  succession,  and  to  suffer  an  infirm  old  man 
peaceably  to  end  his  days  either  on  the  throne  of  Carthage  or 
in  the  palace  of  Constantinople.  The  passions  or  even  the 
prudence  of  Gelimer  compelled  him  to  reject  these  requests, 
which  were  urged  in  the  haughty  tone  of  menace  and  com- 
mand ;  and  he  justified  his  ambition  in  a  language  rarely 
spoken  in  the  Byzantine  court,  by  alleging  the  right  of  a  free 
people  to  remove  or  punish  their  chief  magistrate  who  had 
failed  in  the  execution  of  the  kingly  office.  After  this  fruit- 
less expostulation,  the  captive  monarch  was  more  rigorously 
treated,  his  nephew  was  deprived  of  his  eyes,  and  the  cruel 
Yandal,  confident  in  his  strength  and  distance,  derided  the 
vain  threats  and  slow  preparations  of  the  Emperor  of  the  East. 
Justinian  resolved  to  deliver  or  revenge  his  friend,  Gelimer 
to  maintain  his  usurpation  ;  and  the  war  was  preceded,  ac- 

ins  had  four  versions  (Fabric,  tom.i.  1.  ii.  c.  3,  p.  297):  yet,  in  spite  of  the  praises 
of  Seneca  (Consol.  [ad  Polyb.]  c.  26),  they  appear  to  have  been  more  successful 
in  imitating  than  in  translating  the  Greek  poets.  But  the  name  of  Achilles  might 
be  famous  and  popular,  even  among  the  illiterate  barbarians. 


A.D.  530-534.]        DEBATES  ON  THE  AFRICAN  WAE.  223 

cording  to  the  practice  of  civilized  nations,  by  the  most  sol- 
emn protestations  that  each  party  was  sincerely  desirous  of 
peace. 

The  report  of  an  African  war  was  grateful  only  to  the  vain 

and  idle  populace  of  Constantinople,  whose  poverty  exempted 

them  from  tribute,  and  whose  cowardice  was  seh 

Debates  on 

the  African  dom  exposed  to  military  service.  J3ut  the  wiser 
citizens,  who  judged  of  the  future  by  the  past,  re« 
volved  in  their  memory  the  immense  loss,  both  of  men  and 
money,  which  the  empire  had  sustained  in  the  expedition  of 
Basiliscus.  The  troops,  which,  after  five  laborious  campaigns, 
had  been  recalled  from  the  Persian  frontier,  dreaded  the  sea^ 
the  climate,  and  the  arms  of  an  unknown  enemy.  The  min- 
isters of  the  finances  computed,  as  far  as  they  might  compute, 
the  demands  of  an  African  war,  the  taxes  which  must  be 
found  and  levied  to  supply  those  insatiate  demands,  and  the 
danger  lest  their  own  lives,  or  at  least  their  lucrative  employ- 
ments, should  be  made  responsible  for  the  deficiency  of  the 
supply.  Inspired  by  such  selfish  motives  (for  we  may  not 
suspect  him  of  any  zeal  for  the  public  good),  John  of  Cappa- 
docia  ventured  to  oppose  in  full  council  the  inclinations  of 
his  master.  He  confessed  that  a  victory  of  such  importance 
could  not  be  too  dearly  purchased;  but  he  represented  in  a 
grave  discourse  the  certain  difficulties  and  the  uncertain  event. 
"  You  undertake,"  said  the  praefect,  "  to  besiege  Carthage :  by 
land  the  distance  is  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  forty  days' 
journey ;  on  the  sea,  a  whole  year4  must  elapse  before  you  can 
receive  any  intelligence  from  your  fleet.  If  Africa  should 
be  reduced,  it  cannot  be  preserved  without  the  additional  con- 
quest  of  Sicily  and  Italy.  Success  will  impose  the  obligation 
of  new  labors ;  a  single  misfortune  will  attract  the  barbarians 
into  the  heart  of  your  exhausted  empire."  Justinian  felt  the 
weight  of  this  salutary  advice ;  he  was  confounded  by  the  un- 
wonted freedom  of  an  obsequious  servant ;  and  the  design  of 

4  A  year — absurd  exaggeration  !  The  conquest  of  Africa  may  be  dated  a.d. 
533,  September  14.  It  is  celebrated  by  Justinian  in  the  preface  to  his  Institutes, 
which  were  published  November  21  of  the  same  year.  Including  the  voyage  and 
return,  such  a  computation  might  be  truly  applied  to  our  Indian  empire. 

IV.— 15 


226  SERVICES  OF  BELISAKIUS  lch.XL{. 

the  war  would  perhaps  have  been  relinquished,  if  his  courag9 
had  not  been  revived  by  a  voice  which  silenced  the  doubts  of 
profane  reason.  "I  have  seen  a  vision,"  cried  an  artful  or 
fanatic  bishop  of  the  East.  "  It  is  the  will  of  Heaven,  O  em- 
peror! that  you  should  not  abandon  your  holy  enterprise  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  African  Church.  The  God  of  battles 
will  march  before  your  standard,  and  disperse  your  enemies, 
who  are  the  enemies  of  his  Son."  The  emperor  might  be 
tempted,  and  his  counsellors  were  constrained,  to  give  credit 
to  this  seasonable  revelation ;  but  they  derived  more  rational 
hope  from  the  revolt  which  the  adherents  of  Hilderic  or  Ath- 
anasius  had  already  excited  on  the  borders  of  the  Yandal 
monarchy.  Pudentius,  an  African  subject,  had  privately  sig- 
nified his  loyal  intentions,  and  a  small  military  aid  restored 
the  province  of  Tripoli  to  the  obedience  of  the  Eomans.  The 
government  of  Sardinia  had  been  intrusted  to  Godas,  a  valiant 
barbarian :  he  suspended  the  payment  of  tribute,  disclaimed 
his  allegiance  to  the  usurper,  and  gave  audience  to  the  emis- 
saries of  Justinian,  who  found  him  master  of  that  fruitful  isl- 
and, at  the  head  of  his  guards,  and  proudly  invested  with  the 
ensigns  of  royalty.  The  forces  of  the  Yandals  were  dimin- 
ished by  discord  and  suspicion ;  the  Roman  armies  were  ani- 
mated by  the  spirit  of  Belisarius,  one  of  those  heroic  names 
which  are  familiar  to  every  age  and  to  every  nation.a 

The  Africanus  of  new  Rome  was  born,  and  perhaps  edu- 
cated, among  the  Thracian  peasants,6  without  any  of  those 

5  "QpfiqTO  St  6  BeXurapiog  Ik  Fepfiaviac,  rj  OpyictJi'TE  icai  'iWvpiwv  fKra^v  tcelrai 
(Procop.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  1 1  [torn.  i.  p.  361,  edit.  Bonn]).  Aleman  (Not.  ad  Anecdot. 
p.  5),  an  Italian,  could  easily  reject  the  German  vanity  of  Giphanius  and  Velserus, 
who  wished  to  claim  the  hero ;  but  his  Germania,  a  metropolis  of  Thrace,  I  can- 
not find  in  any  civil  or  ecclesiastical  lists  of  the  provinces  and  cities.b 


a  The  most  important  work  on  the  campaigns  of  Belisarius  since  the  time  of 
Gibbon  is  Lord  Mahon's  Life  of  this  general  (London,  1848.  2d  edit.),  founded  on 
a  careful  examination  of  the  original  authorities.  This  work  has  supplied  Dean 
Milman  and  the  present  editor  with  many  of  the  notes  to  the  present  and  the  for- 
ty-third chapters. — S. 

b  Lord  Mahon  expresses  his  surprise  that  Gibbon  cannot  find  the  town  of  Ger- 
mania in  any  civil  or  ecclesiastical  lists,  and  says  that  it  is  mentioned  by  Procopi- 
us  (de  ^Edific.  lib.  iv.  c.  1)  as  near  Sardica.  In  that  passage,  however,  it  is  called 
TtpnavT).  It  is  also  mentioned  by  Constant.  Porphyrog.  de  Themat.  1.  ii.  under 
Avppaxwv  (Skn<x  9,  Banduri  Imp.  Orient,  i.  p,  26,  where  it  is  placed  in  the  eparchia 


4.D.  529-532-3  IN  THE  PERSIAN  WAR.  227 

advantages  which  bad  formed  the  virtues  of  the  elder  and 

younger  Scipio — a  noble  origin,  liberal  studies,  and 

choice  of  Bei-  the  emukdon  of  a  free  stute.     The  silence  of  a 

isarius.  .  , 

loquacious  secretary  may  be  admitted  to  prove  that 
the  youth  of  Belisarius  could  not  afford  any  subject  of  praise: 
he  served,  most  assuredly  with  valor  and  reputation,  among 
the  private  guards  of  Justinian ;  and  when  his  patron  became 
emperor,  the  domestic  was  promoted  to  military  command. 
After  a  bold  inroad  into  Persarmenia,  in  which  his  glory  was 
shared  by  a  colleague,  and  his  progress  was  checked  by  an  en- 
emy, Belisarius  repaired  to  the  important  station  of  Dara, 
where  he  first  accepted  the  service  of  Procopius,  the  faithful 
His  services  companion,  and  diligent  historian,  of  his  exploits.6 
g'i'anwfr!1"  The  Mirranes  of  Persia  advanced  with  forty  thou- 
a.d.  529-532.  gan(j  Qf  ker  kesj.  troops,  to  raze  the  fortifications  of 
Dara ;  and  signified  the  day  and  the  hour  on  which  the  citi- 
zens should  prepare  a  bath  for  his  refreshment  after  the  toils 
of  victory.  He  encountered  an  adversary  equal  to  himself, 
by  the  new  title  of  General  of  the  East ;  his  superior  in  the 
science  of  war,  but  much  inferior  in  the  number  and  quality 
of  his  troops,  which  amounted  only  to  twenty-five  thousand 
Romans  and  strangers,  relaxed  in  their  discipline,  and  hum- 
bled by  recent  disasters.  As  the  level  plain  of  Dara  refused 
all  shelter  to  stratagem  and  ambush,  Belisarius  protected  his 
front  with  a  deep  trench,  which  was  prolonged  at  first  in  per- 
pendicular, and  afterwards  in  parallel,  lines,  to  cover  the  wings 
of  cavalry  advantageously  posted  to  command  the  flanks  and 
rear  of  the  enemy.  When  the  Roman  centre  was  shaken, 
their  well-timed  and  rapid  charge  decided  the  conflict :  the 

6  The  two  first  Persian  campaigns  of  Belisarius  are  fairly  and  copiously  related 
by  his  secretary  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  12-18). 


of  Dacia)  ;  and  by  the  grammarian  Hierocles  in  the  same  work  (p.  36),  where  it  is 
culled  rtpfidri.  Von  Hammer,  in  a  review  of  Lord  Mahon's  work  in  the  Jahr- 
biicher  der  Literatur  of  Vienna,  in  1832,  observes  that  Germania  may  be  identi- 
fied with  the  present  Tschirmien  or  Tschermen,  a  town  near  the  line  of  road  be- 
tween Constantinople  and  Adrianople,  and  about  one  day's  journey  from  the  lat- 
ter. Von  Hammer  also  observes  that  the  name  of  Belisarius  is  Sclavonic,  and  de- 
notes the  White  Prince  (Beli-Tzar)  ;  but  this  etymology  is  hardly  consistent  with 
the  reputed  low  origin  of  Belisarius. — S. 


228  SEEVICES  OF  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XLL 

standard  of  Persia  fell ;  the  immortals  fled ;  the  infantry 
threw  away  their  bucklers,  and  eight  thousand  of  the  van- 
quished were  left  on  the  field  of  battle.  In  the  next  campaign 
Syria  was  invaded  on  the  side  of  the  desert ;  and  Belisarius, 
with  twenty  thousand  men,  hastened  from  Dara  to  the  relief 
of  the  province.  During  the  whole  summer1  the  designs  of 
the  enemy  were  baffled  by  his  skilful  dispositions :  he  press- 
ed their  retreat,  occupied  each  night  their  camp  of  the  pre- 
ceding day,  and  would  have  secured  a  bloodless  victory,  if  he 
could  have  resisted  the  impatience  of  his  own  troops.  Their 
valiant  promise  was  faintly  supported  in  the  hour  of  battle ; 
the  right  wing  was  exposed  by  the  treacherous  or  cowardly 
desertion  of  the  Christian  Arabs;  the  Huns,  a  veteran  band 
of  eight  hundred  warriors,  were  oppressed  by  superior  num- 
bers ;  the  flight  of  the  Isaurians  was  intercepted ;  but  the 
Roman  infantry  stood  firm  on  the  left ;  for  Belisarius  him- 
self, dismounting  from  his  horse,  showed  them  that  intrepid 
despair  was  their  only  safety.  They  turned  their  backs  to 
the  Euphrates,  and  their  faces  to  the  enemy :  innumerable 
arrows  glanced  without  effect  from  the  compact  and  shelving 
order  of  their  bucklers;  an  impenetrable  line  of  pikes  was 
opposed  to  the  repeated  assaults  of  the  Persian  cavalry ;  and 
after  a  resistance  of  many  hours,  the  remaining  troops  were 
skilfully  embarked  under  the  shadow  of  the  night.  The  Per- 
sian commander  retired  with  disorder  and  disgrace,  to  answer 
a  strict  account  of  the  lives  of  so  many  soldiers  which  he  had 
consumed  in  a  barren  victory.  But  the  fame  of  Belisarius 
was  not  sullied  by  a  defeat  in  which  he  alone  had  saved  his 
army  from  the  consequences  of  their  own  rashness :  the  ap- 
proach of  peace  relieved  him  from  the  guard  of  the  eastern 
frontier,  and  his  conduct  in  the  sedition  of  Constantinople 
amply  discharged  his  obligations  to  the  emperor.  When  the 
African  war  became  the  topic  of  popular  discourse  and  secret 
deliberation,  each  of  the  Roman  generals  was  apprehensive, 
rather  than  ambitious,  of  the  dangerous  honor ;  but  as  soon 


*  This  is  incorrect,  since  the  decisive  battle  was  fonght  on  Easter  Sunday,  April 
19th.    The  site  of  the  battle  was  near  Callinicum. — Lord  Mahon,  p.  46,  47. — S. 


A..D.  533.]        PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  AFRICAN  WAR.  229 

as  Justinian  had  declared  his  preference  of  superior  merit, 
their  envy  was  rekindled  by  the  unanimous  applause  which 
was  given  to  the  choice  of  Belisarius.  The  temper  of  the 
Byzantine  court  may  encourage  a  suspicion  that  the  hero 
was  darkly  assisted  by  the  intrigues  of  his  wife,  the  fair  and 
subtle  Antonina,  who  alternately  enjoyed  the  confidence,  and 
incurred  the  hatred,  of  the  Empress  Theodora.  The  birth  of 
Antonina  was  ignoble ;  she  descended  from  a  family  of  char- 
ioteers ;  and  her  chastity  has  been  stained  with  the  foulest  re- 
proach. Yet  she  reigned  with  long  and  absolute  power  over 
the  mind  of  her  illustrious  husband ;  and  if  Antonina  dis- 
dained the  merit  of  conjugal  fidelity,  she  expressed  a  manly 
friendship  to  Belisarius,  whom  she  accompanied  with  un- 
daunted resolution  in  all  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  a  mil- 
itary life.7 

The  preparations  for  the  African  war  were  not  unworthy 
of  the  last  contest  between  Rome  and  Carthage.  The  pride 
Preparations  an(*  flower  of  the  army  consisted  of  the  guards  of 
Belisarius,  who,  according  to  the  pernicious  indul- 
gence of  the  times,  devoted  themselves,  by  a  par- 
ticular oath  of  fidelity,  to  the  service  of  their  patrons.  Their 
strength  and  stature,  for  which  they  had  been  curiously  se- 
lected, the  goodness  of  their  horses  and  armor,  and  the  assid- 
uous practice  of  all  the  exercises  of  war,  enabled  them  to  act 
whatever  their  courage  might  prompt ;  and  their  courage  was 
exalted  by  the  social  honor  of  their  rank,  and  the  personal 
ambition  of  favor  and  fortune.  Four  hundred  of  the  bravest 
of  the  Heruli  marched  under  the  banner  of  the  faithful  and 
active  Pharas :  their  untractable  valor  was  more  highly  prized 
than  the  tame  submission  of  the  Greeks  and  Syrians ;  and  of 
such  importance  was  it  deemed  to  procure  a  reinforcement  of 
six  hundred  Massagetae,  or  Huns,  that  they  were  allured  by 
fraud  and  deceit  to  engage  in  a  naval  expedition.  Five  thou- 
sand horse  and  ten  thousand  foot  were  embarked  at  Constan- 
tinople for  the  conquest  of  Africa ;  but  the  infantry,  for  the 

*  See  the  birth  and  character  of  Antonina,  in  the  Anecdotes,  c.  1,  and  the  notes 
of  Alemannus,  p.  3. 


for  the  Af- 
rican war, 
a.d.  533. 


230  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  AFRICAN  WAR.      [Ch.  XL! 

most  part  levied  in  Thrace  and  Isauria,  yielded  to  the  more 
prevailing  use  and  reputation  of  the  cavalry ;  and  the  Scyth- 
ian bow  was  the  weapon  on  which  the  armies  of  Rome  were 
now  reduced  to  place  their  principal  dependence.  From  a 
laudable  desire  to  assert  the  dignity  of  his  theme,  Procopius 
defends  the  soldiers  of  his  own  time  against  the  morose  crit- 
ics, who  confined  that  respectable  name  to  the  heavy-armed 
warriors  of  antiquity,  and  maliciously  observed  that  the  word 
archer  is  introduced  by  Homer8  as  a  term  of  contempt. 
"  Such  contempt  might  perhaps  be  due  to  the  naked  youths 
who  appeared  on  foot  in  the  fields  of  Troy,  and,  lurking  be- 
hind a  tombstone,  or  the  shield  of  a  friend,  drew  the  bowstring 
to  their  breast,9  and  dismissed  a  feeble  and  lifeless  arrow. 
But  our  archers  (pursues  the  historian)  are  mounted  on  horses, 
which  they  manage  with  admirable  skill;  their  head  and 
shoulders  are  protected  by  a  casque  or  buckler ;  they  wear 
greaves  of  iron  on  their  legs,  and  their  bodies  are  guarded 
by  a  coat  of  mail.  On  their  right  side  hangs  a  quiver,  a 
sword  on  their  left,  and  their  hand  is  accustomed  to  wield  a 
lance  or  javelin  in  closer  combat.  Their  bows  are  strong  and 
weighty ;  they  shoot  in  every  possible  direction,  advancing, 
retreating,  to  the  front,  to  the  rear,  or  to  either  flank ;  and  as 
they  are  taught  to  draw  the  bowstring  not  to  the  breast,  but 
to  the  right  ear,  firm  indeed  must  be  the  armor  that  can  resist 
the  rapid  violence  of  their  shaft."  Five  hundred  transports, 
navigated  by  twenty  thousand  mariners  of  Egypt,  Cilicia,  and 
Ionia,  were  collected  in  the  harbor  of  Constantinople.  The 
smallest  of  these  vessels  may  be  computed  at  thirty,  the 
largest  at  five  hundred,  tons;  and  the  fair  average  will  sup- 
ply an  allowance,  liberal,  but  not  profuse,  of  about  one  hun- 

8  See  the  preface  of  Procopius  [Bell.  Pers.  c.  1].  The  enemies  of  archery- 
might  quote  the  reproaches  of  Diomede  (Iliad,  A,  385,  etc.)  and  the  permittere 
vnlnera  vends  of  Lucan  (viii.  383)  :  yet  the  Romans  could  not  despise  the  arrows 
of  the  Parthians ;  and  in  the  siege  of  Troy,  Pandarus,  Paris,  and  Teucer  pierced 
those  haughty  warriors  who  insulted  them  as  women  or  children. 

9  Ntvprjv  fiiv  fia^ip  Tr'iXaotv,  rufy  St  aidi]pov  (Iliad,  A,  1 23).  How  concise — 
how  just — how  beautiful  is  the  whole  picture !  I  see  the  attitudes  of  the  archei 
—I  hear  the  twanging  of  the  bow : 

Aiy%e  /3iof,  vevpt)  dk  piy  "a.\zv,  aXro  S  6?otoq. 


A.D.533.]  DEPARTURE  OF  THE  FLEET.  231 

dred  tliousand  tons,10  for  the  reception  of  thirty-five  thousand 
soldiers  and  sailors,  of  five  thousand  horses,  of  arms,  engines, 
and  military  stores,  and  of  a  sufficient  stock  of  water  and  pro- 
visions for  a  voyage,  perhaps,  of  three  months.  The  proud 
galleys  which  in  former  ages  swept  the  Mediterranean  with 
so  many  hundred  oars  had  long  since  disappeared ;  and  the 
fleet  of  Justinian  was  escorted  only  by  ninety-two  light  brig- 
antines,  covered  from  the  missile  weapons  of  the  enemy,  and 
rowed  by  two  thousand  of  the  brave  and  robust  youth  of 
Constantinople.  Twenty-two  generals  are  named,  most  of 
whom  were  afterwards  distinguished  in  the  wars  of  Africa 
and  Italy ;  but  the  supreme  command,  both  by  land  and  sea, 
was  delegated  to  Belisarius  alone,  with  a  boundless  power  of 
acting  according  to  his  discretion,  as  if  the  emperor  himself 
were  present.  The  separation  of  the  naval  and  military  pro- 
fessions is  at  once  the  effect  and  the  cause  of  the  modern  im- 
provements in  the  science  of  navigation  and  maritime  war. 

In  the  seventh  year  of  the  reign  of  Justinian,  and  about 
the  time  of  the  summer  solstice,  the  whole  fleet  of  six  hun- 
Departure  dred  ships  was  ranged  in  martial  pomp  before  the 
Afjv533,eet-  gardens  of  the  palace.  The  patriarch  pronounced 
jane.  jjis  benediction,  the  emperor  signified  his  last  com- 

mands, the  general's  trumpet  gave  the  signal  of  departure, 
and  every  heart,  according  to  its  fears  or  wishes,  explored 
with  anxious  curiosity  the  omens  of  misfortune  and  success. 
The  first  halt  was  made  at  Perinthus  or  Heraclea,  where  Bel- 
isarius waited  five  days  to  receive  some  Thracian  horses,  a 
military  gift  of  his  sovereign.  From  thence  the  fleet  pur- 
sued their  course  through  the  midst  of  the  Propontis ;  but  as 
they  struggled  to  pass  the  Straits  of  the  Hellespont,  an  unfa- 

10  The  text  appears  to  allow  for  the  largest  vessels  50,000  medimni,  or  3000 
tons  (since  the  medimnus  weighed  160  Roman,  or  120  avoirdupois,  pounds).  I 
have  given  a  more  rational  interpretation,  by  supposing  that  the  Attic  style  of 
Procopius  conceals  the  legal  and  popular  modius,  a  sixth  part  of  the  medimnus 
(Hooper's  Ancient  Measures,  p.  152,  etc.).  A  contrary,  and  indeed  a  stranger, 
mistake  has  crept  into  an  oration  of  Dinarchus  (contra  Demosthenem,  in  Reiska 
Orator.  Grsec.  torn.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  34).  By  reducing  the  number  of  ships  from  500 
to  50,  and  translating  fieSifivoi  by  mines,  or  pounds,  Cousin  has  generously  al- 
lowed 500  tons  for  the  whole  of  the  imperial  fleet ! — Did  he  never  think? 


232  DEPAETURE  OF  THE  FLEET.  [Ch.  XLI. 

vorable  wind  detained  them  four  days  at  Abydus,  where  the 
general  exhibited  a  memorable  lesson  of  firmness  and  severi- 
ty. Two  of  the  Huns,  who  in  a  drunken  quarrel  had  slain 
one  of  their  fellow-soldiers,  were  instantly  shown  to  the  army 
suspended  on  a  lofty  gibbet.  The  national  indignity  was 
resented  by  their  countrymen,  who  disclaimed  the  servile 
laws  of  the  empire,  and  asserted  the  free  privilege  of  Scythia, 
where  a  small  fine  was  allowed  to  expiate  the  hasty  sallies 
of  intemperance  and  anger.  Their  complaints  were  specious, 
their  clamors  were  loud,  and  the  Romans  were  not  averse  to 
the  example  of  disorder  and  impunity.  But  the  rising  sedi- 
tion was  appeased  by  the  authority  and  eloquence  of  the 
general,  and  he  represented  to  the  assembled  troops  the  ob- 
ligation of  justice,  the  importance  of  discipline,  the  rewards 
of  piety  and  virtue,  and  the  unpardonable  guilt  of  murder, 
which,  in  his  apprehension,  was  aggravated  rather  than  ex- 
cused by  the  vice  of  intoxication."  In  the  navigation  from 
the  Hellespont  to  Peloponnesus,  which  the  Greeks,  after  the 
siege  of  Troy,  had  performed  in  four  days,18  the  fleet  of  Beli- 
sarius  was  guided  in  their  course  by  his  master-galley,  con- 
spicuous in  the  day  by  the  redness  of  the  sails,  and  in  the 
night  by  the  torches  blazing  from  the  mast-head.  It  was  the 
duty  of  the  pilots,  as  they  steered  between  the  islands  and 
turned  the  capes  of  Malea  and  Tsenarium,  to  preserve  the 
just  order  and  regular  intervals  of  such  a  multitude  of  ships ; 
as  the  wind  was  fair  and  moderate,  their  labors  were  not  un- 
successful, and  the  troops  were  safely  disembarked  at  Me- 
thone,  on  the  Messenian  coast,  to  repose  themselves  for  awhile 
after  the  fatigues  of  the  sea.  In  this  place  they  experienced 
how  avarice,  invested  with  authority,  may  sport  with  the  lives 
of  thousands  which  are  bravely  exposed  for  the  public  ser- 

11  I  have  read  of  a  Greek  legislator  who  inflicted  a  double  penalty  on  the 
crimes  committed  in  a  state  of  intoxication ;  but  it  seems  agreed  that  this  was 
rather  a  political  than  a  moral  law. 

12  Or  even  in  three  days,  since  they  anchored  the  first  evening  in  the  neighbor- 
ing isle  of  Tenedos :  the  second  day  they  sailed  to  Lesbos,  the  third  to  the  prom- 
ontory of  Eubcea,  and  on  the  fourth  they  reached  Argos  (Homer,  Odyss.  r.  130- 
183 ;  Wood's  Essay  on  Homer,  p.  40-46).  A  pirate  sailed  from  the  Hellespont 
to  the  seaport  of  Sparta  in  three  days  (Zenophon.  Hellen.  1.  ii.  c  1). 


A..D.  533.]  DEPARTURE  OF  THE  FLEET.  233 

vice.  According  to  military  practice,  the  bread  or  biscuit  of 
the  Romans  was  twice  prepared  in  the  oven,  and  the  dimi- 
nution of  one  fourth  was  cheerfully  allowed  for  the  loss  of 
weight.  To  gain  this  miserable  profit,  and  to  save  the  ex- 
pense of  wood,  the  praefect,  John  of  Cappadocia,  had  given 
orders  that  the  flour  should  be  slightly  baked  by  the  same 
fire  which  warmed  the  baths  of  Constantinople;  and  when 
the  sacks  were  opened,  a  soft  and  mouldy  paste  was  distrib- 
uted to  the  army.  Such  unwholesome  food,  assisted  by  the 
heat  of  the  climate  and  season,  soon  produced  an  epidemic- 
al disease  which  swept  away  five  hundred  soldiers.  Their 
health  was  restored  by  the  diligence  of  Belisarius,  who  pro- 
vided fresh  bread  at  Methone,  and  boldly  expressed  his  just 
and  humane  indignation :  the  emperor  heard  his  complaint ; 
the  general  was  praised,  but  the  minister  was  not  punished. 
From  the  port  of  Methone  the  pilots  steered  along  the  west- 
ern coast  of  Peloponnesus  as  far  as  the  isle  of  Zacynthus  or 
Zante,  before  they  undertook  the  voyage  (in  their  eyes  a  most 
arduous  voyage)  of  one  hundred  leagues  over  the  Ionian  Sea. 
As  the  fleet  was  surprised  by  a  calm,  sixteen  days  were  con- 
sumed in  the  slow  navigation  ;  and  even  the  general  would 
have  suffered  the  intolerable  hardship  of  thirst,  if  the  ingenu- 
ity of  Antonina  had  not  preserved  the  water  in  glass  bottles, 
which  she  buried  deep  in  the  sand  in  a  part  of  the  ship  im- 
pervious to  the  rays  of  the  sun.  At  length  the  harbor  of 
Caucana,13  on  the  southern  side  of  Sicily,  afforded  a  secure 
and  hospitable  shelter.  The  Gothic  officers,  who  governed 
the  island  in  the  name  of  the  daughter  and  grandson  of  The- 
odoric,  obeyed  their  imprudent  orders  to  receive  the  troops  of 
Justinian  like  friends  and  allies ;  provisions  were  liberally 
supplied,  the  cavalry  was  remounted,14  and  Procopius  soon  re- 


13  Cancana,  near  Camarina,  is  at  least  fifty  miles  (350  or  400  stadia)  from  Syra- 
cuse (Cluver.  Sicilia  Antiqua,  p.  191). a 

14  Procopius,  Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  3.     Tibi  tollit  hinnitum  apta  quadrigis  equa,  in  the 
Sicilian  pastures  of  Grosphus  (Horat.  Carm.  ii.  16).     Acragas  *  *  *  magnanimflm 


a  Lord  M;ihon  (Life  of  Belisarius,  p.  86)  suggests  some  valid  reasons  for  reading 
Catana,  the  ancient  name  of  Catania. — M. 


234,  ARRIVAL  OFF  THE  AFRICAN  COAST.  [Ch.  XLL 

turned  from  Syracuse  witli  correct  information  of  the  state 
and  designs  of  the  Vandals.  His  intelligence  determined 
Belisarius  to  hasten  his  operations,  and  his  wise  impatience 
was  seconded  by  the  winds.  The  fleet  lost  sight  of  Sicily, 
passed  before  the  isle  of  Malta,  discovered  the  capes  of  Afri- 
ca, ran  along  the  coast  with  a  strong  gale  from  the  northeast, 
and  finally  cast  anchor  at  the  promontory  of  Caput  Vada, 
about  five  days'  journey  to  the  south  of  Carthage.15 

If  Gelimer  had  been  informed  of  the  approach  of  the  ene- 
my, he  must  have  delayed  the  conquest  of  Sardinia  for  the 
immediate  defence  of  his  person  and  kingdom.     A 

Bclisanns  x  E3 

lands  on  the  detachment  ot  five  thousand  soldiers  and  one  hun- 
Africa  —      dred  and  twenty  galleys  would  have  "joined  the  re- 

September. 

maining  forces  of  the  Vandals ;  and  the  descendant 
of  Genseric  might  have  surprised  and  oppressed  a  fleet  of 
deep-laden  transports  incapable  of  action,  and  of  light  brigan- 
tines  that  seem  only  qualified  for  flight.  Belisarius  had  se- 
cretly trembled  when  he  overheard  his  soldiers  in  the  passage 
emboldening  each  other  to  confess  their  apprehensions.  If 
they  were  once  on  shore,  they  hoped  to  maintain  the  honor 
of  their  arms ;  but  if  they  should  be  attacked  at  sea,  they  did 
not  blush  to  acknowledge  that  they  wanted  courage  to  con- 
tend at  the  same  time  with  the  winds,  the  waves,  and  the  bar- 
barians.16 The  knowledge  of  their  sentiments  decided  Belisa- 
rius to  seize  the  first  opportunity  of  landing  them  on  the 

quondam  generator  equorum  (Virg.  iEneid,  iii.  704).  Thero's  horses,  whose  vic- 
tories are  immortalized  by  Pindar,  were  bred  in  this  country. 

16  The  Caput  Vada  of  Procopius  (where  Justinian  afterwards  founded  a  city. — 
De  iEdific.  1.  vi.  c.  6)  is  the  promontory  of  Amnion  in  Strabo,  the  Brachodes  of 
Ptolemy,  the  Capaudia  of  the  moderns,  a  long,  narrow  slip  that  runs  into  the  sea 
(Shaw's  Travels,  p.  lll).a 

16  A  centurion  of  Mark  Antony  expressed,  though  in  a  more  manly  strain,  the> 
same  dislike  to  the  sea  and  to  naval  combats  (Plutarch  in  Antonio,  p.  1730,  edit. 
Hen.  Steph.).  

a  The  reason  why  Belisarius  chose  Caput  Vada  as  the  place  for  disembarking 
his  troops  was  doubtless  because  the  province  of  Tripolitana  had  revolted  against 
the  Vandals  (Procopius,  Bell.  Vandal.,  1.  i.  c.  10,  p.  357,  edit.  Bonn).  In  case  of 
a  reverse  by  land  or  by  sea,  Belisarius  would  be  able  to  retreat  to  the  imperial 
provinces  of  Cyrena'ica  and  Egypt.  See  Dureau  de  la  Malle,  l'Algerie  (which  con- 
tains an  account  of  the  campaign  of  Belisarius  in  Africa),  p.  240. — S. 


A.D.533.]  BEL1SARI  US  LANDS  IN  AFRICA.  235 

coast  of  Africa ;  and  he  prudently  rejected,  in  a  council  of 
war,  the  proposal  of  sailing  with  the  fleet  and  army  into  the 
port  of  Carthage.a  Three  months  after  their  departure  from 
Constantinople,  the  men  and  horses,  the  arms  and  military 
stores,  were  safely  disembarked;  and  five  soldiers  were  left 
as  a  guard  on  board  each  of  the  ships,  which  were  disposed  in 
the  form  of  a  semicircle.  The  remainder  of  the  troops  occu- 
pied a  camp  on  the  sea-shore,  which  they  fortified,  according 
to  ancient  discipline, with  a  ditch  and  rampart;  and  the  dis- 
covery of  a  source  of  fresh  water,  while  it  allayed  the  thirst, 
excited  the  superstitious  confidence  of  the  Romans.  The 
next  morning  some  of  the  neighboring  gardens  were  pillaged ; 
and  Belisarius,  after  chastising  the  offenders,  embraced  the 
slight  occasion,  but  the  decisive  moment,  of  inculcating  the 
maxims  of  justice,  moderation,  and  genuine  policy.  "  When 
I  first  accepted  the  commission  of  subduing  Africa,  I  depend- 
ed much  less,"  said  the  general,  "  on  the  numbers,  or  even  the 
bravery,  of  my  troops,  than  upon  the  friendly  disposition  of 
the  natives  and  their  immortal  hatred  to  the  Yandals.  You 
alone  can  deprive  me  of  this  hope :  if  you  continue  to  extort 
by  rapine  what  might  be  purchased  for  a  little  money,  such 
acts  of  violence  will  reconcile  these  implacable  enemies,  and 
unite  them  in  a  just  and  holy  league  against  the  invaders  of 
their  country."  These  exhortations  were  enforced  by  a  rigid 
discipline,  of  which  the  soldiers  themselves  soon  felt  and 
praised  the  salutary  effects.  The  inhabitants,  instead  of  de- 
serting their  houses  or  hiding  their  corn,  supplied  the  Romans 
with  a  fair  and  liberal  market,  the  civil  officers  of  the  province 
continued  to  exercise  their  functions  in  the  name  of  Justinian, 
and  the  clergy,  from  motives  of  conscience  and  interest,  assid- 
uously labored  to  promote  the  cause  of  a  Catholic  emperor. 
The  small  town  of  Sullecte,17  one  day's  journey  from  the 

11  Sullecte  is  perhaps  the  Tunis  Hannibalis,  an  old  building,  now  as  large  as  the 


a  Lord  Mahon  observes  (p.  90)  that  the  proposal,  rejected  by  Belisarius,  was 
not  to  sail  into  the  port  of  Carthage,  but  into  a  haven  forty  stadia  from  Carthage, 
namely,  the  present  lake  of  Tunis.  Procopius,  Bell.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  15,  p.  374, 
edit.  Bonn. — S. 


236  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.  [CH.XLL 

camp,  had  the  honor  of  being  foremost  to  open  her  gates  and 
to  resume  her  ancient  allegiance ;  the  larger  cities  of  Leptia 
and  Adrumetum  imitated  the  example  of  loyalty  as  soon  as 
Belisarius  appeared ;  and  he  advanced  without  opposition  as 
far  as  Grasse,  a  palace  of  the  Yandal  kings,  at  the  distance  of 
fifty  miles  from  Carthage.a  The  weary  Romans  indulged 
themselves  in  the  refreshment  of  shady  groves,  cool  foun- 
tains,  and  delicious  fruits;  and  the  preference  which  Procopius1 
allows  to  these  gardens  over  any  that  he  had  seen,  either  in 
the  East  or  West,  may  be  ascribed  either  to  the  taste  or  the 
fatigue  of  the  historian.  In  three  generations  prosperity  and 
a  warm  climate  had  dissolved  the  hardy  virtue  of  the  Van- 
dals, who  insensibly  became  the  most  luxurious  of  mankind. 
In  their  villas  and  gardens,  which  might  deserve  the  Persian 
name  of  Paradise™  they  enjoyed  a  cool  and  elegant  repose ; 
and,  after  the  daily  use  of  the  bath,  the  barbarians  were  seat- 
ed at  a  table  profusely  spread  with  the  delicacies  of  the  land 
and  sea.  Their  silken  robes,  loosely  flowing  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Medes,  were  embroidered  with  gold ;  love  and  hunting 
were  the  labors  of  their  life,  and  their  vacant  hours  were 
amused  by  pantomimes,  chariot  -  races,  and  the  music  and 
dances  of  the  theatre. 

In  a  march  of  ten  or  twelve  days  the  vigilance  of  Belisa- 
rius was  constantly  awake  and  active  against  his 
vandais  in  a  unseen  enemies,  by  whom,  in  every  place  and  at  ev- 
ery hour,  he  might  be  suddenly  attacked.  An  of- 
ficer of  confidence  and  merit,  John  the  Armenian,  led  the  van- 
Tower  of  London. b  The  march  of  Belisarins  to  Leptis,  Adrumetum,  etc.,  is  illus- 
trated by  the  campaign  of  Cassar  (Hirtius  de  Bello  Africano,  with  the  Analyse  of 
Guichardt),  and  Shaw's  Travels  (p.  105-113)  in  the  same  country. 

18  IlapdctiaoQ  KaXkicrog  cnravruv  wv  r/fieig  ia[xsv.  The  paradises,  a  name  and 
fashion  adopted  from  Persia,  may  be  represented  by  the  royal  garden  of  Ispahan 
(Voyage  d'Olearius,  p.  774).  See,  in  the  Greek  romances,  their  most  perfect  model 
(Longus,  Pastoral.  I.  iv.  p.  99-101 ;  Achilles  Tatius,  1.  i.  p.  22,  23). 


a  Leptis  is  now  Lenta,  also  called  Lamba  ;  Adrumetum  is  Sousa  ;  and  Grasse 
is  conjectured  to  be  the  town  previously  called  Aphrodisium,  now  Faradise.  Du- 
reau  de  la  Malle,  p.  244. — S. 

b  The  name  of  Sullecte  is  still  preserved  in  that  of  Salekto,  a  small  town  upon 
the  coast,  situated  about  eight  (French)  leagues  north  of  Capaudia  (Caput  Vadaj, 
Dureau  de  la  Malle,  ut  supra,  p.  242. — S. 


A.D.  533.]  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.  237 

guard  of  three  hundred  horse,  six  hundred  Massagetse  cover- 
ed at  a  certain  distance  the  left  flank,  and  the  whole  fleet, 
steering  along  the  coast,  seldom  lost  sight  of  the  army3  which 
moved  each  day  about  twelve  miles,  and  lodged  in  the  even- 
ing in  strong  camps  or  in  friendly  towns.  The  near  approach 
of  the  Romans  to  Carthage  filled  the  mind  of  Gelimer  with 
anxiety  and  terror.  He  prudently  wished  to  protract  the  war 
till  his  brother,  with  his  veteran  troops,  should  return  from 
the  conquest  of  Sardinia  ;  and  he  now  lamented  the  rash  pol- 
icy of  his  ancestors,  who,  by  destroying  the  fortifications  of 
Africa,  had  left  him  only  the  dangerous  resource  of  risking 
a  battle  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  capital.  The  Yandal  con- 
querors, from  their  original  number  of  fifty  thousand,  were 
multiplied,  without  including  their  women  and  children,  to 
one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  fighting- men ;a  and  such 
forces,  animated  with  valor  and  union,  might  have  crushed  at 
their  first  landing  the  feeble  and  exhausted  bands  of  the  Ro- 
man general.  But  the  friends  of  the  captive  king  were  more 
inclined  to  accept  the  invitations  than  to  resist  the  progress 
of  Belisarius ;  and  many  a  proud  barbarian  disguised  his  aver- 
sion to  war  under  the  more  specious  name  of  his  hatred  to  the 
usurper.  Yet  the  authority  and  promises  of  Gelimer  collect- 
ed a  formidable  army,  and  his  plans  were  concerted  with  some 
degree  of  military  skill.  An  order  was  despatched  to  his 
brother  Ammatas  to  collect  all  the  forces  of  Carthage,  and  to 
encounter  the  van  of  the  Roman  army  at  the  distance  of  ten 
miles  from  the  city :  his  nephew  Gibamund,  with  two  thou- 
sand horse,  was  destined  to  attack  their  left,  when  the  mon- 
arch himself,  who  silently  followed,  should  charge  their  rear 
in  a  situation  which  excluded  them  from  the  aid  or  even  the 
view  of  their  fleet.  But  the  rashness  of  Ammatas  was  fatal 
to  himself  and  his  country.  He  anticipated  the  hour  of  the 
attack,  outstripped  his  tardy  followers,  and  was  pierced  with 
a  mortal  wound  after  he  had  slain  with  his  own  hand  twelve 
of  his  boldest  antagonists.     His  Yandals  fled  to  Carthage; 


a  The  number  in  Procopius  is  80,000  (fivpidSeg  6/crw).  Hist.  Arc.  c.  18.  Gib- 
bon has  been  misled  either  by  the  Latin  or  French  version,  in  both  of  which  this 
mistake  occurs.     See  Lord  Mahon,  p.  97.— S. 


238  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.        [Ch.  XLL 

the  highway,  almost  ten  miles,  was  strewed  with  dead  bodies ; 
and  it  seemed  incredible  that  such  multitudes  could  be  slaugh- 
tered by  the  swords  of  three  hundred  Romans.  The  nephew 
of  Gelimer  was  defeated,  after  a  slight  combat,  by  the  six 
hundred  Massagetas :  they  did  not  equal  the  third  part  of  his 
numbers,  but  each  Scythian  was  fired  by  the  example  of  his 
chief,  who  gloriously  exercised  the  privilege  of  his  family  by 
riding  foremost  and  alone  to  shoot  the  first  arrow  against  the 
enemy.  In  the  mean  while  Gelimer  himself,  ignorant  of  the 
event,  and  misguided  by  the  windings  of  the  hills,  inadver- 
tently passed  the  Roman  army,  and  reached  the  scene  of  ac- 
tion where  Ammatas  had  fallen.  He  wept  the  fate  of  his 
brother  and  of  Carthage,  charged  with  irresistible  fury  the  ad- 
vancing squadrons,  and  might  have  pursued,  and  perhaps  de- 
cided the  victory,  if  he  had  not  wasted  those  inestimable  mo- 
ments in  the  discharge  of  a  vain  though  pious  duty  to  the 
dead.  While  his  spirit  was  broken  by  this  mournful  office, 
he  heard  the  trumpet  of  Belisarius,  who,  leaving  Antonina 
and  his  infantry  in  the  camp,  pressed  forward  with  his  guards 
and  the  remainder  of  the  cavalry  to  rally  his  flying  troops, 
and  to  restore  the  fortune  of  the  day.  Much  room  could  not 
be  found  in  this  disorderly  battle  for  the  talents  of  a  general ; 
but  the  king  fled  before  the  hero,  and  the  Yandals,  accustom- 
ed only  to  a  Moorish  enemy,  were  incapable  of  withstanding 
the  arms  and  discipline  of  the  Romans.  Gelimer  retired 
with  hasty  steps  towards  the  desert  of  Numidia ;  but  he  had 
soon  the  consolation  of  learning  that  his  private  orders  for 
the  execution  of  Hilderic  and  his  captive  friends  had  been 
faithfully  obeyed.  The  tyrant's  revenge  was  useful  only  to 
his  enemies.  The  death  of  a  lawful  prince  excited  the  com- 
passion of  his  people ;  his  life  might  have  perplexed  the  vic- 
torious Romans ;  and  the  lieutenant  of  Justinian,  by  a  crime 
of  which  he  was  innocent,  was  relieved  from  the  painful  alter-*- 
native  of  forfeiting  his  honor  or  relinquishing  his  conquests. 
As  soon  as  the  tumult  had  subsided,  the  several  parts  of 
the  army  informed  each  other  of  the  accidents  of  the  day; 
and  Belisarius  pitched  his  camp  on  the  field  of  victory,  to 
which  the  tenth  mile-stone  from  Carthage  had  applied  the 


A.D.  533.]  REDUCTION  OF  CARTIIAGE.  239 

Latin  appellation  of  Decimus.  From  a  wise  suspicion  of  the 
Reduction  of  stratagems  and  resources  of  the  Vandals,  he  marched 
A."!.l53l;e'  the  next  day  in  order  of  battle,  halted  in  the  evcn- 
sept.15.  jUg  before  the  gates  of  Carthage,  and  allowed  a 
night  of  repose,  that  he  might  not  in  darkness  and  disorder 
expose  the  city  to  the  license  of  the  soldiers,  or  the  soldiers 
themselves  to  the  secret  ambush  of  the  city.  But  as  the 
fears  of  Belisarius  were  the  result  of  calm  and  intrepid  rea- 
son, he  was  soon  satisfied  that  he  might  confide,  without  dan- 
ger, in  the  peaceful  and  friendly  aspect  of  the  capital.  Car- 
thage blazed  with  innumerable  torches,  the  signals  of  the 
public  joy;  the  chain  was  removed  that  guarded  the  entrance 
of  the  port,  the  gates  were  thrown  open,  and  the  people  with 
acclamations  of  gratitude  hailed  and  invited  their  Roman  de- 
liverers. The  defeat  of  the  Yandals  and  the  freedom  of  Af- 
rica were  announced  to  the  city  on  the  eve  of  St.  Cyprian, 
when  the  churches  were  already  adorned  and  illuminated  for 
the  festival  of  the  martyr,  whom  three  centuries  of  supersti- 
tion had  almost  raised  to  a  local  deity.  The  Arians,  conscious 
that  their  reign  had  expired,  resigned  the  temple  to  the  Cath- 
olics, who  rescued  their  saint  from  profane  hands,  performed 
the  holy  rites,  and  loudly  proclaimed  the  creed  of  Athanasius 
and  Justinian.  One  awful  hour  reversed  the  fortunes  of  the 
contending  parties.  The  suppliant  Yandals,  who  had  so  late- 
ly indulged  the  vices  of  conquerors,  sought  a  humble  refuge 
in  the  sanctuary  of  the  Church ;  while  the  merchants  of  the 
East  were  delivered  from  the  deepest  dungeon  of  the  palace 
by  their  affrighted  keeper,  who  implored  the  protection  of  his 
captives,  and  showed  them,  through  an  aperture  in  the  wall, 
the  sails  of  the  Roman  fleet.  After  their  separation  from  the 
army,  the  naval  commanders  had  proceeded  with  slow  cau- 
tion along  the  coast  till  they  reached  the  Hermsean  promon- 
tory, and  obtained  the  first  intelligence  of  the  victory  of  Beii-. 
sarins.  Faithful  to  his  instructions,  they  would  have  cast 
anchor  about  twenty  miles  from  Carthage,  if  the  more  skilful 
seamen  had  not  represented  the  perils  of  the  shore  and  the 
signs  of  an  impending  tempest.  Still  ignorant  of  the  revolu- 
tion, they  declined,  however,  the  rash  attempt  of  forcing  the 


240  REDUCTION  OF  CARTHAGE.  [Ch.  XLL 

chain  of  the  port ;  and  the  adjacent  harbor  and  suburb  of 
Mandraeium  were  insulted  only  by  the  rapine  of  a  private  of- 
ficer who  disobeyed  and  deserted  his  leaders.  But  the  impe- 
rial fleet,  advancing  with  a  fair  wind,  steered  through  the  nar- 
row entrance  of  the  Goletta,  and  occupied  in  the  deep  and 
capacious  lake  of  Tunis  a  secure  station  about  five  miles  from 
the  capital.19  Eo  sooner  was  Belisarius  informed  of  their  ar- 
rival than  he  despatched  orders  that  the  greatest  part  of  the 
mariners  should  be  immediately  landed,  to  join  the  triumph, 
and  to  swell  the  apparent  numbers  of  the  Romans.  Before 
he  allowed  them  to  enter  the  gates  of  Carthage,  he  exhorted 
them,  in  a  discourse  worthy  of  himself  and  the  occasion,  not 
to  disgrace  the  glory  of  their  arms ;  and  to  remember  that 
the  Vandals  had  been  the  tyrants,  but  that  they  were  the  de- 
liverers, of  the  Africans,  who  must  now  be  respected  as  the 
voluntary  and  affectionate  subjects  of  their  common  sover- 
eign. The  Romans  marched  through  the  streets  in  close 
ranks,  prepared  for  battle  if  an  enemy  had  appeared :  the 
strict  order  maintained  by  the  general  imprinted  on  their 
minds  the  duty  of  obedience ;  and  in  an  age  in  which  custom 
and  impunity  almost  sanctified  the  abuse  of  conquest,  the  gen- 
ius of  one  man  repressed  the  passions  of  a  victorious  army. 
The  voice  of  menace  and  complaint  was  silent ;  the  trade  of 
Carthage  was  not  interrupted ;  while  Africa  changed  her  mas- 
ter and  her  government,  the  shops  continued  open  and  busy  ; 
and  the  soldiers,  after  sufficient  guards  had  been  posted,  mod- 
estly departed  to  the  houses  which  were  allotted  for  their  re- 
ception. Belisarius  fixed  his  residence  in  the  palace,  seated 
himself  on  the  throne  of  Genseric,  accepted  and  distributed 
the  barbaric  spoil,  granted  their  lives  to  the  suppliant  Van- 
dals, and  labored  to  repair  the  damage  which  the  suburb  of 


19  The  neighborhood  of  Carthage,  the  sea,  the  land,  and  the  rivers,  are  changed 
almost  as  much  as  the  works  of  man.  The  isthmus,  or  neck,  of  the  city  is  now 
confounded  with  the  continent ;  the  harbor  is  a  dry  plain  ;  and  the  lake,  or  stag- 
nam,  no  more  than  a  morass,  with  six  or  seven  feet  water  in  the  mid-channel. 
See  D'Anville  (Gdographie  Ancienne,  torn.  iii.  p.  82),  Shaw  (Travels,  p.  77-84), 
Mormol  (Description  de  l'Afrique,  torn.  ii.  p.  465),  and  Thuanus  (lviii.  12,  torn,  iii, 
p.  334). 


A.D.  533.]  FINAL  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.  241 

Mandracium  had  sustained  in  the  prsceding  night.  At  sup- 
per he  entertained  his  principal  officers  with  the  form  and 
magnificence  of  a  royal  banquet.50  The  victor  was  respectful- 
ly served  by  the  captive  officers  of  tho  household ;  and  in  the 
moments  of  festivity,  when  the  impartial  spectators  applaud- 
ed the  fortune  and  merit  of  Belisarius,  his  envious  flatterers 
secretly  shed  their  venom  on  ever}7  word  and  gesture  which 
might  alarm  the  suspicions  of  a  jealous  monarch.  One  day 
was  given  to  these  pompous  scenes,  which  may  not  be  despised 
as  useless  if  they  attracted  the  popular  veneration ;  but  the 
active  mind  of  Belisarius,  which  in  the  pride  of  victory  could 
suppose  a  defeat,  had  already  resolved  that  the  Roman  em- 
pire in  Africa  should  not  depend  on  the  chance  of  arms  or 
the  favor  of  the  people.  The  fortifications  of  Carthagea  had 
alone  been  exempted  from  the  general  proscription ;  but  in 
the  reign  of  ninety-five  years  they  were  suffered  to  decay  by 
the  thoughtless  and  indolent  Yandals.  A  wiser  conqueror 
restored,  with  incredible  despatch,  the  walls  and  ditches  of  the 
city.  His  liberality  encouraged  the  workmen ;  the  soldiers, 
the  mariners,  and  the  citizens  vied  with  each  other  in  the  sal- 
utary labor ;  and  Gelimer,  who  had  feared  to  trust  his  person 
in  an  open  town,  beheld  with  astonishment  and  despair  the 
rising  strength  of  an  impregnable  fortress. 

That  unfortunate  monarch,  after  the  loss  of  his  capital, 
applied  himself  to  collect  the  remains  of  an  army  scattered, 
Final  defeat  rather  than  destroyed,  by  the  preceding  battle,  and 
and  tie11"  tne  hopes  of  pillage  attracted  some  Moorish  bands 
I»"  533^  to  *ne  standard  of  Gelimer.  He  encamped  in  the 
November.     fields  of  g^  fom,  dajg,  journev  frora  Carthage  ;b 

insulted  the  capital,  which  he  deprived  of  the  use  of  an  aque- 


90  From  Delphi,  the  name  of  Delphicum  was  given,  both  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
to  a  tripod ;  and,  by  an  easy  analogy,  the  same  appellation  was  extended  at  Rome, 
Constantinople,  and  Carthage  to  the  royal  banqueting-room.  (Procopius,  Van- 
dal. 1.  i.  c.  21,     Ducange,  Gloss.  Grasc.  p.  277.     Ae\<piicov,  ad  Alexiad.  p.  412.) 


*  And  a  few  others  (SXiya  arra),  Procopius  states  in  his  work  De  iEdificiis,  1. 
?i.  c.  5  [torn.  iii.  p.  338,  edit.  Bonn]. — M. 

b  The  plain  of  Bulla  was  situated  on  the  confines  of  Numidia  (Procopius,  Bell. 
Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  25,  p.  406).     It  is  still  called  Bull.— S. 

IV.— 16 


242  FINAL  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.  [Ch.  XLI. 

duct ;  proposed  a  high  reward  for  the  head  of  every  Roman ; 
affected  to  spare  the  persons  and  property  of  his  African  sub' 
jects;  and  secretly  negotiated  with  the  Arian  sectaries  and 
the  confederate  Huns.  Under  these  circumstances  the  con- 
quest of  Sardinia  served  only  to  aggravate  his  distress :  he  re- 
flected, with  the  deepest  anguish,  that  he  had  wasted  in  that 
useless  enterprise  five  thousand  of  his  bravest  troops,  and  he 
read,  with  grief  and  shame,  the  victorious  letters  of  his  broth- 
er Zano,a  who  expressed  a  sanguine  confidence  that  the  king, 
after  the  example  of  their  ancestors,  had  already  chastised  the 
rashness  of  the  Roman  invader.  "  Alas !  my  brother,"  replied 
Gelimer,  "  Heaven  has  declared  against  our  unhappy  nation. 
While  you  have  subdued  Sardinia,  we  have  lost  Africa.  No 
sooner  did  Belisarius  appear  with  a  handful  of  soldiers,  than 
courage  and  prosperity  deserted  the  cause  of  the  Yandals. 
Your  nephew  Gibamund,  your  brother  Ammatas,  have  been 
betrayed  to  death  by  the  cowardice  of  their  followers.  Our 
horses,  our  ships,  Carthage  itself,  and  all  Africa,  are  in  the 
power  of  the  enemy.  Yet  the  Yandals  still  prefer  an  igno- 
minious repose,  at  the  expense  of  their  wives  and  children, 
their  wealth  and  liberty.  Nothing  now  remains  except  the 
field  of  Bulla,  and  the  hope  of  your  valor.  Abandon  Sar- 
dinia; fly  to  our  relief;  restore  our  empire,  or  perish  by  our 
side."  On  the  receipt  of  this  epistle  Zano  imparted  his  grief 
to  the  principal  Yandals,  but  the  intelligence  was  prudently 
concealed  from  the  natives  of  the  island.  The  troops  em- 
barked in  one  hundred  and  twenty  galleys  at  the  port  of 
Cagliari,  cast  anchor  the  third  day  on  the  confines  of  Mauri- 
tania, and  hastily  pursued  their  march  to  join  the  royal  stand- 
ard in  the  camp  of  Bulla.  Mournful  was  the  interview :  the 
two  brothers  embraced ;  they  wept  in  silence ;  no  questions 
were  asked  of  the  Sardinian  victory ;  no  inquiries  were  made 
of  the  African  misfortunes :  they  saw  before  their  eyes  the 
whole  extent  of  their  calamities,  and  the  absence  of  their 


*  Gibbon  had  forgotten  that  the  bearer  of  the  "victorious  letters  of  his  broth- 
er "  had  sailed  into  the  port  of  Carthage,  and  that  the  letters  had  fallen  into  *i»e 
hands  of  the  Romans.  Proc.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  23. — M.  The  name  in  Procopiu*i* 
T£d£wv.     Zano  in  the  text  is  perhaps  a  misprint  for  Zazo. — S. 


a.d.533.]  FINAL  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.  243 

wives  and  children  afforded  a  melancholy  proof  that  cither 
death  or  captivity  had  been  their  lot.  The  languid  spirit  of 
the  Yandals  was  at  length  awakened  and  united  by  the  en- 
treaties of  their  king,  the  example  of  Zano,  and  the  instant 
danger  which  threatened  their  monarchy  and  religion.  The 
military  strength  of  the  nation  advanced  to  battle,  and  such 
was  the  rapid  increase  that,  before  their  army  reached  Trica- 
meron,  about  twenty  miles  from  Carthage,  they  might  boast, 
perhaps  with  some  exaggeration,  that  they  surpassed  in  a  ten- 
fold proportion  the  diminutive  powers  of  the  Romans.  But 
these  powers  were  under  the  command  of  Belisarius,  and, 
as  he  was  conscious  of  their  superior  merit,  he  permitted  the 
barbarians  to  surprise  him  at  an  unseasonable  hour.  The 
Romans  were  instantly  under  arms;  a  rivulet  covered  their 
front ;  the  cavalry  formed  the  first  line,  which  Belisarius  sup- 
ported in  the  centre  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  guards ;  the 
infantry,  at  some  distance,  was  posted  in  the  second  line; 
and  the  vigilance  of  the  general  watched  the  separate  station 
and  ambiguous  faith  of  the  Massagetse,  who  secretly  reserved 
their  aid  for  the  conquerors.  The  historian  has  inserted,  and 
the  reader  may  easily  supply,  the  speeches21  of  the  command- 
ers, who,  by  arguments  the  most  apposite  to  their  situation, 
inculcated  the  importance  of  victory  and  the  contempt  of  life. 
Zano,  with  the  troops  which  had  followed  him  to  the  conquest 
of  Sardinia,  was  placed  in  the  centre,  and  the  throne  of  Gen- 
seric  might  have  stood,  if  the  multitude  of  Yandals  had  imi- 
tated their  intrepid  resolution.  Casting  away  their  lances 
and  missile  weapons,  they  drew  their  swords  and  expected  the 
charge ;  the  Roman  cavalry  thrice  passed  the  rivulet,  they 
were  thrice  repulsed,  and  the  conflict  was  firmly  maintained 
till  Zano  fell  and  the  standard  of  Belisarius  was  displayed. 
Gelimer  retreated  to  his  camp,  the  Huns  joined  the  pursuit, 
and  the  victors  despoiled  the  bodies  of  the  slain.  Yet  no 
more  than  fifty  Romans  and  eight  hundred  Yandals  were 
found  on  the  field  of  battle;  so  inconsiderable  was  the  car- 


81  These  orations  always  express  the  sense  of  the  times,  and  sometimes  of  thfc 
actors.     I  have  condensed  that  sense,  and  thrown  away  declamation, 


244  FINAL  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VANDALS.  [Ch.  XLL 

nage  of  a  day  which  extinguished  a  nation  and  transferred 
the  empire  of  Africa.  In  the  evening  Belisarius  led  his  in- 
fantry to  the  attack  of  the  camp,  and  the  pusillanimous  flight 
of  Gelimer  exposed  the  vanity  of  his  recent  declarations,  that 
to  the  vanquished  death  was  a  relief,  life  a  burden,  and  infa- 
my the  only  object  of  terror.  His  departure  was  secret,  but, 
as  soon  as  the  Yandals  discovered  that  their  king  had  desert- 
ed them,  they  hastily  dispersed,  anxious  only  for  their  per- 
sonal safety,  and  careless  of  every  object  that  is  dear  or  valu- 
able to  mankind.  The  Romans  entered  the  camp  without 
resistance,  and  the  wildest  scenes  of  disorder  were  veiled  in 
the  darkness  and  confusion  of  the  night.  Every  barbarian 
who  met  their  swords  was  inhumanly  massacred :  their  wid- 
ows and  daughters,  as  rich  heirs  or  beautiful  concubines,  were 
embraced  by  the  licentious  soldiers;  and  avarice  itself  was 
almost  satiated  with  the  treasures  of  gold  and  silver,  the  ac- 
cumulated fruits  of  conquest  or  economy  in  a  long  period  of 
prosperity  and  peace.  In  this  frantic  search  the  troops,  even 
of  Belisarius,  forgot  their  caution  and  respect.  Intoxicated 
with  lust  and  rapine,  they  explored,  in  small  parties  or  alone, 
the  adjacent  fields,  the  woods,  the  rocks,  and  the  caverns  that 
might  possibly  conceal  any  desirable  prize ;  laden  with  booty, 
they  deserted  their  ranks,  and  wandered,  without  a  guide,  on 
the  high-road  to  Carthage,  and,  if  the  flying  enemies  had 
dared  to  return,  very  few  of  the  conquerors  would  have  es- 
caped. Deeply  sensible  of  the  disgrace  and  danger,  Belisa- 
rius passed  an  apprehensive  night  on  the  field  of  victory ;  at 
the  dawn  of  day  he  planted  his  standard  on  a  hill,  recalled  his 
guards  and  veterans,  and  gradually  restored  the  modesty  and 
obedience  of  the  camp.  It  was  equally  the  concern  of  the 
Roman  general  to  subdue  the  hostile,  and  to  save  the  pros- 
trate, barbarian ;  and  the  suppliant  Yandals,  who  could  be 
found  only  in  churches,  were  protected  by  his  authority,  dis- 
armed, and  separately  confined,  that  they  might  neither  dis- 
turb the  public  peace  nor  become  the  victims  of  popular  re- 
venge. After  despatching  a  light  detachment  to  tread  the 
footsteps  of  Gelimer,  he  advanced,  with  his  whole  army, 
about  ten  days'  march,  as  far  as  Hippo  Regius,  which  no 


A.D.  534. J         CONQUEST  OF  AFRICA  BY  BELISARIUS.  245 

longer  possessed  the  relics  of  St.  Augustine.22  The  season, 
and  the  certain  intelligence  that  the  Yandal  had  fled  to  the 
inaccessible  country  of  the  Moors,  determined  Belisarius  to 
relinquish  the  vain  pursuit,  and  to  fix  his  winter-quarters  at 
Carthage.  From  thence  he  despatched  his  principal  lieuten- 
ant to  inform  the  emperor  that  in  the  space  of  three  months 
he  had  achieved  the  conquest  of  Africa. 

Belisarius  spoke  the  language  of  truth.  The  surviving 
Vandals  yielded,  without  resistance,  their  arms  and  their  f  ree- 
conquest  of  dom  j  the  neighborhood  of  Carthage  submitted  to 
Belisarius.  ms  presence,  and  the  more  distant  provinces  were 
a.d.534.  successively  subdued  by  the  report  of  his  victory. 
Tripoli  was  confirmed  in  her  voluntary  allegiance;  Sardinia 
and  Corsica  surrendered  to  an  officer  who  carried  instead 
of  a  sword  the  head  of  the  valiant  Zano ;  and  the  isles  of 
Majorca,  Minorca,  and  Tvica  consented  to  remain  a  humble 
appendage  of  the  African  kingdom.  Csesarea,  a  royal  city, 
which  in  looser  geography  may  be  confounded  with  the  mod- 
ern Algiers,  was  situate  thirty  days'  march  to  the  westward  of 
Carthage ;  by  land  the  road  was  invested  by  the  Moors,  but 
the  sea  was  open,  and  the  Romans  were  now  masters  of  the 
sea.  An  active  and  discreet  tribune  sailed  as  far  as  the 
Straits,  where  he  occupied  Septem  or  Ceuta,23  which  rises  op- 
posite to  Gibraltar  on  the  African  coast ;  that  remote  place 
was  afterwards  adorned  and  fortified  by  Justinian,  and  he 
seems  to  have  indulged  the  vain  ambition  of  extending  his 

22  The  relics  of  St.  Augustine  were  carried  by  the  African  bishops  to  their  Sar- 
dinian exile  (a.d.  500);  and  it  was  believed,  in  the  eighth  century,  that  Liut- 
prand,  King  of  the  Lombards,  transported  them  (a.d.  721)  from  Sardinia  to  Pa- 
via.  In  the  year  1695  the  Augustine  friars  of  that  city  found  a  brick  arch,  mar- 
ble coffin,  silver  case,  silk  wrapper,  bones,  blood,  etc.,  and  perhaps  an  inscription 
of  Agostino  in  Gothic  letters.  But  this  useful  discovery  has  been  disputed  by 
mason  and  jealousy.  (Baronius,  Annal.  a.d.  725,  No.  2-9.  Tillemont,  Mem.  Ec- 
cles.  torn.  xiii.  p.  944.  Montfaucon,  Diarium  Ital.  p.  26-30.  Muratori,  Antiq. 
Ital.  Medii  iEvi,  torn.  v.  dissert,  lviii.  p.  9,  who  had  composed  a  separate  treatise 
before  the  decree  of  the  Bishop  of  Pavia,  and  Pope  Benedict  XIII.) 

23  Td  rr\q  iroXiretag  irpoolfiia,  is  the  expression  of  Procopius  (de  JEdific.  1.  vi.  c. 
7).  Ceuta,  which  has  been  defaced  by  the  Portuguese,  flourished  in  nobles  and 
palaces,  in  agriculture  and  manufactures,  under  the  more  prosperous  reign  of  the 
Arabs  (L'Afrique  de  Marmol,  torn.  ii.  p.  236). 


246  CONQUEST  OF  AFEICA  BY  BELISARIUS.         [Ch.  XLI 

empire  to  the  Columns  of  Hercules.  He  received  the  mes* 
Bengers  of  victory  at  the  time  when  he  was  preparing  to  pub* 
lish  the  Pandects  of  the  Roman  law,  and  the  devout  or  jeal- 
ous emperor  celebrated  the  divine  goodness,  and  confessed  in 
silence  the  merit  of  his  successful  general.24  Impatient  to 
abolish  the  temporal  and  spiritual  tyranny  of  the  Vandals, 
he  proceeded  without  delay  to  the  full  establishment  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  Her  jurisdiction,  wealth,  and  immunities, 
perhaps  the  most  essential  part  of  episcopal  religion,  were  re- 
stored and  amplified  with  a  liberal  hand ;  the  Arian  worship 
was  suppressed,  the  Donatist  meetings  were  proscribed,26  and 
the  Synod  of  Carthage,  by  the  voice  of  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enteen bishops,26  applauded  the  just  measure  of  pious  retalia- 
tion. On  such  an  occasion  it  may  not  be  presumed  that  many 
orthodox  prelates  were  absent;  but  the  comparative  smallness 
of  their  number,  which  in  ancient  councils  had  been  twice  or 
even  thrice  multiplied,  most  clearly  indicates  the  decay  both 
of  the  Church  and  State.  "While  Justinian  approved  himself 
the  defender  of  the  faith,  he  entertained  an  ambitious  hope 
that  his  victorious  lieutenant  would  speedily  enlarge  the  nar- 
row limits  of  his  dominion  to  the  space  which  they  occupied 
before  the  invasion  of  the  Moors  and  Vandals ;  and  Belisarius 
was  instructed  to  establish  five  dukes  or  commanders  in  the 
convenient  stations  of  Tripoli,  Leptis,  Cirta,  Cassarea,  and  Sar- 
dinia, and  to  compute  the  military  force  of  palatines  or  bor- 
derers that  might  be  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  Africa. 
The  kingdom  of  the  Vandals  was  not  unworthy  of  the  pres- 
ence of  a  Prastorian  prasfect ;  and  four  consulars,  three  presi- 
dents, were  appointed  to  administer  the  seven  provinces  un- 

24  See  the  second  and  third  preambles  to  the  Digest,  or  Pandects,  promulgated 
a.d.  533,  December  16.  To  the  titles  of  Vandalicus  and  Africanus,  Justinian, 
or  rather  Belisarius,  had  acquired  a  just  claim;  Gothicus  was  premature,  and 
Francicus  false  and  offensive  to  a  great  nation. 

25  See  the  original  acts  in  Baronius  (a.d.  535,  No.  21-54).  The  emperor  ap- 
plauds his  own  clemency  to  the  heretics,  "  cum  sufficiat  eis  vivere." 

26  Dupin  (Geograph.  Sacra  Afiicana,  p.  lix.  ad  Optat.  Milev.)  observes  and  be- 
wails this  episcopal  decay.  In  the  more  prosperous  age  of  the  Church,  he  had 
noticed  690  bishoprics ;  but  however  minute  were  the  dioceses,  it  is  not  probable 
that  they  all  existed  at  the  same  time. 


AJ).  534.]  DISTRESS  OF  GELIMER.  247 

dei  his  civil  jurisdiction.  The  number  of  their  subordinate 
officers,  clerks,  messengers,  or  assistants,  was  minutely  express- 
ed :  three  hundred  and  ninety-six  for  the  prsefect  himself, 
fifty  for  each  of  his  vicegerents ;  and  the  rigid  definition  of 
their  fees  and  salaries  was  more  effectual  to  confirm  the  right 
than  to  prevent  the  abuse.  These  magistrates  might  be  op- 
pressive, but  they  were  not  idle,  and  the  subtle  questions  of 
justice  and  revenue  were  infinitely  propagated  under  the  new 
government,  which  professed  to  revive  the  freedom  and  equi- 
ty of  the  Roman  republic.  The  conqueror  was  solicitous  to 
extract  a  prompt  and  plentiful  supply  from  his  African  sub- 
jects, and  he  allowed  them  to  claim,  even  in  the  third  degree 
and  from  the  collateral  line,  the  houses  and  lands  of  which 
their  families  had  been  unjustly  despoiled  by  the  Yandals. 
After  the  departure  of  Belisarius,  who  acted  by  a  high  and 
special  commission,  no  ordinary  provision  was  made  for  a  mas- 
ter-general of  the  forces ;  but  the  office  of  Praetorian  prsefect 
was  intrusted  to  a  soldier ;  the  civil  and  military  powers  were 
united,  according  to  the  practice  of  Justinian,  in  the  chief  gov- 
ernor;  and  the  representative  of  the  emperor  in  Africa,  as  well 
as  in  Italy ,was  soon  distinguished  by  the  appellation  of  Exarch." 
Yet  the  conquest  of  Africa  was  imperfect  till  her  former 
sovereign  was  delivered,  either  alive  or  dead,  into  the  hands  of 
_,    the  Eomans.     Doubtful  of  the  event,  Gelimer  had 

Distress  and         .  .       ' 

captivity  of     given  secret  orders  that  a  part  of  his  treasure  should 

Gelimer. 

A-D.534;^  be  transported  to  Spain,  where  he  hoped  to  find  a 
secure  refuge  at  the  court  of  the  king  of  the  Visi- 
goths. But  these  intentions  were  disappointed  by  accident, 
treachery,  and  the  indefatigable  pursuit  of  his  enemies,  who 
intercepted  his  flight  from  the  sea-shore,  and  chased  the  un- 
fortunate monarch,  with  some  faithful  followers,  to  the  inac- 
cessible mountain  of  Papua,28  in  the  inland  country  of  Nu- 

27  The  African  laws  of  Justinian  are  illustrated  by  his  German  biographer  (Cod. 
1.  i.  tit.  27.     Novell.  36,  37,  131.     Vit.  Justinian,  p.  349-377). 

28  Mount  Papua  is  placed  by  D'Anville  (torn.  iii.  p.  92,  and  Tabul.  Imp.  Rom. 
Occident. )  near  Hippo  Regius  and  the  sea ;  yet  this  situation  ill  agrees  with  tha 
long  pursuit  beyond  Hippo,  and  the  words  of  Procopius  (1.  ii.  c.  4  [torn.  i.  p.  427, 
edit.  Benn]),  iv  toIq  Nov/ufoac  t<r^droi£. 


24:8  DISTRESS  OF  GELIMEK.  [CH.XLL 

midia.  He  was  immediately  besieged  by  Pharas,  an  officer 
whose  truth  and  sobriety  were  the  more  applauded,  as  such 
qualities  could  seldom  be  found  among  the  Heruli,  the  most 
corrupt  of  the  barbarian  tribes.  To  his  vigilance  Belisarius 
had  intrusted  this  important  charge ;  and,  after  a  bold  attempt 
to  scale  the  mountain,  in  which  he  lost  a  hundred  and  ten  sol- 
diers, Pharas  expected,  during  a  winter  siege,  the  operation  of 
distress  and  famine  on  the  mind  of  the  Yandal  king.  From 
the  softest  habits  of  pleasure,  from  the  unbounded  command 
of  industry  and  wealth,  he  was  reduced  to  share  the  poverty 
of  the  Moors,29  supportable  only  to  themselves  by  their  igno- 
rance of  a  happier  condition.  In  their  rude  hovels  of  mud 
and  hurdles,  which  confined  the  smoke  and  excluded  the  light, 
they  promiscuously  slept  on  the  ground,  perhaps  on  a  sheep- 
skin, with  their  wives,  their  children,  and  their  cattle.  Sordid 
and  scanty  were  their  garments ;  the  use  of  bread  and  wine 
was  unknown,  and  their  oaten  or  barley  cakes,  imperfectly 
baked  in  the  ashes,  were  devoured  almost  in  a  crude  state  by 
the  hungry  savages.  The  health  of  Gelimer  must  have  sunk 
under  these  strange  and  unwonted  hardships,  from  whatsoever 
cause  they  had  been  endured ;  but  his  actual  misery  was  em- 
bittered by  the  recollection  of  past  greatness,  the  daily  inso- 
lence of  his  protectors,  and  the  just  apprehension  that  the 
light  and  venal  Moors  might  be  tempted  to  betray  the  rights 
of  hospitality.  The  knowledge  of  his  situation  dictated  the 
humane  and  friendly  epistle  of  Pharas.  "Like  yourself," 
said  the  chief  of  the  Heruli,  "  I  am  an  illiterate  barbarian, 
but  I  speak  the  language  of  plain  sense  and  an  honest  heart. 
Why  will  you  persist  in  hopeless  obstinacy  ?  Why  will  yon 
ruin  yourself,  your  family,  and  nation  ?  The  love  of  freedom 
and  abhorrence  of  slavery  ?  Alas !  my  dearest  Gelimer,  are 
you  not  already  the  worst  of  slaves,  the  slave  of  the  vile  na- 
tion of  the  Moors?  Would  it  not  be  preferable  to  sustain 
at  Constantinople  a  life  of  poverty  and  servitude,  rather  than 

9*  Shaw  (Travels,  p.  220)  most  accurately  represents  the  manners  of  the  Bed- 
oweens  and  Kabyles,  the  last  of  whom,  by  their  language,  are  the  remnant  of  the 
Moors;  yet  how  changed — how  civilized  are  these  modern  savages  1  provisions 
are  plenty  among  them,  and  bread  is  common. 


A.D.534.J  HIS  CAPTIVITY.  249 

to  reign  the  undoubted  monarch  of  the  mountain  of  Papua? 
Do  you  think  it  a  disgrace  to  be  the  subject  of  Justinian? 
Belisarius  is  his  subject,  and  we  ourselves,  whose  birth  is  not 
inferior  to  your  own,  are  not  ashamed  of  our  obedience  to 
the  Koman  emperor.  That  generous  prince  will  grant  you  a 
rich  inheritance  of  lands,  a  place  in  the  senate,  and  the  dig- 
nity of  patrician :  such  are  his  gracious  intentions,  and  you 
may  depend  with  full  assurance  on  the  word  of  Belisarius. 
So  long  as  Heaven  has  condemned  us  to  suffer,  patience  is  a 
virtue ;  but,  if  we  reject  the  proffered  deliverance,  it  degener- 
ates into  blind  and  stupid  despair."  "  I  am  not  insensible," 
replied  the  King  of  the  Vandals, "  how  kind  and  rational  is 
your  advice.  But  I  cannot  persuade  myself  to  become  the 
slave  of  an  unjust  enemy,  who  has  deserved  my  implacable 
hatred.  Him  I  had  never  injured  either  by  word  or  deed ; 
yet  he  has  sent  against  me,  I  know  not  from  whence,  a  cer- 
tain Belisarius,  who  has  cast  me  headlong  from  the  throne 
into  this  abyss  of  misery.  Justinian  is  a  man ;  he  is  a  prince ; 
does  he  not  dread  for  himself  a  similar  reverse  of  fortune?  I 
can  write  no  more ;  my  grief  oppresses  me.  Send  me,  I  be- 
seech you,  my  dear  Pharas,  send  me  a  lyre,30  a  sponge,  and  a 
loaf  of  bread."  From  the  Vandal  messenger,  Pharas  was  in- 
formed of  the  motives  of  this  singular  request.  It  was  long 
since  the  King  of  Africa  had  tasted  bread,  a  defluxion  had 
fallen  on  his  eyes,  the  effect  of  fatigue  or  incessant  weeping, 
and  he  wished  to  solace  the  melancholy  hours  by  singing  to 
the  lyre  the  sad  story  of  his  own  misfortunes.  The  human- 
ity of  Pharas  was  moved :  he  sent  the  three  extraordinary 
gifts ;  but  even  his  humanity  prompted  him  to  redouble  the 
vigilance  of  his  guard,  that  he  might  sooner  compel  his  pris- 
oner to  embrace  a  resolution  advantageous  to  the  Romans, 
but  salutary  to  himself.  The  obstinacy  of  Grelimer  at  length 
yielded  to  reason  and  necessity;  the  solemn  assurances  of 
safety  and  honorable  treatment  were  ratified  in  the  emperor's 

80  By  Procopius  it  is  styled  a  lyre;  perhaps  harp  would  have  6een  more  nation- 
al.    The  instruments  of  music  are  thus  distinguished  by  Venantius  Fortunatus: 

"  Bomanusque  lyrd  tibi  plaudat,  Barbarus  harpd." 


250  TRIUMPH  OF  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XL! 

name  by  the  ambassador  of  Belisarius,  and  the  King  of  the 
Yandals  descended  from  the  mountain.  The  first  public  in- 
terview was  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Carthage;  and  when 
the  royal  captive  accosted  his  conqueror,  he  burst  into  a  fit  of 
laughter.  The  crowd  might  naturally  believe  that  extreme 
grief  had  deprived  Gelimer  of  his  senses ;  but  in  this  mourn- 
ful state  unseasonable  mirth  insinuated  to  more  intelligent 
observers  that  the  vain  and  transitory  scenes  of  human  great- 
ness are  unworthy  of  a  serious  thought.31 

Their  contempt  was  soon  justified  by  a  new  example  oi  a 
vulgar  truth — that  flattery  adheres  to  power,  and  envy  to  su- 
perior merit.  The  chiefs  of  the  Roman  army  pre- 
trfumphof  sumed  to  think  themselves  the  rivals  of  a  hero. 
a.d.534;  '  Their  private  despatches  maliciously  affirmed  that 
the  conqueror  of  Africa,  strong  in  his  reputation 
and  the  public  love,  conspired  to  seat  himself  on  the  throne 
of  the  Yandals.  Justinian  listened  with  too  patient  an  ear ; 
and  his  silence  was  the  result  of  jealousy  rather  than  of  con- 
fidence. An  honorable  alternative,  of  remaining  in  the  prov- 
ince or  of  returning  to  the  capital,  was  indeed  submitted  to 
the  discretion  of  Belisarius ;  but  he  wisely  concluded,  from 
intercepted  letters  and  the  knowledge  of  his  sovereign's  tem- 
per, that  he  must  either  resign  his  head,  erect  his  standard,  or 
confound  his  enemies  by  his  presence  and  submission.  In- 
nocence and  courage  decided  his  choice :  his  guards,  captives, 
and  treasures  were  diligently  embarked;  and  so  prosperous 
was  the  navigation,  that  his  arrival  at  Constantinople  pre- 
ceded any  certain  account  of  his  departure  from  the  port  of 
Carthage.  Such  unsuspecting  loyalty  removed  the  apprehen- 
sions of  Justinian:  envy  was  silenced  and  inflamed  by  the 
public  gratitude ;  and  the  third  Africanus  obtained  the  hon- 
ors of  a  triumph,  a  ceremony  which  the  city  of  Constantine 


31  Herodotus  elegantly  describes  the  strange  effects  of  grief  in  another  royal 
captive,  Psammetichus  [Psammenitus]  of  Egypt,  who  wept  at  the  lesser  and  was 
silent  at  the  greatest  of  his  calamities  (1.  iii.  c.  14).  In  the  interview  of  Paulus 
iEmilius  and  Perses,  Belisarius  might  study  his  part :  but  it  is  probable  that  he 
never  read  either  Livy  or  Plutarch ;  and  it  is  certain  that  his  generosity  did  not 
need  a  tutor. 


A.D.534.]  TEIUMPH  OF  BELISARIUS.  251 

had  never  seen,  and  which  ancient  Koine,  since  the  reign  of 
Tiberius,  had  reserved  for  the  auspicious  arms  of  the  Cae- 
sars.33 From  the  palace  of  Belisarius  the  procession  was  con- 
ducted through  the  principal  streets  to  the  hippodrome ;  and 
this  memorable  day  seemed  to  avenge  the  injuries  of  Gense- 
ric,  and  to  expiate  the  shame  of  the  Komans.  The  wealth 
of  nations  was  displayed,  the  trophies  of  martial  or  effeminate 
luxury;  rich  armor,  golden  thrones,  and  the  chariots  of  state 
which  had  been  used  by  the  Vandal  queen ;  the  massy  furni- 
ture of  the  royal  banquet,  the  splendor  of  precious  stones,  the 
elegant  forms  of  statues  and  vases,  the  more  substantial  treas- 
ure of  gold,  and  the  holy  vessels  of  the  Jewish  temple,  which, 
after  their  long  peregrination,  were  respectfully  deposited  iu 
the  Christian  church  of  Jerusalem.  A  long  train  of  the  no- 
blest Vandals  reluctantly  exposed  their  lofty  stature  and  man- 
ly countenance.  Gelimer  slowly  advanced :  he  was  clad  in  a 
purple  robe,  and  still  maintained  the  majesty  of  a  king.  Not 
a  tear  escaped  from  his  eyes,  not  a  sigh  was  heard ;  but  his 
pride  or  piety  derived  some  secret  consolation  from  the  words 
of  Solomon,33  which  he  repeatedly  pronounced,  "Vanity !  van- 
ity! all  is  vanity!"  Instead  of  ascending  a  triumphal  car 
drawn  by  four  horses  or  elephants,  the  modest  conqueror 
marched  on  foot  at  the  head  of  his  brave  companions:  his 
prudence  might  decline  an  honor  too  conspicuous  for  a  sub- 
ject ;  and  his  magnanimity  might  justly  disdain  what  had 


32  After  the  title  of  imperator  had  lost  the  old  military  sense,  and  the  Roman 
auspices  were  abolished  by  Christianity  (see  La  Bleterie,  Mem.  de  l'Academie, 
torn.  xxi.  p.  302-332),  a  triumph  might  be  given  with  less  inconsistency  to  a  pri- 
vate general. 

33  If  the  Ecclesiastes  be  truly  a  work  of  Solomon,  and  not,  like  Prior's  poem,  a 
pious  and  moral  composition  of  more  recent  times,  in  his  name,  and  on  the  sub- 
ject of  his  repentance.  The  latter  is  the  opinion  of  the  learned  and  free-spirited 
Grotius  (Opp.  Theolog.  torn.  i.  p.  258)  ;  and  indeed  the  Ecclesiastes  and  Proverbs 
display  a  larger  compass  of  thought  and  experience  than  seem  to  belong  either  to 
a  Jew  or  a  king.a 

a  Rosenmiiller,  arguing  from  the  difference  of  style  from  that  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  from  its  nearer  approximation  to  the  Aramaic  dia- 
lect than  any  book  of  the  Old  Testament,  assigns  the  Ecclesiastes  to  some  period 
between  Nehemiah  and  Alexander  the  Great,  Schol.  in  Vet.  Test.  ix.  Proeruium 
adEccles.p.19.— M. 


252  SOLE  CONSULSHIP  OF  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XLI 

been  so  often  sullied  by  the  vilest  of  tyrants.  The  glorious 
procession  entered  the  gate  of  the  hippodrome,  was  saluted 
by  the  acclamations  of  the  senate  and  people,  and  halted  be- 
fore the  throne  where  Justinian  and  Theodora  were  seated 
to  receive  the  homage  of  the  captive  monarch  and  the  victo- 
rious hero.  They  both  performed  the  customary  adoration ; 
and  falling  prostrate  on  the  ground,  respectfully  touched  the 
footstool  of  a  prince-  who  had  not  unsheathed  his  sword,  and 
of  a  prostitute  who  had  danced  on  the  theatre :  some  gentle 
violence  was  used  to  bend  the  stubborn  spirit  of  the  grandson 
His  sole  °f  Grenseric;  and  however  trained  to  servitude,  the 
a°b.S53vp'  genius  of  Belisarius  must  have  secretly  rebelled. 
January  1.  jje  wag  immediately  declared  consul  for  the  ensu- 
ing year,  and  the  day  of  his  inauguration  resembled  the  pomp 
of  a  second  triumph  :  his  curule  chair  was  borne  aloft  on  the 
shoulders  of  captive  Yandals ;  and  the  spoils  of  war,  gold 
cups,  and  rich  girdles,  were  profusely  scattered  among  the 
populace. 

But  the  purest  reward  of  Belisarius  was  in  the  faithful  exe- 
cution of  a  treaty  for  which  his  honor  had  been  pledged  to 
the  King  of  the  Yandals.      The  religious  scruples 
mer  aud  the     of  Gelimer,  who  adhered  to  the  Arian  heresy,  were 

Vandals. 

incompatible  with  the  dignity  of  senator  or  patri- 
cian :  but  he  received  from  the  emperor  an  ample  estate  in 
the  province  of  Galatia,  where  the  abdicated  monarch  retired, 
with  his  family  and  friends,  to  a  life  of  peace,  of  affluence, 
and  perhaps  of  content.34  The  daughters  of  Hilderic  were 
entertained  with  the  respectful  tenderness  due  to  their  age 
and  misfortune ;  and  Justinian  and  Theodora  accepted  the 
honor  of  educating  and  enriching  the  female  descendants  of 
the  great  Theodosius.  The  bravest  of  the  Yandal  youth 
were  distributed  into  five  squadrons  of  cavalry,  which  adopt- 
ed the  name  of  their  benefactor,  and  supported  in  the  Persian 
wars  the  glory  of  their  ancestors.     But  these  rare  exceptions, 

34  In  the  Belisaire  of  Marmontel  the  king  and  the  conqueror  of  Africa  meet, 
sup,  and  converse,  without  recollecting  each  other.  It  is  surely  a  fault  of  that 
romance,  that  not  only  the  hero,  but  all  to  whom  he  had  been  so  conspicuously 
known,  appear  to  have  lost  their  eyes  or  their  memory. 


AJ>.  535.]  END  OF  THE  VANDALS.  253 

the  reward  of  birth  or  valor,  are  insufficient  to  explain  the 
fate  of  a  nation  whose  numbers,  before  a  short  and  bloodless 
war,  amounted  to  more  than  six  hundred  thousand  persons. 
After  the  exile  of  their  king  and  nobles,  the  servile  crowd 
might  purchase  their  safety  by  abjuring  their  character,  re 
ligion,  and  language ;  and  their  degenerate  posterity  would 
be  insensibly  mingled  with  the  common  herd  of  African  sub- 
jects. Yet  even  in  the  present  age,  and  in  the  heart  of  the 
Moorish  tribes,  a  curious  traveller  has  discovered  the  white 
complexion  and  long  flaxen  hair  of  a  northern  race  ;35  and  it 
was  formerly  believed  that  the  boldest  of  the  Yandals  fled 
beyond  the  power,  or  even  the  knowledge,  of  the  Romans,  to 
enjoy  their  solitary  freedom  on  the  shores  of  the  Altantic 
Ocean.36  Africa  had  been  their  empire,  it  became  their  pris- 
on ;  nor  could  they  entertain  a  hope,  or  even  a  wish,  of  re- 
turning to  the  banks  of  the  Elbe,  where  their  brethren,  of  a 
spirit  less  adventurous,  still  wandered  in  their  native  forests. 
It  was  impossible  for  cowards  to  surmount  the  barriers  of 
unknown  seas  and  hostile  barbarians;  it  was  impossible  for 
brave  men  to  expose  their  nakedness  and  defeat  before  the 
eyes  of  their  countrymen,  to  describe  the  kingdoms  which, 
they  had  lost,  and  to  claim  a  share  of  the  humble  inheritance 
which,  in  a  happier  hour,  they  had  almost  unanimously  re- 
nounced." In  the  country  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Oder 
several  populous  villages  of  Lusatia  are  inhabited  by  the  Yan- 
dals: they  still  preserve  their  language,  their  customs,  and 
the  purity  of  their  blood ;  support,  with  some  impatience,  the 
Saxon  or  Prussian  yoke;  and  serve,  with  secret  and  voluntary 


36  Shaw,  p.  59.  Yet  since  Procopius  (1.  ii.  c.  13  [torn.  i.  p.  466,  edit.  Bonn]) 
speaks  of  a  people  of  Mount  Atlas,  as  already  distinguished  by  white  bodies  and 
yellow  hair,  the  phenomenon  (which  is  likewise  visible  in  the  Andes  of  Peru,  Buf- 
fon,  torn.  iii.  p.  504)  may  naturally  be  ascribed  to  the  elevation  of  the  ground  and 
the  temperature  of  the  air. 

36  The  geographer  of  Ravenna  (1.  iii.  ch.  xi.  p.  129, 130, 131 ;  Paris,  1688)  de- 
scribes the  Mauritania  Gaditana  (opposite  to  Cadiz),  "Ubi  gens  Vandalorum,  a 
Belisario  devicta  in  Africa,  fugit,  et  nunquam  comparuit." 

31  A  single  voice  had  protested,  and  Genseric  dismissed,  without  a  formal  an- 
swer, the  Vandals  of  Germany  :  but  those  of  Africa  derided  his  prudence,  and  af- 
fected to  despise  the  poverty  of  their  forests  (Procopius,  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  22). 


254  MANNERS  OF  THE  MOORS.  [Ch.XLL 

allegiance,  the  descendant  of  their  ancient  kings,  who  in  his 
garb  and  present  fortune  is  confounded  with  the  meanest  of 
his  vassals."  The  name  and  situation  of  this  unhappy  people 
might  indicate  their  descent  from  one  common  stock  with 
the  conquerors  of  Africa.  But  the  use  of  a  Sclavonic  dialect 
more  clearly  represents  them  as  the  last  remnant  of  the  new 
colonies  who  succeeded  to  the  genuine  Yandals,  already  scat- 
tered or  destroyed  in  the  age  of  Procopius.39 

If  Belisarius  had  been  tempted  to  hesitate  in  his  allegiance, 
he  might  have  urged,  even  against  the  emperor  himself,  the 
Maimers  and  indispensable  duty  of  saving  Africa  from  an  enemy 
Moors.ofthe  more  barbarous  than  the  Yandals.  The  origin  of 
a.d.535.  ^g  ]y[oors  is  involved  in  darkness :  they  were  igno- 
rant of  the  use  of  letters.40  Their  limits  cannot  be  precisely 
defined ;  a  boundless  continent  was  open  to  the  Libyan  shep- 

38  From  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Elector  (in  1G87)  Tollius  describes  the  secret 
royalty  and  rebellious  spirit  of  the  Vandals  of  Brandenburg,  who  could  muster 
five  or  six  thousand  soldiers,  who  had  procured  some  cannon,  etc.  (Itinerar. 
Hungar.  p.  42,  apud  Dubos,  Hist,  de  la  Monarchic  Francoise,  torn.  i.  p.  182, 183). 
The  veracity,  not  of  the  elector,  but  of  Tollius  himself,  may  justly  be  suspected.1 

39  Procopius  (1.  i.  c.  22  [torn.  i.  p.  400,  edit.  Bonn])  was  in  total  darkness — ovtb 
fivrjfir]  Tig  ovte  ovofia  tg  s/xe  ow&tcu.  Under  the  reign  of  Dagobert  (a.d.  630)  the 
tSclavonian  tribes  of  the  Sorbi  and  Venedi  already  bordered  on  Thuringia  (Mascou, 
Hist,  of  the  Germans,  xv.  3,  4,  5). 

40  Sallust  represents  the  Moors  as  a  remnant  of  the  army  of  Heracles  (de  Bell. 
Jugurth.  c.  21  [18]),  and  Procopius  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  10  [torn.  ii.  p.  450,  edit. 
Bonn])  as  the  posterity  of  the  Cananasans  who  fled  from  the  robber  Joshua  (Xjjct- 
r?)c).  He  quotes  two  columns,  with  a  Phoenician  inscription.  I  believe  in  the 
columns — I  doubt  the  inscription — and  I  reject  the  pedigree.b 


a  On  the  probable  Sclavonic  origin  of  the  Vandals,  see  editor's  note,  vol  i.  p. 
573.— S.  r 

b  It  has  been  supposed  that  Procopius  is  the  only,  or  at  least  the  most  ancient, 
author  who  has  spoken  of  this  strange  inscription,  of  which  one  may  be  tempted 
to  attribute  the  invention  to  Procopius  himself.  Yet  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Ar- 
menian history  of  Moses  of  Chorene  (1.  i.  c.  18),  who  lived  and  wrote  more  than 
a  century  before  Procopius.  This  is  sufficient  to  show  that  an  earlier  date  must 
be  assigned  to  this  tradition.  The  same  inscription  is  mentioned  by  Suidas  (sub 
voc.  Xavaav),  no  doubt  from  Procopius.  According  to  most  of  the  Arabian 
writers,  who  adopted  a  nearly  similar  tradition,  the  indigenes  of  Northern  Africa 
were  the  people  of  Palestine  expelled  by  David,  who  passed  into  Africa  under  the 
guidance  of  Goliath,  whom  they  call  Djalout.  It  is  impossible  to  admit  traditions 
which  bear  a  character  so  fabulous.  St.  Martin,  vol.  xi.  p.  324. — Unless  my  mem- 
ory greatly  deceives  me,  I  have  read  in  the  works  of  Lightfoot  a  similar  Jewish 
tradition;  but  I  have  mislaid  the  reference,  and  cannot  recover  the  passage. — M. 


l.D.535.]  DEFEAT  OF  THE  MOOES.  255 

herds ;  the  change  of  seasons  and  pastures  regulated  their  mo- 
tions; and  their  rude  huts  and  slender  furniture  were  trans- 
ported with  the  same  ease  as  their  arms,  their  families,  and 
their  cattle,  which  consisted  of  sheep,  oxen,  and  camels.41  Dur- 
ing the  vigor  of  the  Roman  power  they  observed  a  respectful 
distance  from  Carthage  and  the  sea-shore ;  under  the  feeble 
reign  of  the  Vandals  they  invaded  the  cities  of  Numidia,  occu- 
pied the  sea-coast  from  Tangier  to  Cassarea,  and  pitched  their 
camps,  with  impunity,  in  the  fertile  province  of  Byzacium. 
The  formidable  strength  and  artful  conduct  of  Belisarius  se- 
cured the  neutrality  of  the  Moorish  princes,  whose  vanity  as- 
pired to  receive  in  the  emperor's  name  the  ensigns  of  their 
regal  dignity."  They  were  astonished  by  the  rapid  event,  and 
trembled  in  the  presence  of  their  conqueror.  But  his  ap- 
proaching departure  soon  relieved  the  apprehensions  of  a 
savage  and  superstitious  people ;  the  number  of  their  wives 
allowed  them  to  disregard  the  safety  of  their  infant  hostages ; 
and  when  the  Roman  general  hoisted  sail  in  the  port  of  Car- 
thage, he  heard  the  cries  and  almost  beheld  the  flames  of  the 
desolated  province.  Yet  he  persisted  in  his  resolution ;  and 
leaving  only  a  part  of  his  guards  to  reinforce  the  feeble  garri- 
sons, he  intrusted  the  command  of  Africa  to  the  eunuch  Sol- 
omon,43 who  proved  himself  not  unworthy  to  be  the  successor 
of  Belisarius.  In  the  first  invasion  some  detachments,  with 
two  officers  of  merit,  were  surprised  and  intercepted ;  but 
Solomon  speedily  assembled  his  troops,  marched  from  Car- 
thage into  the  heart  of  the  country,  and  in  two  great  battles 
destroyed  sixty  thousand  of  the  barbarians.     The  Moors  de- 

41  Virgil  (Georgia  iii.  339)  and  Pomponius  Mela  (i.  8)  describe  the  wandering 
life  of  the  African  shepherds,  similar  to  that  of  the  Arabs  and  Tartars :  and  Shaw 
(p.  222)  is  the  best  commentator  on  the  poet  and  the  geographer. 

42  The  customary  gifts  were  a  sceptre,  a  crown  or  cap,  a  white  cloak,  a  figured 
tunic,  and  shoes,  all  adorned  with  gold  and  silver ;  nor  were  these  precious  metals 
less  acceptable  in  the  shape  of  coin  (Procop.  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  25). 

43  See  the  African  government  and  warfare  of  Solomon  in  Procopius  (Vandal. 
1.  ii.  c.  10, 11,  12, 13,  19,  20).  He  was  recalled  and  again  restored ;  and  his  last 
victory  dates  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  Justinian  (a.d.  539).  An  accident  in  his 
childhood  had  rendered  him  an  eunuch  (1.  i.  c.  11):  the  other  Roman  generals  were 
amply  furnished  with  beards,  nuyiDVOQ  tjnrnrXantvoi  (1.  ii.  c.  8). 


256  DEFEAT  OF  THE  MOORS.         [CH.XLI. 

pended  on  their  multitude,  their  swiftness,  and  their  inacces- 
sible mountains ;  and  the  aspect  and  smell  of  their  camels  are 
said  to  have  produced  some  confusion  in  the  Eoman  cavalry.44 
But  as  soon  as  thej  were  commanded  to  dismount,  they  de- 
rided this  contemptible  obstacle  :  as  soon  as  the  columns  as- 
cended the  hills,  the  naked  and  disorderly  crowd  was  dazzled 
by  glittering  arms  and  regular  evolutions ;  and  the  menace  of 
their  female  prophets  was  repeatedly  fulfilled,  that  the  Moors 
should  be  discomfited  by  a  beardless  antagonist.  The  victo- 
rious eunuch  advanced  thirteen  days'  journey  from  Carthage 
to  besiege  Mount  Aurasius,45  the  citadel,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  garden,  of  Numidia.  That  range  of  hills,  a  branch  of  the 
great  Atlas,  contains,  within  a  circumference  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles,  a  rare  variety  of  soil  and  climate ;  the  in- 
termediate valleys  and  elevated  plains  abound  with  rich  past- 
ures, perpetual  streams,  and  fruits  of  a  delicious  taste  and  un- 
common magnitude.  This  fair  solitude  is  decorated  with  the 
ruins  of  Lambesa,  a  Roman  city,  once  the  seat  of  a  legion,  and 
the  residence  of  forty  thousand  inhabitants.  The  Ionic  tem- 
ple of  Jilsculapius  is  encompassed  with  Moorish  huts  ;  and  the 
cattle  now  graze  in  the  midst  of  an  amphitheatre,  under  the 
shade  of  Corinthian  columns.  A  sharp  perpendicular  rock 
rises  above  the  level  of  the  mountain,  where  the  African 
princes  deposited  their  wives  and  treasure ;  and  a  proverb  is 
familiar  to  the  Arabs,  that  the  man  may  eat  fire  who  dares 
to  attack  the  craggy  cliffs  and  inhospitable  natives  of  Mount 
Aurasius.  This  hardy  enterprise  was  twice  attempted  by  the 
eunuch  Solomon :  from  the  first,  he  retreated  with  some  dis- 
grace; and  in  the  second,  his  patience  and  provisions  were  al- 
most exhausted  ;  and  he  must  again  have  retired,  if  he  had 

44  This  natural  antipathy  of  the  horse  for  the  camel  is  affirmed  by  the  ancients 
(Xenophon.  Cyropasd.  1.  vi.  [c.  2]  p.  438 ;  1.  vii.  [c.  1]  p.  483,  492,  edit.  Hutchin- 
son ;  Polyajn.  Stratagem,  vii.  6  [§  6] ;  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  viii.  26 ;  JElian  de  Natur. 
Animal,  iii.  1.  c.  7) ;  but  it  is  disproved  by  daily  experience,  and  derided  by  the  best 
judges,  the  Orientals  (Voyage  d'Olearius,  p.  553). 

46  Procopius  is  the  first  who  describes  Mount  Aurasius  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  13;  Da 
JEdific.  1.  vi.  c.  7).  He  may  be  compared  with  Leo  Africanus  (dell'  Africa,  parte 
t.  in  Ramusio,  torn,  i  foL  77,  recto),  Marmol  (torn.  ii.  p.  430),  and  Shaw  (p. 


A.D.  535.]  NEUTRALITY  OF  THE  VISIGOTHS.  257 

not  yielded  to  the  impetuous  courage  of  his  troops,  who  au- 
daciously scaled,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  Moors,  the  moun- 
tain, the  hostile  camp,  and  the  summit  of  the  Geminian  rock. 
A  citadel  was  erected  to  secure  this  important  conquest,  and 
to  remind  the  barbarians  of  their  defeat;  and  as  Solomon 
pursued  his  march  to  the  west,  the  long-lost  province  of  Mau- 
ritanian  Sitifi  was  again  annexed  to  the  Koman  empire.  The 
Moorish  war  continued  several  years  after  the  departure  of 
Eelisarius;  but  the  laurels  which  he  resigned  to  a  faithful 
lieutenant  may  be  justly  ascribed  to  his  own  triumph. 

The  experience  of  past  faults,  which  may  sometimes  correct 
the  mature  age  of  an  individual,  is  seldom  profitable  to  the 
Neutrality  of  successive  generations  of  mankind.  The  nations 
the  Visigoths.  Qf  ailtiquity,  careless  of  each  other's  safety,  were 
separately  vanquished  and  enslaved  by  the  Komans.  This 
awful  lesson  might  have  instructed  the  barbarians  of  the 
"West  to  oppose,  with  timely  counsels  and  confederate  arms, 
the  unbounded  ambition  of  Justinian.  Yet  the  same  error 
was  repeated,  the  same  consequences  were  felt,  and  the  Goths, 
both  of  Italy  and  Spain,  insensible  of  their  approaching  dan- 
ger, beheld  with  indifference,  and  even  with  joy,  the  rapid 
downfall  of  the  Yandals.  After  the  failure  of  the  royal  line, 
Theudes,  a  valiant  and  powerful  chief,  ascended  the  throne 
of  Spain,  which  he  had  formerly  administered  in  the  name  of 
Theodoric  and  his  infant  grandson.  Under  his  command  the 
Yisigoths  besieged  the  fortress  of  Ceuta,  on  the  African  coast ; 
but,  while  they  spent  the  Sabbath-day  in  peace  and  devotion, 
the  pious  security  of  their  camp  was  invaded  by  a  sally  from 
the  town,  and  the  king  himself,  with  some  difficulty  and  dan- 
ger, escaped  from  the  hands  of  a  sacrilegious  enemy.46  It 
was  not  long  before  his  pride  and  resentment  were  gratified 
by  a  suppliant  embassy  from  the  unfortunate  Gelimer,  who 
implored,  in  his  distress,  the  aid  of  the  Spanish  monarch. 
But  instead  of  sacrificing  these  unworthy  passions  to  the  dic- 

44  Isidor.  Chron.  p.  722,  edit.  Grot.  Mariana,  Hist.  Hispan.  1.  v.  c.  8,  p.  173. 
Yet,  according  to  Isidore,  the  siege  of  Ceuta  and  the  death  of  Theudes  happened, 
a.  2E.  h.  586-a.d.  648',  and  the  place  was  defended,  not  by  the  Vandals,  but  by 

the  Romans. 

IV.— 17 


258  CONQUESTS  IN  SPAIN.  [Ch.  XLL 

tates  of  generosity  and  prudence,  Theudes  amused  the  arnbas* 
sadors  till  he  was  secretly  informed  of  the  loss  of  Carthage, 
and  then  dismissed  them,  with  obscure  and  contemptuous  ad- 
conquests  of  yiceJ  to  see^  ^n  their  native  country  a  true  knowl 
inespaiu.aus  edge  of  the  state  of  the  Yandals.47  The  long  con- 
a.u.  550-620.  tinuance  of  the  Italian  war  delayed  the  punish- 
ment of  the  Visigoths,  and  the  eyes  of  Theudes  were  closed 
before  they  tasted  the  fruits  of  his  mistaken  policy.  After 
his  death  the  sceptre  of  Spain  was  disputed  by  a  civil  war. 
The  weaker  candidate  solicited  the  protection  of  Justinian, 
and  ambitiously  subscribed  a  treaty  of  alliance  which  deeply 
wounded  the  independence  and  happiness  of  his  country. 
Several  cities,  both  on  the  ocean  and  the  Mediterranean,  were 
ceded  to  the  Roman  troops,  who  afterwards  refused  to  evac- 
uate those  pledges,  as  it  should  seem,  either  of  safety  or  pay- 
ment ;  and  as  they  were  fortified  by  perpetual  supplies  from 
Africa,  they  maintained  their  impregnable  stations  for  the 
mischievous  purpose  of  inflaming  the  civil  and  religious  fac- 
tions of  the  barbarians.  Seventy  years  elapsed  before  this 
painful  thorn  could  be  extirpated  from  the  bosom  of  the 
monarchy;  and  as  long  as  the  emperors  retained  any  share 
of  these  remote  and  useless  possessions,  their  vanity  might 
number  Spain  in  the  list  of  their  provinces,  and  the  successors 
of  Alaric  in  the  rank  of  their  vassals.48 

The  error  of  the  Goths  who  reigned  in  Italy  was  less  ex- 
cusable than  that  of  their  Spanish  brethren,  and  their  punish- 
ment was  still  more  immediate  and  terrible.     From 

Belisarins  .  . 

threatens  the  a  motive   ot  private  revenge,  they  enabled  their 

Ostrogoths  _  l  i  ,      . 

of  itaiy.         most  dangerous  enemy  to  destroy  their  most  valu- 
able ally.    A  sister  of  the  great  Theodoric  had  been 
given  in  marriage  to  Thrasimond,  the  African  king  :49  on  this 


47  Procopius,  Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  24. 

48  See  the  original  Chronicle  of  Isidore  and  the  fifth  and  sixth  books  of  the 
History  of  Spain  by  Mariana.  The  Romans  were  finally  expelled  by  Stiintila, 
king  of  the  Visigoths  (a.d.  621-626),  after  their  reunion  to  the  Catholic  Church. 

49  See  the  marriage  and  fate  of  Amalafrida  in  Procopius  (Vandal.  1.  i.  c.  8,  9), 
and  in  Cassiodorus  (Var.  ix.  1)  the  expostulation  of  her  royal  brother.  Compare 
likewise  the  Chronicle  of  Victor  Tunnunensii. 


a.d.  534.]     BELISARIUS  THREATENS  THE  OSTROGOTHS.  259 

occasion  the  fortress  of  Lilybgsum,00  in  Sicily,  was  resigned  to 
the  Vandals,  and  the  Princess  Amalafrida  was  attended  by  a 
martial  train  of  one  thousand  nobles  and  five  thousand  Goth« 
ic  soldiers,  who  signalized  their  valor  in  the  Moorish  wars. 
Their  merit  was  overrated  by  themselves,  and  perhaps  neg- 
lected by  the  Yandals:  they  viewed  the  country  with  envy 
and  the  conquerors  with  disdain ;  but  their  real  or  fictitious 
conspiracy  was  prevented  by  a  massacre  ;  the  Goths  were  op- 
pressed, and  the  captivity  of  Amalafrida  was  soon  followed 
by  her  secret  and  suspicious  death.  The  eloquent  pen  of 
Cassiodorus  was  employed  to  reproach,  the  Yandal  court  with 
the  cruel  violation  of  every  social  and  public  duty;  but  the 
vengeance  which  he  threatened  in  the  name  of  his  sovereign 
might  be  derided  with  impunity  as  long  as  Africa  was  pro- 
tected by  the  sea,  and  the  Goths  were  destitute  of  a  navy.  In 
the  blind  impotence  of  grief  and  indignation,  they  joyfully 
saluted  the  approach  of  the  Romans,  entertained  the  fleet  of 
Belisarius  in  the  ports  of  Sicily,  and  were  speedily  delighted 
or  alarmed  by  the  surprising  intelligence  that  their  revenge 
was  executed  beyond  the  measure  of  their  hopes,  or  perhaps 
of  their  wishes.  To  their  friendship  the  emperor  was  indebt- 
ed for  the  kingdom  of  Africa,  and  the  Goths  might  reasona- 
bly think  that  they  were  entitled  to  resume  the  possession  of 
a  barren  rock,  so  recently  separated  as  a  nuptial  gift  from  the 
island  of  Sicily.  They  were  soon  undeceived  by  the  haughty 
mandate  of  Belisarius,  which  excited  their  tardy  and  unavail- 
ing repentance.  "  The  city  and  promontory  of  Lilybseum," 
said  the  Roman  general,  "  belonged  to  the  Yandals,  and  I 
claim  them  by  the  right  of  conquest.  Your  submission  may 
deserve  the  favor  of  the  emperor ;  your  obstinacy  will  provoke 
his  displeasure,  and  must  kindle  a  war  that  can  terminate  only 
in  your  utter  ruin.  If  you  compel  us  to  take  up  arms,  we 
shall  contend,  not  to  regain  the  possession  of  a  single  city,  but 
to  deprive  you  of  all  the  provinces  which  you  unjustly  with- 
hold from  their  lawful  sovereign."    A  nation  of  two  hundred 

80  Lilybseum  was  built  by  the  Carthaginians,  Olymp.  xcv.  4;  and  in  the  first 
Punic  war,  a  strong  situation  and  excellent  harbor  rendered  that  place  an  impos* 
tant  object  to  both  nations. 


260  GOVERNMENT  OF  AMALASONTHA,  [Ch.  XLL 

thousand  soldiers  might  have  smiled  at  the  vain  menace  of 
Justinian  and  his  lieutenant ;  but  a  spirit  of  discord  and  dis« 
affection  prevailed  in  Italy,  and  the  Goths  supported  with  re- 
luctance the  indignity  of  a  female  reign." 

The  birth  of  Amalasontha,  the  regent  and  queen  of  Italy,68 

united  the  two  most  illustrious  families  of  the  barbarians. 

Her  mother,  the  sister  of  Clovis,  was   descended 

Government  '  .  ,  1  .. 

and  death  of   from  the  long- haired  kings   of  the  Merovmqicm 

Amalasontha,  °  =>  7 .  ., 

queen  of  Italy,  race,    and  the  regal  succession  of  the  Amah  was  n- 


lustrated  in  the  eleventh  generation  by  her  father, 
the  great  Theodoric,  whose  merit  might  have  ennobled  a  Ple- 
beian origin.  The  sex  of  his  daughter  excluded  her  from  the 
Gothic  throne ;  but  his  vigilant  tenderness  for  his  family  and 
his  people  discovered  the  last  heir  of  the  royal  line,  whose  an- 
cestors had  taken  refuge  in  Spain,  and  the  fortunate  Eutharic 
was  suddenly  exalted  to  the  rank  of  a  consul  and  a  prince. 
He  enjoyed  only  a  short  time  the  charms  of  Amalasontha, 
and  the  hopes  of  the  succession ;  and  his  widow,  after  the 
death  of  her  husband  and  father,  was  left  the  guardian  of  hei 
son  Athalaric,  and  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  At  the  age  of  about 
twenty-eight  years,  the  endowments  of  her  mind  and  person 
had  attained  their  perfect  maturity.  Her  beauty,  which,  in 
the  apprehension  of  Theodora  herself,  might  have  disputed 
the  conquest  of  an  emperor,  was  animated  by  manly  sense,  ac- 
tivity, and  resolution.  Education  and  experience  had  culti- 
vated her  talents ;  her  philosophic  studies  were  exempt  from 
vanity ;  and,  though  she  expressed  herself  with  equal  elegance 
and  ease  in  the  Greek,  the  Latin,  and  the  Gothic  tongue,  the 
daughter  of  Theodoric  maintained  in  her  counsels  a  discreet 

61  Compare  the  different  passages  of  Procopius  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  5 ;  Gothic.  1.  i. 
c.  3). 

62  For  the  reign  and  character  of  Amalasontha,  see  Procopius  (Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  2, 
3,  4,  and  Anecdot.  c.  16,  with  the  notes  of  Alemannus),  Cassiodorus  (Var.  viii.  ix. 
x.  and  xi.  1),  and  Jornandes  (de  Rebus  Geticis,  c.  59,  and  De  Successione  Reg- 
norum,  in  Muratori,  torn.  i.  p.  241). 

63  The  marriage  of  Theodoric  with  Audefleda,  the  sister  of  Clovis,  may  be  placed 
in  the  year  495,  soon  after  the  conquest  of  Italy  (De  Buat,  Hist,  des  Peuples, 
torn.  ix.  p.  213).  The  nuptials  of  Eutharic  and  Amalasontha  were  celebrated  in 
516  (Cassiodor.  in  Chron.  p.  453  [torn.  i.  p.  395,  edit.  Rotom.]). 


a.d.  522-534.]  QUEEN  OF  ITALY.  261 

and  impenetrable  silence.  By  a  faithful  imitation  of  the  virt* 
ues,  she  revived  the  prosperity  of  his  reign  ;  while  she  strove, 
with  pious  care,  to  expiate  the  faults  and  to  obliterate  the 
darker  memory  of  his  declining  age.  The  children  of  Boe- 
thius  and  Symmachus  were  restored  to  their  paternal  inherit- 
ance ;  her  extreme  lenity  never  consented  to  inflict  any  cor- 
poral or  pecuniary  penalties  on  her  Roman  subjects ;  and  she 
generously  despised  the  clamors  of  the  Goths,  who,  at  the 
end  of  forty  years,  still  considered  the  people  of  Italy  as  their 
slaves  or  their  enemies.  Her  salutary  measures  were  directed 
by  the  wisdom  and  celebrated  by  the  eloquence  of  Cassiodo- 
rus;  she  solicited  and  deserved  the  friendship  of  the  emperor; 
and  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  respected,  both  in  peace  and 
war,  the  majesty  of  the  Gothic  throne.  But  the  future  hap- 
piness of  the  queen  and  of  Italy  depended  on  the  education 
of  her  son,  who  was  destined,  by  his  birth,  to  support  the  dif- 
ferent and  almost  incompatible  characters  of  the  chief  of  a 
barbarian  camp,  and  the  first  magistrate  of  a  civilized  nation. 
From  the  age  of  ten  years54  Athalaric  was  diligently  in- 
structed in  the  arts  and  sciences  either  useful  or  ornamental 
for  a  Roman  prince,  and  three  venerable  Goths  were  chosen 
to  instil  the  principles  of  honor  and  virtue  into  the  mind  of 
their  young  king.  But  the  pupil  who  is  insensible  of  the 
benefits  must  abhor  the  restraints  of  education ;  and  the  so- 
licitude of  the  queen,  which  affection  rendered  anxious  and 
severe,  offended  the  un tractable  nature  of  her  son  and  his 
subjects.  On  a  solemn  festival,  when  the  Goths  were  assem- 
bled in  the  palace  of  Ravenna,  the  royal  youth  escaped  from 
his  mother's  apartment,  and,  with  tears  of  pride  and  anger, 
complained  of  a  blow  which  his  stubborn  disobedience  had 
provoked  her  to  inflict.  The  barbarians  resented  the  indig- 
nity which  had  been  offered  to  their  king,  accused  the  regent 
of  conspiring  against  his  life  and  crown,  and  imperiously  de- 
manded that  the  grandson  of  Theodoric  should  be  rescued 
from  the  dastardly  discipline  of  women  and  pedants,  and  edu- 

54  At  the  death  of  Theodoric  his  grandson  Athalaric  is  described  by  Procopius 
as  a  boy  about  eight  years  old — oktw  yiyovuc  err].  Cassiodorus,  with  authority 
and  reason,  adds  two  years  to  his  age — "  infantulum  adhuc  vix  decennem." 


262  AMALASONTHA,  QUEEN  OF  ITALY.  XCh.  XLL 

cated,  like  a  valiant  Goth,  in  the  society  of  his  equals  and  the 
glorious  ignorance  of  his  ancestors.  To  this  rude  clamor, 
importunately  urged  as  the  voice  of  the  nation,  Amalasontha 
was  compelled  to  yield  her  reason  and  the  dearest  wishes  of 
her  heart.  The  King  of  Italy  was  abandoned  to  wine,  to 
women,  and  to  rustic  sports ;  and  the  indiscreet  contempt  of 
the  ungrateful  youth  betrayed  the  mischievous  designs  of  hia 
favorites  and  her  enemies.  Encompassed  with  domestic  foes, 
she  entered  into  a  secret  negotiation  with  the  Emperor  Jus- 
tinian, obtained  the  assurance  of  a  friendly  reception,  and 
had  actually  deposited  at  Dyrrachium,  in  Epirus,  a  treasure  of 
forty  thousand  pounds  of  gold.  Happy  would  it  have  been 
for  her  fame  and  safety  if  she  had  calmly  retired  from  bar- 
barous faction  to  the  peace  and  splendor  of  Constantinople. 
But  the  mind  of  Amalasontha  was  inflamed  by  ambition  and 
revenge ;  and  while  her  ships  lay  at  anchor  in  the  port,  she 
waited  for  the  success  of  a  crime  which  her  passions  excused 
or  applauded  as  an  act  of  justice.  Three  of  the  most  danger- 
ous malcontents  had  been  separately  removed,  under  the  pre- 
tence of  trust  and  command,  to  the  frontiers  of  Italy :  they 
were  assassinated  by  her  private  emissaries ;  and  the  blood  of 
these  noble  Goths  rendered  the  queen-mother  absolute  in  the 
court  of  Ravenna,  and  justly  odious  to  a  free  people.  But  if 
she  had  lamented  the  disorders  of  her  son,  she  soon  wept  his 
irreparable  loss ;  and  the  death  of  Athalaric,  who,  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  was  consumed  by  premature  intemperance,  left  her 
destitute  of  any  firm  support  or  legal  authority.  Instead  of 
submitting  to  the  laws  of  her  country,  which  held  as  a  funda- 
mental maxim  that  the  succession  could  never  pass  from  the 
lance  to  the  distaff,  the  daughter  of  Theodoric  conceived  the 
impracticable  design  of  sharing,  with  one  of  her  cousins,  the 
regal  title,  and  of  reserving  in  her  own  hands  the  substance 
of  supreme  power.  He  received  the  proposal  with  profound 
respect  and  affected  gratitude ;  and  the  eloquent  Cassiodorus 
announced  to  the  senate  and  the  emperor  that  Amalasontha 
and  Theodatus  had  ascended  the  throne  of  Italy.  His  birth 
(for  his  mother  was  the  sister  of  Theodoric)  might  be  con- 
sidered as  an  imperfect  title ;  and  the  choice  of  Amalasontha 


A.D.  535.]  HER  EXILE  AND  DEATH.  263 

was  more  strongly  directed  by  her  contempt  of  his  avarice 
and  pusillanimity,  which  had  deprived  him  of  the  love  of  the 
Italians  and  the  esteem  of  the  barbarians.  But  Theodatur 
was  exasperated  by  the  contempt  which  he  deserved:  her  jus- 
tice had  repressed  and  reproached  the  oppression  which  he 
exercised  against  his  Tuscan  neighbors;  and  the  principal 
Goths,  united  by  common  guilt  and  resentment,  conspired  to 
instigate  his  slow  and  timid  disposition.  The  letters  of  Con- 
ner exile  gratulation  were  scarcely  despatched  before  the 
2!  535,tb"  Queen  of  Italy  was  imprisoned  in  a  small  island  of 
April  30.  tjie  iake  0f  J30lsena,B5  where,  after  a  short  confine- 
ment, she  was  strangled  in  the  bath,  by  the  order  or  with  the 
connivance  of  the  new  king,  who  instructed  his  turbulent  sub- 
jects to  shed  the  blood  of  their  sovereigns. 

Justinian  beheld  with  joy  the  dissensions  of  the  Goths, 
and  the  mediation  of  an  ally  concealed  and  promoted  the  am- 
Beiisarins  bitious  views  of  the  conqueror.  His  ambassadors, 
subdues aud  m  their  public  audience,  demanded  the  fortress  of 
a!b^s35,  Lilybseum,  ten  barbarian  fugitives,  and  a  just  corn- 
Dec.  31.  pensation  for  the  pillage  of  a  small  town  on  the  II- 
lyrian  borders ;  but  they  secretly  negotiated  with  Theodatus 
to  betray  the  province  of  Tuscany,  and  tempted  Amalasontha 
to  extricate  herself  from  danger  and  perplexity  by  a  free  sur- 
render of  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  A  false  and  servile  epistle 
was  subscribed  by  the  reluctant  hand  of  the  captive  queen ; 
but  the  confession  of  the  Roman  senators  who  were  sent  to 
Constantinople  revealed  the  truth  of  her  deplorable  situation, 
and  Justinian,  by  the  voice  of  a  new  ambassador,  most  pow- 
erfully interceded  for  her  life  and  liberty.a     Yet  the  secret 

55  The  lake,  from  the  neighboring  towns  of  Etruria,  was  styled  either  Vulsini- 
ensis  (now  of  Bolsena)  or  Tarquiniensis.  It  is  surrounded  with  white  rocks,  and 
stored  with  fish  and  wild-fowl.  The  younger  Pliny  (Epist.  ii.  96  [95])  celebrates 
two  woody  islands  that  floated  on  its  waters :  if  a  fable,  how  credulous  the  an- 
cients! if  a  fact,  how  careless  the  moderns!  Yet,  since  Pliny,  the  island  may 
have  been  fixed  by  new  and  gradual  accessions. 


a  Amalasontha  was  not  alive  when  this  new  ambassador,  Peter  of  Thessalonica, 
arrived  in  Italy  :  he  could  not  then  secretly  contribute  to  her  death.  "  But  "  (says 
M.  de  Sainte  Croix)  "it  is  not  beyond  probability  that  Theodora  had  entered  into 
some  criminal  intrigue  with  Gundelina,  for  that  wife  of  Theodatus  wrote  to  im« 


264:  BELISARIUS  INVADES  [Ch.  XLL 

instructions  of  the  same  minister  were  adapted  to  serve  the 
cruel  jealousy  of  Theodora,  who  dreaded  the  presence  and  su- 
perior charms  of  a  rival:  he  prompted,  with  artful  and  am- 
biguous hints,  the  execution  of  a  crime  so  useful  to  the  Ro- 
mans,69 received  the  intelligence  of  her  death  with  grief  and 
indignation,  and  denounced,  in  his  master's  name  immortal 
war  against  the  perfidious  assassin.  In  Italy,  as  well  as  in 
Africa,  the  guilt  of  a  usurper  appeared  to  justify  the  arms  of 
Justinian ;  but  the  forces  which  he  prepared  were  insufficient 
for  the  subversion  of  a  mighty  kingdom,  if  their  feeble  num- 
bers had  not  been  multiplied  by  the  name,  the  spirit,  and  the 
conduct  of  a  hero.  A  chosen  troop  of  guards,  who  served  on 
horseback,  and  were  armed  with  lances  and  bucklers,  attended 
the  person  of  Belisarius ;  his  cavalry  was  composed  of  two 
hundred  Huns,  three  hundred  Moors,  and  four  thousand  eon- 
federates,  and  the  infantry  consisted  only  of  three  thousand 
Isaurians.  Steering  the  same  course  as  in  his  former  expedi- 
tion, the  Roman  consul  cast  anchor  before  Catana,  in  Sicily, 
to  survey  the  strength  of  the  island,  and  to  decide  whether 
he  should  attempt  the  conquest  or  peaceably  pursue  his  voy- 
age for  the  African  coast.  He  found  a  fruitful  land  and  a 
friendly  people.  Notwithstanding  the  decay  of  agriculture, 
Sicily  still  supplied  the  granaries  of  Rome  ;  the  farmers  were 
graciously  exempted  from  the  oppression  of  military  quar- 
ters ;  and  the  Goths,  who  trusted  the  defence  of  the  island  to 
the  inhabitants,  had  some  reason  to  complain  that  their  confi- 
dence was  ungratefully  betrayed.  Instead  of  soliciting  and 
expecting  the  aid  of  the  King  of  Italy,  they  yielded  to  the 
first  summons  a  cheerful  obedience ;  and  this  province,  the 
first-fruits  of  the  Punic  wars,  was  again,  after  a  long  separa- 

66  Yet  Procopius  discredits  his  own  evidence  (Anecdot.  c.  16),  by  confessing 
that  in  his  public  history  he  had  not  spoken  the  truth.  See  the  Epistles  from 
Queen  Gundelina  to  the  Empress  Theodora  (Var.  x.  20,  21,  23,  and  observe  a 
suspicious  word,  "de  ilia  persona,"  etc.),  with  the  elaborate  Commentary  of  Buat 
(torn.  x.  p.  177-185).       

plore  her  protection,  reminding  her  of  the  confidence  which  she  and  her  husband 
had  always  placed  in  her  former  promises."  See,  on  Amalasontha  and  the  au- 
thors of  her  death,  an  excellent  dissertation  of  M.  cle  Sainte  Croix  in  the  Archives 
Litttraires  published  by  M.  Vandenbourg,  No.  50,  t.  xvii.  p.  216. — G. 


A.D.535.]  AND  SUBDUES  SICILY.  265 

tion,  united  to  the  Roman  empire."  The  Gothic  garrison  of 
Palermo,  which  alone  attempted  to  resist,  was  reduced,  after 
a  short  siege,  bj  a  singular  stratagem.  Belisarius  introduced 
his  ships  into  the  deepest  recess  of  the  harbor ;  their  boats 
were  laboriously  hoisted  with  ropes  and  pulleys  to  the  top- 
mast head,  and  he  filled  them  with  archers,  who,  from  that 
superior  station,  commanded  the  ramparts  of  the  city.  After 
this  easy  though  successful  campaign,  the  conqueror  entered 
Syracuse  in  triumph,  at  the  head  of  his  victorious  bands,  dis- 
tributing gold  medals  to  the  people,  on  the  day  which  so  glo- 
riously terminated  the  year  of  the  consulship.  He  passed  the 
winter  season  in  the  palace  of  ancient  kings,  amidst  the  ruins 
of  a  Grecian  colony  which  once  extended  to  a  circumference 
of  two-and-twenty  miles;68  but  in  the  spring,  about  the  festi- 
val of  Easter,  the  prosecution  of  his  designs  was  interrupted 
by  a  dangerous  revolt  of  the  African  forces.  Carthage  was 
saved  by  the  presence  of  Belisarius,  who  suddenly  landed  with 
a  thousand  guards.3.  Two  thousand  soldiers  of  doubtful  faith 
returned  to  the  standard  of  their  old  commander,  and  he 
marched,  without  hesitation,  above  fifty  miles,  to  seek  an  en- 
emy whom  he  affected  to  pity  and  despise.  Eight  thousand 
rebels  trembled  at  his  approach ;  they  were  routed  at  the  first 
onset  by  the  dexterity  of  their  master,  and  this  ignoble  vic- 
tory would  have  restored  the  peace  of  Africa,  if  the  conquer- 
or had  not  been  hastily  recalled  to  Sicily  to  appease  a  sedition 
which  was  kindled  during  his  absence  in  his  own  camp.59 

67  For  the  conquest  of  Sicily  compare  the  narrative  of  Procopius  with  the  com- 
plaints of  Totila  (Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  5 ;  1.  iii.  c.  16).  The  Gothic  queen  had  lately 
relieved  that  thankless  island  (Var.  ix.  10,  11). 

58  The  ancient  magnitude  and  splendor  of  the  five  quarters  of  Syracuse  are  de- 
lineated by  Cicero  (in  Verrem,  actio  ii.  1.  iv.  c.  52,  53),  Strabo  (1.  vi.  p.  415  [p. 
270,  edit.  Casaub.]),  and  D'Orville  Sicula  (torn.  ii.  p.  174-202).  The  new  city, 
restored  by  Augustus,  shrunk  toward  the  island. 

69  Procopius  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  14,  15)  so  clearly  relates  the  return  of  Belisarius 
into  Sicily  (p.  146,  edit.  Hoeschelii  [torn.  i.  p.  481,  edit.  Bonn]),  that  I  am  aston- 
ished at  the  strange  misapprehension  and  reproaches  of  a  learned  critic  ((Euvres 
de  la  Mothe  le  Vayer,  torn.  viii.  p.  162,  163). 


a  A  hundred  (there  was  no  room  on  board  for  more).     Gibbon  has  again  been 
misled  by  Cousin's  translation.     Lord  Mahon,  p.  154. — M. 


266  REIGN  OF  THEODATUS,  [Ch.  XH 

Disorder  and  disobedience  were  the  common  malady  of  the 
times :  the  genius  to  command  and  the  virtue  to  obey  resided 
only  in  the  mind  of  Belisarius. 

Although  Theodatus  descended  from  a  race  of  heroes,  he 
was  ignorant  of  the  art  and  averse  to  the  dangers  of  war.  Al- 
though he  had  studied  the  writings  of  Plato  and 
weakness  of  Tully,  philosophy  was  incapable  of  purifying  his 
the  Gothic'  mind  f rom  the  basest  passions,  avarice  and  fear. 
a.d.534,  '   '  He   had  purchased  a  sceptre  by  ingratitude  and 

October- 

A.D.53C,  murder:  at  the  first  menace  of  an  enemy  he  de- 
graded his  own  majesty,  and  that  of  a  nation  which 
already  disdained  their  unworthy  sovereign.  Astonished  by 
the  recent  example  of  Gelimer,  he  saw  himself  dragged  in 
chains  through  the  streets  of  Constantinople :  the  terrors 
which  Belisarius  inspired  were  heightened  by  the  eloquence 
of  Peter,  the  Byzantine  ambassador ;  and  that  bold  and  subtle 
advocate  persuaded  him  to  sign  a  treaty  too  ignominious  to 
become  the  foundation  of  a  lasting  peace.  It  was  stipulated 
that  in  the  acclamations  of  the  Roman  people  the  name  of 
the  emperor  should  be  always  proclaimed  before  that  of  the 
Gothic  king ;  and  that,  as  often  as  the  statue  of  Theodatus 
was  erected  in  brass  or  marble,  the  divine  image  of  Justinian 
should  be  placed  on  its  right  hand.  Instead  of  conferring, 
the  King  of  Italy  was  reduced  to  solicit,  the  honors  of  the 
senate ;  and  the  consent  of  the  emperor  was  made  indispen- 
sable before  he  could  execute,  against  a  priest  or  senator,  the 
sentence  either  of  death  or  confiscation.  The  feeble  monarch 
resigned  the  possession  of  Sicily ;  offered,  as  the  annual  mark 
of  his  dependence,  a  crown  of  gold  of  the  weight  of  three 
hundred  pounds ;  and  promised  to  supply,  at  the  requisition 
of  his  sovereign,  three  thousand  Gothic  auxiliaries  for  the 
service  of  the  empire.  Satisfied  with  these  extraordinary 
concessions,  the  successful  agent  of  Justinian  hastened  his 
journey  to  Constantinople ;  but  no  sooner  had  he  reached  the 
Alban  villa-0  than  he  was  recalled  by  the  anxiety  of  Theoda- 


60  The  ancient  Alba  was  ruined  in  the  first  age  of  Rome.     On  the  same  spot, 
or  at  least  in  the  neighborhood,  successively  arose,  1.  The  villa  of  Pompey,  etc 


A.D.  534-636.]  THE  GOTHIC  KING  OF  ITALY.  267 

tus;  and  the  dialogue  which  passed  between  the  king  and 
the  ambassador  deserves  to  be  represented  in  its  original  sim- 
plicity. "Are  you  of  opinion  that  the  emperor  will  ratify 
this  treaty  ?  Perhaps.  If  he  refuses,  what  consequence  will 
ensue  ?  War.  Will  such  a  war  be  just  or  reasonable  ?  Most 
assuredly:  every  one  should  act  according  to  his  character. 
What  is  your  meaning  ?  You  are  a  philosopher — Justinian 
is  emperor  of  the  Romans :  it  would  ill  become  the  disciple  of 
Plato  to  shed  the  Hood  of  thousands  in  his  private  quarrel : 
the  successor  of  Augustus  should  vindicate  his  rights,  and  re* 
eover  by  arms  the  ancient  provinces  of  his  empire"  This  rea- 
soning might  not  convince,  but  it  was  sufficient  to  alarm  and 
subdue  the  weakness  of  Theodatus ;  and  he  soon  descended 
to  his  last  offer,  that  for  the  poor  equivalent  of  a  pension  of 
forty -eight  thousand  pounds  sterling  he  would  resign  the 
kingdom  of  the  Goths  and  Italians,  and  spend  the  remainder 
of  his  days  in  the  innocent  pleasures  of  philosophy  and  agri- 
culture. Both  treaties  were  intrusted  to  the  hands  of  the 
ambassador,  on  the  frail  security  of  an  oath  not  to  produce 
the  second  till  the  first  had  been  positively  rejected.  The 
event  may  be  easily  foreseen :  Justinian  required  and  accept- 
ed the  abdication  of  the  Gothic  king.  His  indefatigable 
agent  returned  from  Constantinople  to  Eavenna  with  ample 
instructions,  and  a  fair  epistle,  which  praised  the  wisdom  and 
generosity  of  the  royal  philosopher,  granted  his  pension,  with 
the  assurance  of  such  honors  as  a  subject  and  a  Catholic 
might  enjoy,  and  wisely  referred  the  final  execution  of  the 
treaty  to  the  presence  and  authority  of  Belisarius.  But  in 
the  interval  of  suspense  two  Roman  generals,  who  had  enter- 
ed the  province  of  Dalmatia,  were  defeated  and  slain  by  the 
Gothic  troops.  From  blind  and  abject  despair,  Theodatus 
capriciously  rose  to  groundless  and  fatal  presumption,"  and 

2.  A  camp  of  the  Praetorian  cohorts.  3.  The  modern  episcopal  city  of  Albanum 
or  Albano  (Procop.  Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  4.     Oliver.  Ital.  Antiq.  torn.  ii.  p.  914). 

61  A  Sibylline  oracle  was  ready  to  pronounce — "Africa  capta  mundus  cum  nato 
peribit;"  a  sentence  of  portentous  ambiguity  (Gothic.  1.  i.  c.  7),  which  has  been 
published  in  unknown  characters  by  Opsopseus,  an  editor  of  the  oracles.  Th« 
Pere  Maltret  has  promised  a  commentary ;  but  all  his  promises  have  been  vaia 
and  fruitless. 


268  BELISARIUS  INVADES  ITALY,  [Ch.  XLL 

dared  to  receive,  with  menace  and  contempt,  the  ambassador 
of  Justinian,  who  claimed  his  promise,  solicited  the  allegiance 
of  his  subjects,  and  boldly  asserted  .the  inviolable  privilege 
of  his  own  character.  The  march  of  Belisarius  dispelled  this 
visionary  pride ;  and  as  the  first  campaign"  was  employed  in 
the  reduction  of  Sicily,  the  invasion  of  Italy  is  applied  by 
Procopius  to  the  second  year  of  the  Gothic  Wak.*3 

After  Belisarius  had  left  sufficient  garrisons  in  Palermo 

and  Syracuse,  he  embarked  his  troops  at  Messina,  and  landed 

them,  without  resistance,  on  the  opposite  shores  of 

Belisarius  in-  .  _  .  .  ±  L  , 

vades  Italy      Rhegium.     A  Gothic  prince,  who  had  married  the 

aud  reduces  °  m  •*■  .  . 

Naples.  daughter  of  I  heodatus,  was  stationed  with  an  army 

u.D.  536.—  to  guard  the  entrance  of  Italy ;  but  he  imitated 
without  scruple  the  example  of  a  sovereign  faith- 
less to  his  public  and  private  duties.  The  perfidious  Ebermor 
deserted  with  his  followers  to  the  Roman  camp,  and  was  dis- 
missed to  enjoy  the  servile  honors  of  the  Byzantine  court.64 
Prom  Rhegium  to  Naples  the  fleet  and  army  of  Belisarius, 
almost  always  in  view  of  each  other,  advanced  near  three 
hundred  miles  along  the  sea-coast.  The  people  of  Brnttium, 
Lucania,  and  Campania,  who  abhorred  the  name  and  religion 
of  the  Goths,  embraced  the  specious  excuse  that  their  ruined 
walls  were  incapable  of  defence:  the  soldiers  paid  a  just 
equivalent  for  a  plentiful  market ;  and  curiosity  alone  inter- 
rupted the  peaceful  occupations  of  the  husbandman  or  arti- 
ficer. Naples,  which  has  swelled  to  a  great  and  populous 
capital,  long  cherished  the  language  and  manners  of  a  Gre- 


62  In  his  chronology,  imitated  in  some  degree  from  Thucydides,  Procopius  be- 
gins each  spring  the  years  of  Justinian  and  of  the  Gothic  war ;  and  his  first  era 
coincides  with  the  first  of  April,  535,  and  not  536,  according  to  the  ApiotIs  of 
Baronius  (Pagi  Grit.  torn.  ii.  p.  555,  who  is  followed  by  Muratori  and  the  editors 
of  Sigonius).  Yet  in  some  passages  we  are  at  a  loss  to  reconcile  the  dates  of 
Procopius  with  himself,  and  with  the  Chronicle  of  Marcelliuus. 

63  The  series  of  the  first  Gothic  war  is  represented  by  Procopius  (1.  k  c.  5-59; 
1.  ii.  c.  1-30 ;  1.  iii.  c.  1)  till  the  captivity  of  Vitiges.  With  the  nid  of  Sigonius 
fOpp.  torn.  i.  de  Imp.  Occident.  1.  xvii.,  xviii.)  and  Muratori  (Annali  d'ltaXia, 
torn,  v.),  I  have  gleaned  some  few  additional  facts. 

64  Jornandes,  de  Rebus  Geticis,  c.  60,  p.  702,  edit,  Grot.,  and  torn  k  p,  iSJtt, 
Muratori.  de  Success.  Regn.  [ib.]  p.  241, 


a.d.  537.J  AND  REDUCES  NAPLES.  269 

cian  colony ;"  and  the  choice  of  Virgil  had  ennobled  this  el- 
egant retreat,  which  attracted  the  lovers  of  repose  and  study 
from  the  noise,  the  smoke,  and  the  laborious  opulence  of 
Rome.6*  As  soon  as  the  place  was  invested  by  sea  and  land, 
Belisarius  gave  audience  to  the  deputies  of  the  people,  who 
exhorted  -him  to  disregard  a  conquest  unworthy  of  his  arms, 
to  seek  the  Gothic  king  in  a  field  of  battle,  and,  after  his  vic- 
tory, to  claim,  as  the  sovereign  of  Rome,  the  allegiance  of  the 
dependent  cities.  "When  I  treat  with  my  enemies,"  replied 
the  Roman  chief,  with  a  haughty  smile,  "  I  am  more  accus- 
tomed to  give  than  to  receive  counsel;  but  I  hold  in  one  hand 
inevitable  ruin,  and  in  the  other  peace  and  freedom,  such  as 
Sicily  now  enjoys."  The  impatience  of  delay  urged  him  to 
grant  the  most  liberal  terms;  his  honor  secured  their  per- 
formance :  but  Naples  was  divided  into  two  factions ;  and 
the  Greek  democracy  was  inflamed  by  their  orators,  who  with 
much  spirit  and  some  truth  represented  to  the  multitude  that 
the  Goths  would  punish  their  defection,  and  that  Belisarius 
himself  must  esteem  their  loyalty  and  valor.  Their  deliber- 
ations, however,  were  not  perfectly  free :  the  city  was  com- 
manded by  eight  hundred  barbarians,  whose  wives  and  chil- 
dren were  detained  at  Ravenna  as  the  pledge  of  their  fideli- 
ty ;  and  even  the  Jews,  who  were  rich  and  numerous,  resisted, 
with  desperate  enthusiasm,  the  intolerant  laws  of  Justinian. 
In  a  much  later  period  the  circumference  of  Naples,67  meas- 

65  "Nero"  (says  Tacitus,  Annal.  xv.  33)  "Neapolim  quasi  Grgecam  urbem  de- 
legit."  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  afterwards,  in  the  time  of  Septimius  Severus, 
the  Hellenism  of  the  Neapolitans  is  praised  by  Philostratus :  ysvog  "EWr/veg  ical 
aorvKoi,  '66ev  Kai  rag  airovddg  ra>v  yoXwv  'EXKqvucoi  ei<n  (Icon.  1.  i.  p.  763,  edit. 
Olear.). 

66  The  otium  of  Naples  is  praised  by  the  Roman  poets,  by  Virgil,  Horace,  Silius 
Italicus,  and  Statius  (Cluver.  Ital.  Ant.  1.  iv.  p.  1149,  1150).  In  an  elegant  epis- 
tle (Silv.  1.  iii.  5,  p.  94-98,  edit.  Markland)  Statius  undertakes  the  difficult  task  of 
drawing  his  wife  from  the  pleasures  of  Rome  to  that  calm  retreat. 

67  This  measure  was  taken  by  Roger  I.  after  the  conquest  of  Naples  (a.d.  1139), 
which  he  made  the  capital  of  his  new  kingdom  (Giannone,  Istoria  Civile,  torn.  ii. 
p.  169).  That  city,  the  third  in  Christian  Europe,  is  now  at  least  twelve  miles 
in  circumference  (Jul.  Csesar.  Capaccii  Hist.  Neapol.  1.  i.  p.  47),  and  contains 
more  inhabitants  (350,000)  in  a  given  space  than  any  other  spot  in  the  known 
world. 


270  KEDUCTION  OF  NAPLES.  [Ch.  XLL 

ured  only  two  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty-three  paces :" 
the  fortifications  were  defended  by  precipices  or  the  sea; 
when  the  aqueducts  were  intercepted,  a  supply  of  water  might 
be  drawn  from  wells  and  fountains ;  and  the  stock  of  pro- 
visions was  sufficient  to  consume  the  patience  of  the  besiegers. 
At  the  end  of  twenty  days  that  of  Belisarius  was  almost  ex- 
hausted, and  he  had  reconciled  himself  to  the  disgrace  of 
abandoning  the  siege,  that  he  might  march,  before  the  winter 
season,  against  Rome  and  the  Gothic  king.  But  his  anxiety 
was  relieved  by  the  bold  curiosity  of  an  Isaurian,  who  ex- 
plored the  dry  channel  of  an  aqueduct,  and  secretly  reported 
that  a  passage  might  be  perforated  to  introduce  a  file  of  arm- 
ed soldiers  into  the  heart  of  the  city.  When  the  work  had 
been  silently  executed,  the  humane  general  risked  the  discov- 
ery of  his  secret  by  a  last  and  fruitless  admonition  of  the  im- 
pending danger.  In  the  darkness  of  the  night  four  hundred 
Romans  entered  the  aqueduct,  raised  themselves  by  a  rope, 
which  they  fastened  to  an  olive-tree,  into  the  house  or  garden 
of  a  solitary  matron,  sounded  their  trumpets,  surprised  the 
sentinels,  and  gave  admittance  to  their  companions,  who  on 
all  sides  scaled  the  walls  and  burst  open  the  gates  of  the  city. 
Every  crime  which  is  punished  by  social  justice  was  practised 
as  the  rights  of  war :  the  Huns  were  distinguished  by  cruelty 
and  sacrilege,  and  Belisarius  alone  appeared  in  the  streets  and 
churches  of  Naples  to  moderate  the  calamities  which  he  pre- 
dicted. "  The  gold  and  silver,"  he  repeatedly  exclaimed, "  are 
the  just  rewards  of  your  valor.  But  spare  the  inhabitants ; 
they  are  Christians,  they  are  suppliants,  they  are  now  your 
fellow-subjects.  Restore  the  children  to  their  parents,  the 
wives  to  their  husbands ;  and  show  them  by  your  generosity 
of  what  friends  they  have  obstinately  deprived  themselves." 
The  city  was  saved  by  the  virtue  and  authority  of  its  conquer- 
or ;*9  and  when  the  Neapolitans  returned  to  their  houses,  they 

68  Not  geometrical,  but  common,  paces  or  steps,  of  22  French  inches  (D'Anville, 
Mesures  Itineraires,  p.  7,  8) :  the  2363  do  not  make  an  English  mile. 

69  Belisarius  was  reproved  by  Pope  Sylverius  for  the  massacre.  He  repeopled 
Naples,  and  imported  colonies  of  African  captives  into  Sicily,  Calabria,  and  Apulia 
(Hist.  Miscell.  1.  xvi.  in  Muratori,  torn.  i.  p.  106, 107> 


A.D.  536-540.]  VITIGES,  KING  OF  ITALY.  271 

found  some  consolation  in  the  secret  enjoyment  of  their  hid- 
den treasures.  The  barbarian  garrison  enlisted  in  the  service 
of  the  emperor ;  Apulia  and  Calabria,  delivered  from  the 
odious  presence  of  the  Goths,  acknowledged  his  dominion ; 
and  the  tusks  of  the  Calydonian  boar,  which  were  still  shown 
at  Beneventum,  are  curiously  described  by  the  historian  of 
Belisarius.70 

The  faithful  soldiers  and  citizens  of  Naples  had  expected 
their  deliverance  from  a  prince  who  remained  the  inactive 

and  aim  ^different  spectator  of  their  ruin.  The- 
df  Italy.  °  odatus  secured  his  person  within  the  walls  of  Rome, 
August-         while  his  cavalry  advanced  forty  miles  on  the  Ap- 

pian  Way,  and  encamped  in  the  Pomptine  marshes, 
which,  by  a  canal  of  nineteen  miles  in  length,  had  been  re- 
cently drained  and  converted  into  excellent  pastures.71  But 
the  principal  forces  of  the  Goths  were  dispersed  in  Dalmatia, 
Yenetia,  and  Gaul ;  and  the  feeble  mind  of  their  king  was 
confounded  by  the  unsuccessful  event  of  a  divination  which 
seemed  to  presage  the  downfall  of  his  empire.72  The  most 
abject  slaves  have  arraigned  the  guilt  or  weakness  of  an  un- 
fortunate master.  The  character  of  Theodatus  was  rigorously 
scrutinized  by  a  free  and  idle  camp  of  barbarians,  conscious 
of  their  privilege  and  power:  he  was  declared  unworthy  of 
his  race,  his  nation,  and  his  throne ;  and  their  general,  Yiti- 
ges,  whose  valor  had  been  signalized  in  the  Illyrian  war,  was 
raised  with  unanimous  applause  on  the  bucklers  of  his  com- 

10  Beneventum  was  built  by  Diomede,  the  nephew  of  Meleager  (Cluver.  torn.  ii. 
p.  1195, 1196.  The  Calydonian  hunt  is  a  picture  of  savage  life  (Ovid.  Metamorph. 
1.  viii.).  Thirty  or  forty  heroes  were  leagued  against  a  hog:  the  brutes  (not  the 
hog)  quarrelled  with  a  lady  for  the  head. 

71  The  Decennovium  is  strangely  confounded  by  Cluverius  (torn.  ii.  p.  1007)  with 
the  river  Ufens.  It  was  in  truth  a  canal  of  nineteen  miles,  from  Forum  Appii  to 
Terracina,  on  which  Horace  embarked  in  the  night.  The  Decennovium  which  is 
mentioned  by  Lucan,  Dion  Cassius,  and  Cassiodorus,  has  been  successively  ruin- 
ed, restored,  and  obliterated  (D'Anville,  Analyse  de  l'ltalie,  p.  185,  etc.). 

,2  A  Jew  gratified  his  contempt  and  hatred  for  all  the  Christians  by  enclosing 
three  bands,  each  of  ten  hogs,  and  discriminated  by  the  names  of  Goths,  Greeks, 
and  Romans.  Of  the  first,  almost  all  were  found  dead — almost  all  of  the  second 
were  alive— of  the  third,  half  died,  and  the  rest  lost  their  bristles.  No  unsuitable 
emblem  of  the  event. 


272  VIT1GES,  KING  OF  ITALY.     .  [CH.XLL 

panions.  On  the  first  rumor  the  abdicated  monarch  fled  from 
the  justice  of  his  country,  but  he  was  pursued  by  private 
revenge.  A  Goth,  whom  he  had  injured  in  his  love,  over- 
took Theodatus  on  the  Flaminian  Way,  and,  regardless  of 
his  unmanly  cries,  slaughtered  him  as  he  lay  prostrate  on  the 
ground,  like  a  victim  (says  the  historian)  at  the  foot  of  the  al- 
tar. The  choice  of  the  people  is  the  best  and  purest  title  to 
reign  over  them  :  yet  such  is  the  prejudice  of  every  age,  that 
Yitiges  impatiently  wished  to  return  to  Ravenna,  where  he 
might  seize,  with  the  reluctant  hand  of  the  daughter  of  Amal- 
asontha,  some  faint  shadow  of  hereditary  right.  A  national 
council  was  immediately  held,  and  the  new  monarch  recon- 
ciled the  impatient  spirit  of  the  barbarians  to  a  measure  of 
disgrace  which  the  misconduct  of  his  predecessor  rendered 
wise  and  indispensable.  The  Goths  consented  to  retreat  in 
the  presence  of  a  victorious  enemy,  to  delay  till  the  next 
spring  the  operations  of  offensive  war,  to  summon  their  scat- 
tered forces,  to  relinquish  their  distant  possessions,  and  to 
trust  even  Rome  itself  to  the  faith  of  its  inhabitants.  Leu- 
deris,  an  aged  warrior,  was  left  in  the  capital  with  four  thou- 
sand soldiers ;  a  feeble  garrison,  which  might  have  seconded 
the  zeal,  though  it  was  incapable  of  opposing  the  wishes,  of 
the  Romans.  But  a  momentary  enthusiasm  of  religion  and 
patriotism  was  kindled  in  their  minds.  They  furiously  ex- 
claimed that  the  apostolic  throne  should  no  longer  be  pro- 
faned by  the  triumph  or  toleration  of  Arianism;  that  the 
tombs  of  the  Caesars  should  no  longer  be  trampled  by  the 
savages  of  the  North ;  and,  without  reflecting  that  Italy  must 
sink  into  a  province  of  Constantinople,  they  fondly  hailed  the 
restoration  of  a  Roman  emperor  as  a  new  era  of  freedom  and 
prosperity.  The  deputies  of  the  pope  and  clergy,  of  the  sen- 
ate and  people,  invited  the  lieutenant  of  Justinian  to  accept 
their  voluntary  allegiance,  and  to  enter  the  city,  whose  gates 
would  be  thrown  open  for  his  reception.  As  soon  as  Beli- 
sarius  had  fortified  his  new  conquests,  Naples  and  Cumae,  he 
advanced  about  twenty  miles  to  the  banks  of  the  Yulturnus, 
contemplated  the  decayed  grandeur  of  Capua,  and  halted  at 
the  separation  of  the  Latin  and  Appian  ways.     The  work  of 


a.d.533.]  BELISAEIUS  ENTERS  ROME.  273 

the  censor,  after  the  incessant  use  of  nine  centuries,  still  pre- 
served its  primeval  beauty,  and  not  a  flaw  could  be  discov- 
ered in  the  large  polished  stones  of  which  that  solid  though 
narrow  road  was  so  firmly  compacted.73  Belisarius,  however, 
preferred  the  Latin  Way,  which,  at  a  distance  from  the  sea 
and  the  marshes,  skirted  in  a  space  of  one  hundred  and  twen- 
Beiisarius  ty  miles  along  the  foot  of  the  mountains.  His  en- 
tnDe58? °me'  emies  had  disappeared :  when  he  made  his  entrance 
nee.  10.  through  the  Asinarian  Gate  the  garrison  departed 

without  molestation  along  the  Flaminian  Way ;  and  the  city, 
after  sixty  years'  servitude,  was  delivered  from  the  yoke  of 
the  barbarians.  Leuderis  alone,  from  a  motive  of  pride  or 
discontent,  refused  to  accompany  the  fugitives;  and  the 
Gothic  chief,  himself  a  trophy  of  the  victory,  was  sent  with 
the  keys  of  Rome  to  the  throne  of  the  Emperor  Justinian.74 

The  first  days,  which  coincided  with  the  old  Saturnalia, 

were  devoted  to  mutual  congratulation  and  the  public  joy ; 

and  the  Catholics  prepared  to  celebrate  without  a 

Siege  of  . 

Rome  by  rival  the  approaching  festival  of  the  nativity  of 
a.d.  537,  '  Christ.  In  the  familiar  conversation  of  a  hero  the 
Romans  acquired  some  notion  of  the  virtues  which 
history  ascribed  to  their  ancestors ;  they  were  edified  by  the 
apparent  respect  of  Belisarius  for  the  successor  of  St.  Peter, 
and  his  rigid  discipline  secured  in  the  midst  of  war  the  bless- 
ings of  tranquillity  and  justice.  They  applauded  the  rapid 
success  of  his  arms,  which  overran  the  adjacent  country  as  far 
as  Kami,  Perusia,  and  Spoleto ;  but  they  trembled,  the  sen- 
ate, the  clergy,  and  the  unwarlike  people,  as  soon  as  they  un- 

vi  Bergier  (Hist,  des  Grands  Chemins  des  Romains,  torn.  i.  p.  221-228,  440-444) 
examines  the  structure  and  materials,  while  D'Anvillc  (Analyse  de  l'ltalie,  p.  200- 
213)  defines  the  geographical  line. 

74  Of  the  first  recovery  of  Rome,  the  year  (536)  is  certain,  from  the  series  of 
events,  rather  than  from  the  corrupt,  or  interpolated,  text  of  Procopius :  the  month 
(December)  is  ascertained  by  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  c.  19)  ,■  and  the  day  (the  tenth)  may 
be  admitted  on  the  slight  evidence  of  Nicephorus  Callistus  (1.  xvii.  c.  13).  For 
this  accurate  chronology  we  are  indebted  to  the  diligence  and  judgment  of  Pagi 
(torn.  ii.  p.  559,  560). a 

a  Compare  Mai  tret's  note,  in  the  edition  of  Biudorf :  the  ninth  is  the  day  ac* 
cording  to  his  reading.  — M. 

IT.— 18 


274  SIEGE  OF  ROME  BY  THE  GOTHS.  [Ca  XH 

derstood  that  he  had  resolved,  and  would  speedily  be  reduced, 
to  sustain  a  siege  against  the  powers  of  the  Gothic  monarchy. 
The  designs  of  Yitiges  were  executed  during  the  winter  sea- 
son with  diligence  and  effect.  From  their  rustic  habitations, 
from  their  distant  garrisons,  the  Goths  assembled  at  Ravenna 
for  the  defence  of  their  country ;  and  such  were  their  num- 
bers, that,  after  an  army  had  been  detached  for  the  relief 
of  Dalmatia,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  fighting- men 
marched  under  the  royal  standard.  According  to  the  de- 
grees of  rank  or  merit,  the  Gothic  king  distributed  arms  and 
horses,  rich  gifts,  and  liberal  promises :  he  moved  along  the 
Flaminian  Way,  declined  the  useless  sieges  of  Perusia  and 
Spoleto,  respected  the  impregnable  rock  of  Narni,  and  ar- 
rived within  two  miles  of  Eome,  at  the  foot  of  the  Milvian 
Bridge.  The  narrow  passage  was  fortified  with  a  tower,  and 
Belisarius  had  computed  the  value  of  the  twenty  days  which 
must  be  lost  in  the  construction  of  another  bridge.  But  the 
consternation  of  the  soldiers  of  the  tower,  who  either  fled  or 
deserted,  disappointed  his  hopes,  and  betrayed  his  person  into 
the  most  imminent  danger.  At  the  head  of  one  thousand 
horse,  the  Eoman  general  sallied  from  the  Flaminian  Gate  to 
mark  the  ground  of  an  advantageous  position,  and  to  survey 
the  camp  of  the  barbarians  ;  but  while  he  still  believed  them 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Tiber,  he  was  suddenly  encompassed 
and  assaulted  by  their  innumerable  squadrons.  The 
fate  of  Italy  depended  on  his  life ;  and  the  desert- 
ers pointed  to  the  conspicuous  horse,  a  bay,76  with  a  white 
face,  which  he  rode  on  that  memorable  day.  "Aim  at  the 
bay  horse,"  was  the  universal  cry.  Every  bow  was  bent,  ev- 
ery javelin  was  directed,  against  that  fatal  object,  and  the 
command  was  repeated  and  obeyed  by  thousands  who  were 
ignorant  of  its  real  motive.  The  bolder  barbarians  advanced 
to  the  more  honorable  combat  of  swords  and  spears  ;  and  the 

76  A  horse  of  a  bay  or  red  color  was  styled  fiakioQ  by  the  Greeks,  balan  by  the 
barbarians,  and  spadix  by  tbe  Romans.  Honesti  spadices,  says  "Virgil  (Georgic. 
1.  iii.  81,  with  the  Observations  of  Martin  and  Heyne).  SiraSiK,  or  [3aiov,  signifies 
a  branch  of  the  palm-tree,  whose  name,  <poivi%,  is  synonymous  to  red  (Aulus  Gel« 
lius,  ii.  26). 


(l:o.  537.]  DEFENCE  OF  ROME  BY  BELISARIUS.  275 

praise  of  an  enemy  has  graced  the  fall  of  Visandus,  the  stand- 
ard-bearer,76 who  maintained  his  foremost  station,  till  he  was 
pierced  with  thirteen  wounds,  perhaps  by  the  hand  of  Beli- 
sarius  himself.  The  Roman  general  was  strong,  active,  and 
dexterous :  on  every'  side  he  discharged  his  weighty  and  mor- 
tal strokes :  his  faithful  guards  imitated  his  valor,  and  de- 
fended his  person ;  and  the  Goths,  after  the  loss  of  a  thou- 
sand men,  fled  before  the  arms  of  a  hero.  They  were  rashly 
pursued  to  their  camp  ;  and  the  Romans,  oppressed  by  multi- 
tudes, made  a  gradual  and  at  length  a  precipitate  retreat  to 
the  gates  of  the  city  :  the  gates  were  shut  against  the  fugi- 
tives ;  and  the  public  terror  was  increased  by  the  report  that 
Belisarius  was  slain.  His  countenance  was  indeed  disfigured 
by  sweat,  dust,  and  blood ;  his  voice  was  hoarse,  his  strength 
was  almost  exhausted ;  but  his  unconquerable  spirit  still  re- 
mained; he  imparted  that  spirit  to  his  desponding  compan- 
ions; and  their  last  desperate  charge  was  felt  by  the  flying 
barbarians,  as  if  a  new  army,  vigorous  and  entire,  had  been 
valor  of  poured  from  the  city.  The  Flaminian  Gate  was 
Belisarius.  thrown  open  to  a  real  triumph ;  but  it  was  not  be- 
fore Belisarius  had  visited  every  post,  and  provided  for  the 
public  safety,  that  he  could  be  persuaded  by  his  wife  and 
friends  to  taste  the  needful  refreshments  of  food  and  sleep. 
In  the  more  improved  state  of  the  art  of  war  a  general  is 
seldom  required,  or  even  permitted,  to  display  the  personal 
prowess  of  a  soldier,  and  the  example  of  Belisarius  may  be 
added  to  the  rare  examples  of  Henry  TV.,  of  Pyrrhus,  and  of 
Alexander. 

After  this  first  and  unsuccessful  trial  of  their  enemies,  the 
whole  army  of  the  Goths  passed  the  Tiber,  and  formed  the 
His  defence  siege  of  the  city,  which  continued  above  a  year,  till 
of  Rome.  their  final  departure.  Whatever  fancy  may  con- 
ceive, the  severe  compass  of  the  geographer  defines  the  cir- 
cumference of  Rome  within  a  line  of  twelve  miles  and  three 

76  I  interpret  (3avSa\apioQ,  not  as  a  proper  name,  but  an  office,  standard-bear- 
er, from  bandum  (vexillum),  a  barbaric  word  adopted  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
(Paul  Diacon.  1.  i.  c.  20,  p.  760).  Grot.  Nomina  Gothicav  p.  575.  (Ducange, 
Gloss.  Latin,  torn.  i.  p.  539,  540.) 


276  DEFENCE  OF  KOME  BY  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XLL 

hundred  and  forty-five  paces ;  and  that  circumference,  except 
in  the  Vatican,  has  invariably  been  the  same  from  the  tri- 
umph of  Aurelian  to  the  peaceful  but  obscure  reign  of  the 
modern  popes."  But  in  the  day  of  her  greatness  the  space 
within  her  walls  was  crowded  with  habitations  and  inhabi- 
tants, and  the  populous  suburbs,  that  stretched  along  the  pub- 
,    ,_  lie  roads,  were  darted  like  so  many  rays  from  one 

March  12.  '  .  .  -, 

common  centre.  Adversity  swept  away  these  ex- 
traneous ornaments,  and  left  naked  and  desolate  a  considera- 
ble part  even  of  the  seven  hills.  Yet  Rome  in  its  present 
state  could  send  into  the  field  above  thirty  thousand  males  of 
a  military  age  ;78  and,  notwithstanding  the  want  of  discipline 
and  exercise,  the  far  greater  part,  inured  to  the  hardships  of 
poverty,  might  be  capable  of  bearing  arms  for  the  defence  of 
their  country  and  religion.  The  prudence  of  Belisarius  did 
not  neglect  this  important  resource.  His  soldiers  were  re- 
lieved by  the  zeal  and  diligence  of  the  people,  who  watched 
while  they  slept,  and  labored  while  they  reposed :  he  accepted 
the  voluntary  service  of  the  bravest  and  most  indigent  of  the 
Roman  youth;  and  the  companies  of  townsmen  sometimes 
represented  in  a  vacant  post  the  presence  of  the  troops  which 
had  been  drawn  away  to  more  essential  duties.  But  his  just 
confidence  was  placed  in  the  veterans  who  had  fought  under 
his  banner  in  the  Persian  and  African  wars;  and  although 
that  gallant  band  was  reduced  to  five  thousand  men,  he  un- 
dertook, with  such  contemptible  numbers,  to  defend  a  circle 
of  twelve  miles  against  an  army  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 


"  M.  D'Anville  has  given,  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Academy  for  the  year  1756 
(torn.  xxx.  p.  198-236),  a  plan  of  Rome  on  a  smaller  scale,  but  far  more  accurate, 
than  that  which  he  had  delineated  in  1738  for  Eollin's  history.  Experience  had 
improved  his  knowledge ;  and  instead  of  Rossi's  topography,  he  used  the  new  and 
excellent  map  of  Nolli.  Pliny's  old  measure  of  thirteen  must  be  reduced  to  eight 
miles.     It  is  easier  to  alter  a  text  than  to  remove  hills  or  buildings.* 

18  In  the  year  1709  Labat  (Voyages  en  Italie,  torn.  iii.  p.  218)  reckoned  138,568 
Christian  souls,  besides  8000  or  10,000  Jews— without  souls?— In  the  year  1763 
the  numbers  exceeded  160,000. 


"  There  is  no  occasion  to  alter  the  number  in  Pliny.    On  the  circumference  of 
the  walls  of  Rome,  see  editor's  note,  vol.  ii.  p.  592.— S. 


A.D.  537.]  EFENCE  OF  ROME  BY  BELISAEIUS.  277 

thousand  barbarians.  In  the  walls  of  Rome,  which  Belisariua 
constructed  or  restored,  the  materials  of  ancient  architecture 
may  be  discerned  ;79  and  the  whole  fortification  was  com- 
pleted, except  in  a  chasm  still  extant  between  the  Pincian 
and  Flaminian  gates,  which  the  prejudices  of  the  Goths  and 
Romans  left  under  the  effectual  guard  of  St.  Peter  the  apos- 
tle.80 

The  battlements  or  bastions  were  shaped  in  sharp  angles ;  a 
ditch,  broad  and  deep,  protected  the  foot  of  the  rampart ;  and 
the  archers  on  the  rampart  were  assisted  by  military  engines ; 
the  balista,  a  powerful  cross-bow,  which  darted  short  but  massy 
arrows ;  the  onagri,  or  wild  asses,  which,  on  the  principle  of  a 
sling,  threw  stones  and  bullets  of  an  enormous  size.81  A  chain 
was  drawn  across  the  Tiber ;  the  arches  of  the  aqueducts  were 
made  impervious,  and  the  mole  or  sepulchre  of  Hadrian82  was 
converted,  for  the  first  time,  to  the  uses  of  a  citadel.  That 
venerable  structure,  which  contained  the  ashes  of  the  Anto- 
nines,  was  a  circular  turret  rising  from  a  quadrangular  basis : 
it  was  covered  with  the  white  marble  of  Paros,  and  decorated 
by  the  statues  of  gods  and  heroes ;  and  the  lover  of  the  arts 
must  read  with  a  sigh  that  the  works  of  Praxiteles  or  Lysip- 
pus  were  torn  from  their  lofty  pedestals,  and  hurled  into  the 

79  The  accurate  eye  of  Nardini  (Roma  Antica,  1.  i.  c.  viii.  p.  31)  could  distin- 
guish the  tumultuarie  opere  di  Belisario. 

80  The  fissure  and  leaning  in  the  upper  part  of  the  wall,  which  Procopius  ob- 
served (Goth.  1.  i.  c.  14  [torn.  ii.  p.  76,  edit.  Bonn]),  is  visible  to  the  present  hour 
(Donat.  Roma  Vetus,  1.  i.  c.  17,  p.  53,  54). 

81  Lipsius  (Opp.  torn.  iii.  Poliorcet.  1.  iii.)  was  ignorant  of  this  clear  and  con- 
spicuous passage  of  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  i.  c.  21  [p.  104,  edit.  Bonn]).  The  engine 
was  named  ovaypog,  the  wild  ass,  a  calcitrando  (Hen.  Steph.  Thesaur.  Lingua? 
Grasc.  torn.  ii.  p.  1340,  1341 ;  torn.  iii.  p.  877).  I  have  seen  an  ingenious  model, 
•contrived  and  executed  by  General  Melville,  which  imitates  or  surpasses  the  art 
©f  antiquity. 

82  The  description  of  this  mausoleum,  or  mole,  in  Procopius  (1.  i.  c.  22  [torn.  i. 
p.  106,  edit.  Bonn]),  is  the  first  and  best.  The  height  above  the  walls  axiSov  n 
kg  \i6ov  (3o\rjv.     On  Nolli's  great  plan,  the  sides  measure  260  English  feet.* 


a  Donatus  and  Nardini  suppose  that  Hadrian's  tomb  was  fortified  by  Honc- 
rius:  it  was  united  to  the  wall  by  men  of  old  (iraXaioi  dvOpwiroi,  Procop.  in.  loc). 
Gibbon  has  mistaken  the  breadth  for  the  height  above  the  walls.  Hobhouse,  Dp 
lustr.  of  Childe  Harold,  p.  302.— M. 


278  DEFENCE  OF  EOME  BY  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XLL 

ditch  on  the  heads  of  the  besiegers.83  To  each  of  his  lieuten- 
ants Belisarius  assigned  the  defence  of  a  gate,  with  the  wise 
and  peremptory  instruction  that,  whatever  might  be  the  alarm, 
they  should  steadily  adhere  to  their  respective  posts,  and  trust 
their  general  for  the  safety  of  Rome.  The  formidable  host 
of  the  Goths  was  insufficient  to  embrace  the  ample  measure 
of  the  city  :  of  the  fourteen  gates,  seven  only  were  invested 
from  the  Prsenestine  to  the  Flaminian  Way;  and  Yitiges  di- 
vided his  troops  into  six  camps,  each  of  which  was  fortified 
with  a  ditch  and  rampart.  On  the  Tuscan  side  of  the  river  a 
seventh  encampment  was  formed  in  the  field  or  circus  of  the 
Yatican,  for  the  important  purpose  of  commanding  the  Mil- 
vian  Bridge  and  the  course  of  the  Tiber ;  but  they  approach- 
ed with  devotion  the  adjacent  Church  of  St.  Peter ;  and  the 
threshold  of  the  holy  apostles  was  respected  during  the  siege 
by  a  Christian  enemy.  In  the  ages  of  victory,  as  often  as  the 
senate  decreed  some  distant  conquest,  the  consul  denounced 
hostilities,  by  unbarring,  in  solemn  pomp,  the  gates  of  the 
Temple  of  Janus.84  Domestic  war  now  rendered  the  admo- 
nition superfluous,  and  the  ceremony  was  superseded  by  the 
establishment  of  a  new  religion.  But  the  brazen  Temple  of 
Janus  was  left  standing  in  the  Forum ;  of  a  size  sufficient  only 
to  contain  the  statue  of  the  god,  five  cubits  in  height,  of  a 
human  form,  but  with  two  faces  directed  to  the  east  and  west. 
The  double  gates  were  likewise  of  brass ;  and  a  fruitless  effort 
to  turn  them  on  their  rusty  hinges  revealed  the  scandalous  se- 
cret that  some  Romans  were  still  attached  to  the  superstition 
of  their  ancestors. 

Eighteen  days  were  employed  by  the  besiegers  to  provide 

83  Praxiteles  excelled  in  Fauns,  and  that  of  Athens  was  his  own  masterpiece. 
Rome  now  contains  above  thirty  of  the  same  character.  When  the  ditch  of  St. 
Angelo  was  cleansed  under  Urban  VIII.  the  workmen  found  the  sleeping  Faun 
of  the  Barberini  palace  ;  but  a  leg,  a  thigh,  and  the  right  arm  had  been  broken 
from  that  beautiful  statue  (Winckelman,  Hist,  de  l'Art,  torn.  ii.  p.  52,  53 ;  torn. 
iii.  p.  265). 

84  Procopius  has  given  the  best  description  of  the  Temple  of  Janus  [Goth.  1.  i. 
c.  25],  a  national  deity  of  Latium  (Heyne,  Excurs.  v.  ad  1.  vii.  iEneid).  It  was 
once  a  gate  in  the  primitive  city  of  Romulus  and  Numa  (Nardini,  p.  13,  256,  329). 
Virgil  has  described  the  ancient  rite  like  a  poet  and  an  antiquarian. 


A.D.  537.]  DEFENCE  OF  ROME  BY  BELISAEIUS.  279 

all  the  instruments  of  attack  which  antiquity  had  invented. 
Repulses  Fascines  were  prepared  to  fill  the  ditches,  scaling- 
L^uitof  ladders  to  ascend  the  walls.  The  largest  trees  of 
the  Goths.  tjie  foresf;  supplied  the  timbers  of  four  battering- 
rams  :  their  heads  were  armed  with  iron ;  they  were  suspend- 
ed by  ropes,  and  each  of  them  was  worked  by  the  labor  of 
fifty  men.  The  lofty  wooden  turrets  moved  on  wheels  or 
rollers,  and  formed  a  spacious  platform  of  the  level  of  the 
rampart.  On  the  morning  of  the  nineteenth  day  a  general 
attack  was  made  from  the  Praenestine  Gate  to  the  Vatican : 
seven  Gothic  columns,  with  their  military  engines,  advanced 
to  the  assault ;  and  the  Romans,  who  lined  the  ramparts,  lis- 
tened with  doubt  and  anxiety  to  the  cheerful  assurances  of 
their  commander.  As  soon  as  the  enemy  approached  the 
ditch,  Belisarius  himself  drew  the  first  arrow ;  and  such  was 
his  strength  and  dexterity,  that  he  transfixed  the  foremost  of 
the  barbarian  leaders. 

A  shout  of  applause  and  victory  was  re-echoed  along  the 
wall.  He  drew  a  second  arrow,  and  the  stroke  was  followed 
with  the  same  success  and  the  same  acclamation.  The  Ro- 
man general  then  gave  the  word  that  the  archers  should  aim 
at  the  teams  of  oxen ;  they  were  instantly  covered  with  mor- 
tal wounds;  the  towers  which  they  drew  remained  useless  and 
immovable,  and  a  single  moment  disconcerted  the  laborious 
projects  of  the  king  of  the  Goths.  After  this  disappoint- 
ment, Yitiges  still  continued,  or  feigned  to  continue,  the  as- 
sault of  the  Salarian  Gate,  that  he  might  divert  the  attention 
of  his  adversary,  while  his  principal  forces  more  strenuously 
attacked  the  Prsenestine  Gate  and  the  sepulchre  of  Hadrian, 
at  the  distance  of  three  miles  from  each  other.  Near  the 
former,  the  double  walls  of  the  Vivarium85  were  low  or  bro- 
ken ;  the  fortifications  of  the  latter  were  feebly  guarded :  the 
vigor  of  the  Goths  was  excited  by  the  hope  of  victory  and 
spoil ;  and  if  a  single  post  had  given  way,  the  Romans,  and 
Rome  itself,  were  irrecoverably  lost.     This  perilous  day  was 

85  Vivarium  was  an  angle  in  the  new  wall  enclosed  for  wild  beasts  (Procopins, 
Goth.  1.  i.  c.  23  [torn.  ii.  p.  Ill,  edit.  Bonn]).  The  spot  is  still  visible  in  Nardini 
(1.  iv.  c.  2,  p.  159, 160;  and  Nolli's  great  plan  of  Rome. 


280  DEFENCE  OF  ROME  BY  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XLI 

the  most  glorious  in  the  life  of  Belisarius.  Amidst  tumult 
and  dismay,  the  whole  plan  of  the  attack  and  defence  was  dis- 
tinctly present  to  his  mind ;  he  observed  the  changes  of  each 
instant,  weighed  every  possible  advantage,  transported  his  per- 
son to  the  scenes  of  danger,  and  communicated  his  spirit  in 
calm  and  decisive  orders.  The  contest  was  fiercely  main- 
tained from  the  morning  to  the  evening ;  the  Goths  were  re- 
pulsed on  all  sides;  and  each  Roman  might  boast  that  he  had 
vanquished  thirty  barbarians,  if  the  strange  disproportion  of 
numbers  were  not  counterbalanced  by  the  merit  of  one  man. 
Thirty  thousand  Goths,  according  to  the  confession  of  their 
own  chiefs,  perished  in  this  bloody  action ;  and  the  multitude 
of  the  wounded  was  equal  to  that  of  the  slain.  When  they 
advanced  to  the  assault,  their  close  disorder  suffered  not  a 
javelin  to  fall  without  effect ;  and  as  they  retired,  the  popu- 
lace of  the  city  joined  the  pursuit,  and  slaughtered,  with  im- 
punity, the  backs  of  their  flying  enemies.  Belisarius  instant- 
ly  sallied  from  the  gates ;  and  while  the  soldiers 
chanted  his  name  and  victory,  the  hostile  engines 
of  war  were  reduced  to  ashes.  Such  was  the  loss  and  conster- 
nation of  the  Goths,  that  from  this  day  the  siege  of  Rome 
degenerated  into  a  tedious  and  indolent  blockade ;  and  they 
were  incessantly  harassed  by  the  Roman  general,  who,  in  fre- 
quent skirmishes,  destroyed  above  five  thousand  of  their  brav- 
est troops.  Their  cavalry  was  unpractised  in  the  use  of  the 
bow;  their  archers  served  on  foot;  and  this  divided  force  was 
incapable  of  contending  with  their  adversaries,  whose  lances 
and  arrows,  at  a  distance  or  at  hand,  were  alike  formidable. 
The  consummate  skill  of  Belisarius  embraced  the  favorable 
opportunities ;  and  as  he  chose  the  ground  and  the  moment, 
as  he  pressed  the  charge  or  sounded  the  retreat,86  the  squad- 
rons which  he  detached  were  seldom  unsuccessful.  These 
partial  advantages  diffused  an  impatient  ardor  among  the  sol- 

86  For  the  Roman  trumpet  and  it's  various  notes,  consult  Lipsius,  de  Militi& 
Roman§,  (Opp.  torn.  iii.  I.  iv.  dialog,  x.  p.  125-129).  A  mode  of  distinguishing 
the  charge  by  the  horse-trumpet  of  solid  brass,  and  the  retreat  by  the  foot-trumpet 
of  leather  and  light  wood,  was  recommended  by  Procopius,  and  adopted  by  Beli- 
sarius (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  23  [torn  ii.  p.  241,  edit.  Bonn]). 


A.D.  537.]  SIEGE  OF  ROME  BY  THE  GOTHS.  281 

diers  and  people,  who  began  to  feel  the  hardships  of  a  siege, 
and  to  disregard  the  dangers  of  a  general  engagement.  Each 
Plebeian  conceived  himself  to  be  a  hero,  and  the  infantry, 
who,  since  the  decay  of  discipline,  were  rejected  from  the  line 
of  battle,  aspired  to  the  ancient  honors  of  the  Roman  legion. 
Belisarius  praised  the  spirit  of  his  troops,  condemned  their 
presumption,  yielded  to  their  clamors,  and  prepared  the  reme- 
dies of  a  defeat,  the  possibility  of  which  he  alone  had  courage 
to  suspect.  In  the  quarter  of  the  Vatican  the  Romans  pre- 
vailed ;  and  if  the  irreparable  moments  had  not  been  wasted 
in  the  pillage  of  the  camp,  they  might  have  occupied  the  Mil- 
vian  Bridge,  and  charged  in  the  rear  of  the  Gothic  host.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  Tiber,  Belisarius  advanced  from  the  Pin- 
cian  and  Salarian  gates.  But  his  army,  four  thousand  soldiers, 
perhaps,  was  lost  in  a  spacious  plain ;  they  were  encompassed 
and  oppressed  by  fresh  multitudes,  who  continually  relieved 
the  broken  ranks  of  the  barbarians.  The  valiant  leaders  of 
the  infantry  were  unskilled  to  conquer ;  they  died :  the  re- 
treat (a  hasty  retreat)  was  covered  by  the  prudence  of  the 
general,  and  the  victors  started  back  with  affright  from  the 
formidable  aspect  of  an  armed  rampart.  The  reputation  of 
Belisarius  was  unsullied  by  a  defeat ;  and  the  vain  confidence 
of  the  Goths  was  not  less  serviceable  to  his  designs  than  the 
repentance  and  modesty  of  the  Roman  troops. 

From  the  moment  that  Belisarius  had  determined  to  sus- 
tain a  siege,  his  assiduous  care  provided  Rome  against  the 
Distress  of  danger  of  famine,  more  dreadful  than  the  Gothic 
the  city.  arms.  An  extraordinary  supply  of  corn  was  im- 
ported from  Sicily :  the  harvests  of  Campania  and  Tuscany 
were  forcibly  swept  for  the  use  of  the  city ;  and  the  rights  of 
private  property  were  infringed  by  the  strong  plea  of  the 
public  safety.  It  might  easily  be  foreseen  that  the  enemy 
would  intercept  the  aqueducts ;  and  the  cessation  of  the  wa- 
ter-mills was  the  first  inconvenience,  which  was  speedily  re- 
moved by  mooring  large  vessels,  and  fixing  millstones  in  the 
current  of  the  river.  The  stream  was  soon  embarrassed  by 
the  trunks  of  trees,  and  polluted  with  dead  bodies ;  yet  so 
effectual  were  the  precautions  of  the  Roman  general,  that  the 


282  DISTRESS  OF  THE  CITY.  [Ch.  XLI. 

waters  of  the  Tiber  still  continued  to  give  motion  to  the  mills 
and  drink  to  the  inhabitants :  the  more  distant  quarters  were 
supplied  from  domestic  wells;  and  a  besieged  city  might  sup- 
port, without  impatience,  the  privation  of  her  public  baths. 
A  large  portion  of  Kome,  from  the  Prsenestine  Gate  to  the 
Church  of  St.  Paul,  was  never  invested  by  the  Goths ;  their 
excursions  were  restrained  by  the  activity  of  the  Moorish 
troops :  the  navigation  of  the  Tiber,  and  the  Latin,  Appian, 
and  Ostian  ways,  were  left  free  and  unmolested  for  the  intro- 
duction of  corn  and  cattle,  or  the  retreat  of  the  inhabitants 
who  sought  a  refuge  in  Campania  or  Sicily.  Anxious  to  re- 
lieve himself  from  a  useless  and  devouring  multitude,  Belisa- 
rius  issued  his  peremptory  orders  for  the  instant  departure  of 
the  women,  the  children,  and  slaves ;  required  his  soldiers  to 
dismiss  their  male  and  female  attendants;  and  regulated  their 
allowance  that  one  moiety  should  be  given  in  provisions,  and 
the  other  in  money.  His  foresight  was  justified  by  the  in- 
crease of  the  public  distress  as  soon  as  the  Goths  had  occu- 
pied two  important  posts  in  the  neighborhood  of  Kome.  By 
the  loss  of  the  port,  or,  as  it  is  now  called,  the  city  of  Porto, 
he  was  deprived  of  the  country  on  the  right  of  the  Tiber,  and 
the  best  communication  with  the  sea;  and  he  reflected  with 
grief  and  anger  that  three  hundred  men,  could  he  have  spared 
such  a  feeble  band,  might  have  defended  its  impregnable 
works.  Seven  miles  from  the  capital,  between  the  Appian 
and  the  Latin  ways,  two  principal  aqueducts  crossing,  and 
again  crossing  each  other,  enclosed  within  their  solid  and 
lofty  arches  a  fortified  space,87  where  Yitiges  established  a 
camp  of  seven  thousand  Goths  to  intercept  the  convoys  of 
Sicily  and  Campania.  The  granaries  of  Rome  were  insensi- 
bly exhausted ;  the  adjacent  country  had  been  wasted  with 


87  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  3  [p.  154,  edit.  Bonn])  has  forgot  to  name  these 
aqueducts ;  nor  can  such  a  double  intersection,  at  such  a  distance  from  Rome, 
be  clearly  ascertained  from  the  writings  of  Frontinus,  Fabretti,  and  Eschinard,  De 
Aquis  and  De  Agro  Romano,  or  from  the  local  maps  of  Lameti  and  Cingolani. 
Seven  or  eight  miles  from  the  city  (50  stadia),  on  the  road  to  Albano,  between 
the  Latin  and  Appian  ways,  I  discern  the  remains  of  an  aqueduct  (probably  the 
.Septimian),  a  series  (630  paces)  of  arches  twenty-five  feet  high  (i»i//jj\w  Iq  ayav). 


A.D.537.]  EXILE  OF  POPE  SYLVERIUS.  283 

fire  and  sword;  such  scanty  supplies  as  might  yet  be  ob- 
tained by  hasty  excursions  were  the  reward  of  valor  and  the 
purchase  of  wealth ;  the  forage  of  the  horses  and  the  bread 
of  the  soldiers  never  failed ;  but  in  the  last  months  of  the 
siege  the  people  was  exposed  to  the  miseries  of  scarcity,  un- 
wholesome food,88  and  contagious  disorders.  Belisarius  saw 
and  pitied  their  sufferings;  but  he  had  foreseen,  and  he 
watched,  the  decay  of  their  loyalty  and  the  progress  of  their 
discontent.  Adversity  had  awakened  the  Romans  from  the 
dreams  of  grandeur  and  freedom,  and  taught  them  the  humil- 
iating lesson  that  it  was  of  small  moment  to  their  real  happi- 
ness whether  the  name  of  their  master  was  derived  from  the 
Gothic  or  the  Latin  language.  The  lieutenant  of  Justinian 
listened  to  their  just  complaints,  but  he  rejected  with  disdain 
the  idea  of  flight  or  capitulation ;  repressed  their  clamorous 
impatience  for  battle ;  amused  them  with  the  prospect  of  sure 
and  speedy  relief;  and  secured  himself  and  the  city  from  the 
effects  of  their  despair  or  treachery.  Twice  in  each  month 
he  changed  the  station  of  the  officers  to  whom  the  custody  of 
the  gates  was  committed :  the  various  precautions  of  patrols, 
watchwords,  lights,  and  music  were  repeatedly  employed  to 
discover  whatever  passed  on  the  ramparts ;  out-guards  were 
posted  beyond  the  ditch,  and  the  trusty  vigilance  of  dogs  sup- 
plied the  more  doubtful  fidelity  of  mankind.  A  letter  was 
intercepted  which  assured  the  king  of  the  Goths  that  the 
Asinarian  Gate,  adjoining  to  the  Lateran  Church,  should  be 
Exile  of  Pope  secretly  opened  to  his  troops.  On  the  proof  or  sus- 
Sffw™"  picion  of  treason,  several  senators  were  banished, 
Nov.  17.  an(j  ^e  Pope  Sylverius  was  summoned  to  attend 
the  representative  of  his  sovereign  at  his  head -quarters  in 
the  Pincian  Palace.89     The  ecclesiastics,  who  followed  them 


88  They  made  sausages,  aXXavrac,  of  mule's  flesh :  unwholesome,  if  the  ani- 
mals had  died  of  the  plague.  Otherwise  the  famous  Bologna  sausages  are  said  to 
be  made  of  ass-flesh  (Voyages  de  Labat,  torn.  ii.  p.  218). 

89  The  name  of  the  palace,  the  hill,  and  the  adjoining  gate  were  all  derived 
from  the  senator  Pincius.  Some  recent  vestiges  of  temples  and  churches  are  now 
smoothed  in  the  garden  of  the  Minims  of  the  Trinita  del  Monte  (Nardini,  1.  iv.  c. 
7,  p.  196 ;  Eschinard,  p.  209,  210 ;  the  old  plan  of  Buffalino }  and  the  great  plan 


284  DELIVEKANCE  OF  THE  CITY.  [Ch.  XLL 

bishop,  were  detained  in  the  first  or  second  apartment,90  and 
he  alone  was  admitted  to  the  presence  of  Belisarius.  The 
conqueror  of  Rome  and  Carthage  was  modestly  seated  at  the 
feet  of  Antonina,  who  reclined  on  a  stately  couch :  the  gen- 
eral was  silent,  but  the  voice  of  reproach  and  menace  issued 
from  the  mouth  of  his  imperious  wife.  Accused  by  credible 
witnesses,  and  the  evidence  of  his  own  subscription,  the  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter  was  despoiled  of  his  pontifical  ornaments, 
clad  in  the  mean  habit  of  a  monk,  and  embarked,  without  de- 
lay, for  a  distant  exile  in  the  East.a  At  the  emperor's  com- 
mand, the  clergy  of  Rome  proceeded  to  the  choice  of  a  new 
bishop,  and,  after  a  solemn  invocation  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
elected  the  deacon  Yigilius,  who  had  purchased  the  papal 
throne  by  a  bribe  of  two  hundred  pounds  of  gold.  The 
profit,  and  consequently  the  guilt,  of  this  simony  was  im- 
puted to  Belisarius:  but  the  hero  obeyed  the  orders  of  his 
wife;  Antonina  served  the  passions  of  the  empress;  and 
Theodora  lavished  her  treasures  in  the  vain  hope  of  obtain- 
ing a  pontiff  hostile  or  indifferent  to  the  council  of  Chal- 
cedon.91 

The  epistle  of  Belisarius  to  the  emperor  announced  his  vic- 
tory, his  danger,  and  his  resolution.  "  According  to  your  com- 
Deiivemnce  maiids,  we  have  entered  the  dominions  of  the 
of  the  city.  G0ths,  and  reduced  to  your  obedience  Sicily,  Cam- 
pania, and  the  city  of  Rome ;  but  the  loss  of  these  conquests 
will  be  more  disgraceful  than  their  acquisition  was  glorious. 
Hitherto  we  have  successfully  fought  against  the  multitudes 

of  Nolli).  Belisarius  had  fixed  his  station  between  the  Pincian  and  Salarian 
gates  (Procop.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  19  [torn.  ii.  p.  97,  edit.  Bonn]). 

90  From  the  mention  of  the  primum  et  secundum  velum,  it  should  seem  that 
Belisarius,  even  in  a  siege,  represented  the  emperor,  and  maintained  the  proud 
ceremonial  of  the  Byzantine  palace. 

91  Of  this  act  of  sacrilege,  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  i.  c.  25  [torn.  ii.  p.  121,  edit.  Bonn]) 
is  a  dry  and  reluctant  witness.  The  narratives  of  Liberatus  (Breviarium,  c.  22), 
and  Anastasius  (de  Vit.  Pont.  p.  39  [ap.  Murat.  torn.  iii.  p.  130])  are  characteris- 
tic, but  passionate.  Hear  the  execrations  of  Cardinal  Baronius  (a.d.  536,  No. 
123  ;  a.d.  538,  No. 4-20) :   "  Portentum,  facinus  omni  execratione  dignum." 


a  Le  Beau,  as  a  good  Catholic,  makes  the  pope  the  victim  of  a  dark  intrigue. 
Lord  Mahon  (p.  225),  with  whom  I  concur,  sums  up  against  him. — M. 


A.D.537.]  DELIVEKANCE  OF  ROME.  285 

of  the  barbarians,  but  their  multitudes  may  finally  prevail. 
Victory  is  the  gift  of  Providence,  but  the  reputation  of  kings 
and  generals  depends  on  the  success  or  the  failure  of  their  de- 
signs. Permit  me  to  speak  with  freedom :  if  you  wish  that 
we  should  live,  send  us  subsistence;  if  you  desire  that  we 
should  conquer,  send  us  arms,  horses,  and  men.  The  Romans 
have  received  us  as  friends  and  deliverers :  but  in  our  present 
distress,  they  will  be  either  betrayed  by  their  confidence,  or  we 
shall  be  oppressed  by  their  treachery  and  hatred.  For  my- 
self, my  life  is  consecrated  to  your  service :  it  is  yours  to  re- 
flect whether  my  death  in  this  situation  will  contribute  to 
the  glory  and  prosperity  of  your  reign."  Perhaps  that  reign 
would  have  been  equally  prosperous  if  the  peaceful  master  of 
the  East  had  abstained  from  the  conquest  of  Africa  and  Italy: 
but  as  Justinian  was  ambitious  of  fame,  he  made  some  efforts 
(they  were  feeble  and  languid)  to  support  and  rescue  his  vic- 
torious general.  A  reinforcement  of  sixteen  hundred  Scla- 
vonians  and  Huns  was  led  by  Martin  and  Valerian ;  and  as 
they  had  reposed  during  the  winter  season  in  the  harbors  of 
Greece,  the  strength  of  the  men  and  horses  was  not  impaired 
by  the  fatigues  of  a  sea-voyage ;  and  they  distinguished  their 
valor  in  the  first  sally  against  the  besiegers.  About  the  time 
of  the  summer  solstice,  Euthalius  landed  at  Terracina  with 
large  sums  of  money  for  the  payment  of  the  troops:  he  cau- 
tiously proceeded  along  the  Appian  Way,  and  this  convoy  en- 
tered Eome  through  the  gate  Capena,92  while  Belisarius,  on 
the  other  side,  diverted  the  attention  of  the  Goths  by  a  vig- 
orous and  successful  skirmish.  These  seasonable  aids,  the  use 
and  reputation  of  which  were  dexterously  managed  by  the 
Roman  general,  revived  the  courage,  or  at  least  the  hopes,  of 
the  soldiers  and  people.  The  historian  Procopius  was  de- 
spatched with  an  important  commission  to  collect  the  troops 
and  provisions  which  Campania  could  furnish,  or  Constanti- 
nople had  sent ;  and  the  secretary  of  Belisarius  was  soon  fol- 

92  The  old  Capena  was  removed  by  Aurelian  to,  or  near,  the  modern  Gate  of 
St.  Sebastian  (see  Nolli's  plan).  That  memorable  spot  has  been  consecrated  by 
"the  Egerian  grove,  the  memory  of  Numa,  triumphal  arches,  the  sepulchres  of  the 
Scipios,  Metelli,  etc. 

m 


286  DELIVERANCE  OF  ROME.  [Ch.  XLI. 

lowed  by  Antonina  herself,93  who  boldly  traversed  the  posts 
of  the  enemy,  and  returned  with  the  Oriental  succors  to  the 
relief  of  her  husband  and  the  besieged  city.  A  fleet  of  three 
thousand  Isaurians  cast  anchor  in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  and  af- 
terwards at  Ostia.  Above  two  thousand  horse,  of  whom  a 
part  were  Thracians, landed  at  Tarentum ;  and,  after  the  junc- 
tion of  five  hundred  soldiers  of  Campania,  and  a  train  of  wag- 
ons laden  with  wine  and  flour,  they  directed  their  march  on 
the  Appian  Way  from  Capua  to  the  neighborhood  of  Eome. 
The  forces  that  arrived  by  land  and  sea  were  united  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Tiber.  Antonina  convened  a  council  of  war : 
it  was  resolved  to  surmount,  with  sails  and  oars,  the  adverse 
stream  of  the  river ;  and  the  Goths  were  apprehensive  of  dis- 
turbing, by  any  rash  hostilities,  the  negotiation  to  which  Beli- 
sarius  had  craftily  listened.  They  credulously  believed  that 
they  saw  no  more  than  the  vanguard  of  a  fleet  and  army 
which  already  covered  the  Ionian  Sea  and  the  plains  of  Cam- 
pania ;  and  the  illusion  was  supported  by  the  haughty  lan- 
guage of  the  Roman  general,  when  he  gave  audience  to  the 
ambassadors  of  Vitiges.  After  a  specious  discourse  to  vindi- 
cate the  justice  of  his  cause,  they  declared  that,  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  they  were  disposed  to  renounce  the  possession  of  Sicily. 
"  The  emperor  is  not  less  generous,"  replied  his  lieutenant, 
with  a  disdainful  smile ;  "  in  return  for  a  gift  which  you  no 
longer  possess,  he  presents  you  with  an  ancient  province  of 
the  empire ;  he  resigns  to  the  Goths  the  sovereignty  of  the 
British  island."  Belisarius  rejected  with  equal  firmness  and 
contempt  the  offer  of  a  tribute ;  but  he  allowed  the  Gothic 
ambassadors  to  seek  their  fate  from  the  mouth  of  Justinian 
himself,  and  consented,  with  seeming  reluctance,  to  a  truce 
of  three  months,  from  the  winter  solstice  to  the  equinox  of 
spring.  Prudence  might  not  safely  trust  either  the  oaths  or 
hostages  of  the  barbarians,  but  the  conscious  superiority  of 
the  Roman  chief  was  expressed  in  the  distribution  of  his 
troops.     As  soon  as  fear  or  hunger  compelled  the  Goths  to 

93  The  expression  of  Procopius  has  an  invidious  cast — rvyr\v  Ik  tov  aucpaXovs 
rr\v  aipiai  ^vfi€r]ffofikvi]v  KapadoK&v  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  4  [torn.  ii.  p.  160,  edit.  Bonn]). 
Yet  he  is  speaking  of  a  woman. 


A..D.538.]  THE  GOTHS  RAISE  THE  SIEGE.  287 

evacuate  Alba,  Porto,  and  Centumcellse,  their  place  was  in- 
Beiisarius  stantly  supplied;  the  garrisons  of  Narni,  Spoleto, 
manyecuies  &n&  Perusia  were  reinforced,  and  the  seven  camps 
of  Italy.  0£  £jie  Desiegers  were  gradually  encompassed  with 

the  calamities  of  a  siege.  The  prayers  and  pilgrimage  of  Da- 
tius,  Bishop  of  Milan,  were  not  without  effect;  and  he  obtained 
one  thousand  Thracians  and  Isaurians,  to  assist  the  revolt  of 
Liguria  against  her  Arian  tyrant.  At  the  same  time,  John 
the  Sanguinary,94  the  nephew  of  Yitalian,  was  detached  with 
two  thousand  chosen  horse,  first  to  Alba,  on  the  Fucine  lake, 
and  afterwards  to  the  frontiers  of  Picenum,  on  the  Adriatic 
Sea.  "  In  that  province,"  said  Beiisarius,  "  the  Goths  have 
deposited  their  families  and  treasures,  without  a  guard  or  the 
suspicion  of  danger.  Doubtless  they  will  violate  the  truce : 
let  them  feel  your  presence  before  they  hear  of  your  motions. 
Spare  the  Italians ;  suffer  not  any  fortified  places  to  remain 
hostile  in  your  rear;  and  faithfully  reserve  the  spoil  for  an 
equal  and  common  partition.  It  would  not  be  reasonable," 
he  added,  with  a  laugh,  "that,  whilst  we  are  toiling  to  the  de- 
struction of  the  drones,  our  more  fortunate  brethren  should 
rifle  and  enjoy  the  honey." 

The  whole  nation  of  the  Ostrogoths  had  been  assembled 
for  the  attack,  and  was  almost  entirely  consumed  in  the  siege 
The  Goths      °^  Pome.     If  any  credit  be  due  to  an  intelligent 


spectator,  one  third  at  least  of  their  enormous  host 


siege  of 


?.d™538.  was  destroyed  in  frequent  and  bloody  combats  un- 
March.  ^er  faQ  waus  0f  f^g  c^y_     »Tjhe  bad  fame  and  per- 

nicious qualities  of  the  summer  air  might  already  be  im- 
puted to  the  decay  of  agriculture  and  population,  and  the 
evils  of  famine  and  pestilence  were  aggravated  by  their  own 
licentiousness  and  the  unfriendly  disposition  of  the  country. 
While  Yitiges  struggled  with  his  fortune,  while  he  hesitated 
between  shame  and  ruin,  his  retreat  was  hastened  by  domestic 
alarms.  The  king  of  the  Goths  was  informed  by  trembling 
messengers  that  John  the  Sanguinary  spread  the  devastations 


M  Anastasius  (p.  40  [torn.  iii.  p.  130,  edit.  Murat.])  has  preserved  this  epithet 
of  Sanguinarius,  which  might  do  honor  to  a  tiger. 


288  THE  GOTHS  EAISE  THE  SIEGE.  [Ch.  XLt 

of  war  from  the  Apennine  to  the  Adriatic;  that  the  rich 
spoils  and  innumerable  captives  of  Picenum  were  lodged  in 
the  fortifications  of  Rimini ;  and  that  this  formidable  chief 
had  defeated  his  uncle,  insulted  his  capital,  and  seduced,  by 
secret  correspondence,  the  fidelity  of  his  wife,  the  imperious 
daughter  of  Amalasontha.  Yet,  before  he  retired,  Yitiges 
made  a  last  effort  either  to  storm  or  to  surprise  the  city.  A 
secret  passage  was  discovered  in  one  of  the  aqueducts;  two 
citizens  of  the  Vatican  were  tempted  by  bribes  to  intoxicate 
the  guards  of  the  Aurelian  Gate ;  an  attack  was  meditated  on 
the  walls  beyond  the  Tiber,  in  a  place  which  was  not  fortified 
with  towers ;  and  the  barbarians  advanced,  with  torches  and 
scaling-ladders,  to  the  assault  of  the  Pincian  Gate.  But  ev- 
ery attempt  was  defeated  by  the  intrepid  vigilance  of  Belisa- 
rius  and  his  band  of  veterans,  who,  in  the  most  perilous  mo- 
ments, did  not  regret  the  absence  of  their  companions ;  and 
the  Goths,  alike  destitute  of  hope  and  subsistence,  clamorous- 
ly urged  their  departure  before  the  truce  should  expire,  and 
the  Roman  cavalry  should  again  be  united.  One  year  and 
nine  days  after  the  commencement  of  the  siege,  an  army  so 
lately  strong  and  triumphant  burned  their  tents,  and  tumultu- 
ously  repassed  the  Milvian  Bridge.  They  repassed  not  with 
impunity ;  their  thronging  multitudes,  oppressed  in  a  narrow 
passage,  were  driven  headlong  into  the  Tiber  by  their  own 
fears  and  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy,  and  the  Roman  general, 
sallying  from  the  Pincian  Gate,  inflicted  a  severe  and  dis- 
graceful wound  on  their  retreat.  The  slow  length  of  a  sickly 
and  desponding  host  was  heavily  dragged  along  the  Flamin- 
ian  Way,  from  whence  the  barbarians  were  sometimes  com- 
pelled to  deviate,  lest  they  should  encounter  the  hostile  gar- 
risons that  guarded  the  high-road  to  Rimini  and  Ravenn  •» 
Yet  so  powerful  was  this  flying  army,  that  Yitiges  spared 
ten  thousand  men  for  the  defence  of  the  cities  which  he  w  ia 
most  solicitous  to  preserve,  and  detached  his  nephew  Uraias, 
with  an  adequate  force,  for  the  chastisement  of  rebellious  Mi- 
lan. At  the  head  of  his  principal  army  he  besieged  Rimini, 
only  thirty-three  miles  distant  from  the  Gothic  capital.  A 
feeble  rampart  and  a  shallow  ditch  were  maintained  by  the 


A.D.538.]  THE  GOTHS  KETIRE  TO  RAVENNA.  289 

skill  and  valor  of  John  the  Sanguinary,  who  shared  the  dan- 
ger and  fatigue  of  the  meanest  soldier,  and  emulated,  on  a 
theatre  less  illustrious,  the  military  virtues  of  his  great  com- 
Loge  mander.     The  towers  and  battering-engines  of  the 

Eimini ;  barbarians  were  rendered  useless,  their  attacks  were 
repulsed,  and  the  tedious  blockade,  which  reduced  the  garri- 
son to  the  last  extremity  of  hunger,  afforded  time  for  the 
union  and  march  of  the  Roman  forces.  A  fleet,  which  had 
surprised  Ancona,  sailed  along  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic  to 
the  relief  of  the  besieged  city.  The  eunuch  Parses  landed  in 
Picenum  with  two  thousand  Heruli  and  five  thousand  of  the 
bravest  troops  of  the  East.  The  rock  of  the  Apennine  was 
forced,  ten  thousand  veterans  moved  round  the  foot  of  the 
mountains,  under  the  command  of  Belisarius  himself,  and 
a  new  army,  whose  encampment  blazed  with  innumerable 
lights,  appeared  to  advance  along  the  Flaminian  Way.  Over- 
whelmed with  astonishment  and  despair,  the  Goths  abandoned 
retire  to  tne  siege  of  Rimini,  their  tents,  their  standards,  and 
Kavenna.  their  leaders ;  and  Yitiges,  who  gave  or  followed 
the  example  of  flight,  never  halted  till  he  found  a  shelter 
within  the  walls  and  morasses  of  Ravenna. 

To  these  walls,  and  to  some  fortresses  destitute  of  any 
mutual  support,  the  Gothic  monarchy  was  now  reduced.  The 
jealousy  of  provinces  of  Italy  had  embraced  the  party  of  the  em- 
gener°is„an  peror,  and  hi s  army,  gradually  recruited  to  the  num- 
a.p.538.  j^er  0f  twenty  thousand  men,  must  have  achieved 
an  easy  and  rapid  conquest  if  their  invincible  powers  had  not 
been  weakened  by  the  discord  of  the  Roman  chiefs.  Before 
the  end  of  the  siege,  an  act  of  blood,  ambiguous  and  indis- 
creet, sullied  the  fair  fame  of  Belisarius.  Presidius,  a  loyal 
Italian,  as  he  fled  from  Ravenna  to  Rome,  was  rudely  stopped 
by  Constantine,  the  military  governor  of  Spoleto,  and  despoil- 
ed, even  in  a  church,  of  two  daggers,  richly  inlaid  with  gold 
and  precious  stones.  As  soon  as  the  public  danger  had  sub- 
sided, Presidius  complained  of  the  loss  and  injury ;  his  com- 
plaint was  heard,  but  the  order  of  restitution  was  disobeyed 
by  the  pride  and  avarice  of  the  offender.  Exasperated  by  the 
delay,  Presidius  boldly  arrested  the  general's  horse  as  he  pass- 

IY.— 19 


290  THE  EUNUCH  NARSES.  [Ch.  XLt 

ed  through  the  Forum,  and,  with  the  spirit  of  a  citizen,  de- 
manded the  common  benefit  of  the  Roman  laws.  The  honor 
of  Belisarius  was  engaged :  he  summoned  a  council,  claimed 
the  obedience  of  his  subordinate  officer,  and  was  provoked,  by 
an  insolent  reply,  to  call  hastily  for  the  presence  of  his  guards. 
Constantine,  viewing  their  entrance  as  the  signal  of  death, 
drew  his  sword,  and  rushed  on  the  general,  who  nimbly  eluded 
the  stroke  and  was  protected  by  his  friends,  while  the  desper- 
Deathof  a^e  assassin  was  disarmed,  dragged  into  a  neighbor- 
constantine.  jng  chamber,  and  executed,  or  rather  murdered,  by 
the  guards,  at  the  arbitrary  command  of  Belisarius.95  In  this 
hasty  act  of  violence  the  guilt  of  Constantine  was  no  longer 
remembered;  the  despair  and  death  of  that  valiant  officer 
were  secretly  imputed  to  the  revenge  of  Antonina;  and  each 
of  his  colleagues,  conscious  of  the  same  rapine,  was  apprehen- 
sive of  the  same  fate.  The  fear  of  a  common  enemy  suspend- 
ed the  effects  of  their  envy  and  discontent,  but,  in  the  confi- 
dence of  approaching  victory,  they  instigated  a  powerful  ri- 
val to  oppose  the  conqueror  of  Eome  and  Africa.  From  the 
domestic  service  of  the  palace  and  the  administration  of  the 
The  eunuch  private  revenue,  Karses  the  eunuch  was  suddenly 
Naises.  exalted  to  the  head  of  an  army,  and  the  spirit  of  a 

hero,  who  afterwards  equalled  the  merit  and  glory  of  Belisa- 
rius, served  only  to  perplex  the  operations  of  the  Gothic  war. 
To  his  prudent  counsels  the  relief  of  Rimini  was  ascribed  by 
the  leaders  of  the  discontented  faction,  who  exhorted  Narses 
to  assume  an  independent  and  separate  command.  The  epis- 
tle of  Justinian  had  indeed  enjoined  his  obedience  to  the 
general,  but  the  dangerous  exception,  "  as  far  as  may  be  ad- 
vantageous to  the  public  service,"  reserved  some  freedom  of 
judgment  to  the  discreet  favorite,  who  had  so  lately  departed 


95  This  transaction  is  related  in  the  public  history  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  8  [p.  180,  edit. 
Bonn])  with  candor  or  caution ;  in  the  Anecdotes  (c.  7  [c.  i.  p.  16,  edit.  Bonn])  with 
malevolence  or  freedom;  but  Marcellinus,  or  rather  his  continuator  (in  Chron.), 
casts  a  shade  of  premeditated  assassination  over  the  death  of  Constantine.  He 
had  performed  good  service  at  Rome  and  Spoleto  (Procop.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  7,  16 
[torn.  ii.  p.  81,  edit.  Bonn]);  but  Alemannus  confounds  him  with  a  Constantianus 
comes  stabuli. 


A.D.  538,  539.]   INVASION  OF  ITALY  BY  THE  FBANKS.  291 

from  the  sacred  and  familiar  conversation  of  his  sovereign. 
In  the  exercise  of  this  doubtful  right  the  eunuch  perpetually 
dissented  from  the  opinions  of  Belisarius,  and,  after  yielding 
with  reluctance  to  the  siege  of  Urbino,  he  deserted  his  col- 
league in  the  night,  and  marched  away  to  the  conquest  of  the 
^Emilian  province.  The  fierce  and  formidable  bands  of  the 
Heruli  were  attached  to  the  person  of  Narses  ;06  ten  thousand 
Romans  and  confederates  were  persuaded  to  march  under  his 
banners ;  every  malcontent  embraced  the  fair  opportunity  of 
revenging  his  private  or  imaginary  wrongs ;  and  the  remain- 
ing troops  of  Belisarius  were  divided  and  dispersed  from  the 
garrisons  of  Sicily  to  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic. 

Firmness  and   EL.  u 

authority  of    His  skill  and  perseverance  overcame  every  obsta- 

Belisarius.  l  ,  J 

cle :  Urbmo  was  taken,  the  sieges  or  rsesulse,  Or- 
vieto,  and  Auximum  were  undertaken  and  vigorously  prose- 
cuted, and  the  eunuch  ISTarses  was  at  length  recalled  to  the 
domestic  cares  of  the  palace.  All  dissensions  were  healed, 
and  all  opposition  was  subdued,  by  the  temperate  authority 
of  the  Roman  general,  to  whom  his  enemies  could  not  refuse 
their  esteem ;  and  Belisarius  inculcated  the  salutary  lesson 
that  the  forces  of  the  State  should  compose  one  body,  and  be 
animated  by  one  soul.  But  in  the  interval  of  discord  the 
Goths  were  permitted  to  breathe;  an  important  season  was 
lost,  Milan  was  destroyed,  and  the  northern  provinces  of  Italy 
were  afflicted  by  an  inundation  of  the  Franks. 

When  Justinian  first  meditated  the  conquest  of  Italy,  he 
sent  ambassadors  to  the  kings  of  the  Franks,  and  adjured 
invasion  of  them,  by  the  common  ties  of  alliance  and  religion, 
Pranks! the  to  join  in  the  holy  enterprise  against  the  Arians. 
a.d.53s,539.  rj-jie  Q-0ths,  as  their  wants  were  more  urgent,  em- 
ployed a  more  effectual  mode  of  persuasion,  and  vainly  strove, 
by  the  gift  of  lands  and  money,  to  purchase  the  friendship, 
or  at  least  the  neutrality,  of  a  light  and  perfidious  nation." 

96  They  refused  to  serve  after  his  departure ;  sold  their  captives  and  cattle  to 
the  Goths  :  and  swore  never  to  fight  against  them.  Procopius  introduces  a  curi- 
ous digression  on  the  manners  and  adventures  of  this  wandering  nation,  apart  of 
whom  finally  emigrated  to  Thule  or  Scandinavia  (Goth.  1.  li.  c.  14,  15). 

81  This  national  ieproach  of  perfidy  (Procop.  Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  25  [torn.  ii.  p.  247, 


292  DESTRUCTION  OF  MILAN.  [Ch.XLL 

But  the  arms  of  Belisarius  and  the  revolt  of  the  Italians  had 
no  sooner  shaken  the  Gothic  monarchy,  than  Theodebert  of 
Austrasia,  the  most  powerful  and  warlike  of  the  Merovingian 
kings,  was  persuaded  to  succor  their  distress  by  an  indirect 
and  seasonable  aid.  Without  expecting  the  consent  of  their 
sovereign,  ten  thousand  Burgundians,  his  recent  subjects,  de- 
scended from  the  Alps,  and  joined  the  troops  which  Yitiges 
had  cent  to  chastise  the  revolt  of  Milan.  After  an  obstiuate 
siege,  the  capital  of  Liguria  was  reduced  by  famine,  but  no 
capitulation  could  be  obtained,  except  for  the  safe  retreat  of 
the  Roman  garrison.  Datius,  the  orthodox  bishop,  who  had 
seduced  his  countrymen  to  rebellion98  and  ruin,  escaped  to  the 
luxury  and  honors  of  the  Byzantine  court;99  but  the  clergy, 
perhaps  the  Arian  clergy,  were  slaughtered  at  the  foot  of 
their  own  altars  by  the  defenders  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
Three  hundred  thousand  males  were  reported  to  be  slain  ;10° 
the  female  sex  and  the  more  precious  spoil  was  resigned  to 
the  Burgundians ;  and  the  houses,  or  at  least  the  walls,  of  Mi- 
Destrnction  ^an  were  levelled  with  the  ground.  The  Goths,  in 
of  Milan.  their  last  moments,  were  revenged  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  a  city  second  only  to  Rome  in  size  and  opulence,  in 
the  splendor  of  its  buildings,  or  the  number  of  its  inhabitants, 
and  Belisarius  sympathized  alone  in  the  fate  of  his  deserted 
and  devoted  friends.  Encouraged  by  this  successful  inroad, 
Theodebert  himself,  in  the  ensuing  spring,  invaded  the  plains 


edit.  Bonn])  offends  the  ear  of  La  Mothe  le  Vayer  (torn.  viii.  p.  163-165),  who  crit- 
icises, as  if  he  had  not  read,  the  Greek  historian. 

98  Baronius  applauds  his  treason,  and  justifies  the  Catholic  bishops — "Qui  ne 
sub  heretico  principe  elegant  omnem  lapidem  movent" — a  useful  caution.  The 
more  rational  Muratori  (Annali  dTtalia,  torn.  v.  p.  54)  hints  at  the  guilt  of  per- 
jury, and  blames  at  least  the  imprudence  of  Datius. 

99  St.  Datius  was  more  successful  against  devils  than  against  barbarians.  He 
travelled  with  a  numerous  retinue,  and  occupied  at  Corinth  a  large  house  (Baro- 
nius, a.d.  538,  No.  89  ;  a.d.  539,  No.  20). 

100  MvpiaSeg  rpiaKovra  (compare  Procopius,  Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  7,  21  [torn.  ii.  p.  234, 
edit.  Bonn]).  Yet  such  population  is  incredible  ;  and  the  second  or  third  city  of 
Italy  need  not  repine  if  we  only  decimate  the  numbers  of  the  present  text.  Both 
Milan  and  Genoa  revived  in  less  than  thirty  years  (Paul  Diacon.  de  Gestis  Lan- 
gobard.  1.  ii.  c.  38  [16  or  22?]) 


a.d.  538.]  DESTRUCTION  OF  GENOA-  293 

of  Italy  with  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  barbarians.1*1 
The  king  and  some  chosen  followers  were  mounted  on  horse- 
back and  armed  with  lances ;  the  infantry,  without  bows  or 
spears,  were  satisfied  with  a  shield,  a  sword,  and  a  double 
edged  battle-axe,  which  in  their  hands  became  a  deadly  and 
unerring  weapon.  Italy  trembled  at  the  march  of  the  Franks, 
and  both  the  Gothic  prince  and  the  Roman  general,  alike  ig- 
norant of  their  designs,  solicited  with  hope  and  terror  the 
friendship  of  these  dangerous  allies.  Till  he  had  secured  the 
passage  of  the  Po  on  the  bridge  of  Pavia,  the  grandson  of 
Clovis  dissembled  his  intentions,  which  he  at  length  declared 
by  assaulting,  almost  at  the  same  instant,  the  hostile  camps  of 
the  Romans  and  Goths.  Instead  of  uniting  their  arms,  they 
fled  with  equal  precipitation,  and  the  fertile  though  desolate 
provinces  of  Liguria  and  ^Emilia  were  abandoned  to  a  licen- 
tious host  of  barbarians,  whose  rage  was  not  mitigated  by  any 
thoughts  of  settlement  or  conquest.  Among  the  cities  which 
they  ruined,  Genoa,  not  yet  constructed  of  marble,  is  particu- 
larly enumerated ;  and  the  deaths  of  thousands,  according  to 
the  regular  practice  of  war,  appear  to  have  excited  less  horror 
than  some  idolatrous  sacrifices  of  women  and  children  which 
were  performed  with  impunity  in  the  camp  of  the  most 
Christian  king.  If  it  were  not  a  melancholy  truth  that  the 
first  and  most  cruel  sufferings  must  be  the  lot  of  the  inno- 
cent and  helpless,  history  might  exult  in  the  misery  of  the 
conquerors,  who,  in  the  midst  of  riches,  were  left  destitute  of 
bread  or  wine,  reduced  to  drink  the  waters  of  the  Po,  and  to 
feed  on  the  flesh  of  distempered  cattle.  The  dysentery  swept 
away  one  third  of  their  army,  and  the  clamors  of  his  subjects, 
who  were  impatient  to  pass  the  Alps,  disposed  Theodebert 
to  listen  with  respect  to  the  mild  exhortations  of  Belisarius. 
The  memory  of  this  inglorious  and  destructive  warfare  was 
perpetuated  on  the  medals  of  Gaul,  and  Justinian,  without 

101  Besides  Procopius,  perhaps  too  Roman,  see  the  Chronicles  of  Marias  and 
Marcellinus,  Jornandes  (in  Success.  Regn.  in  Muratori,  torn.  i.  p.  241),  and  Greg- 
ory of  Tours  (1.  iii.  c.  32,  in  torn.  ii.  of  the  Historians  of  France).  Gregory  sup- 
poses a  defeat  of  Belisarius,  who,  in  Aimoin  (De  Gestis  Franc.  1.  ii.  c.  23,  in  torn. 
iii.  p.  59),  is  slain  by  the  Franks. 


294  BELISAFJUS  BESIEGES  KAVENNA.  [Ch.  XLL 

unsheathing  liis  sword,  assumed  the  title  of  conqueror  of  the 
Franks.  The  Merovingian  prince  was  offended  by  the  vanity 
of  the  emperor ;  he  affected  to  pity  the  fallen  fortunes  of  the 
Goths ;  and  his  insidious  offer  of  a  federal  union  was  forti- 
fied by  the  promise  or  menace  of  descending  from  the  Alps 
at  the  head  of  five  hundred  thousand  men.  His  plans  of  con- 
quest were  boundless,  and  perhaps  chimerical.  The  King  of 
Austrasia  threatened  to  chastise  Justinian,  and  to  march  to 
the  gates  of  Constantinople  ;102  he  was  overthrown  and  slain108 
by  a  wild  bull,104  as  he  hunted  in  the  Belgic  or  German  forests. 
As  soon  as  Belisarius  was  delivered  from  his  foreign  and 
domestic  enemies,  he  seriously  applied  his  forces  to  the  final 
„  ,.    .         reduction  of  Italy.     In  the  siege  of  Osimo  the  gen- 

Belisarras  J  .  ,        .  ,  . ,.     , 

besieges         eral  was  nearly  transpierced  with  an  arrow,  if  the 

Kavenua;  -i       i      -i  -i  •  i 

mortal  stroke  had  not  been  intercepted  by  one  of 
his  guards,  who  lost  in  that  pious  office  the  use  of  his  hand. 
The  Goths  of  Osimo,a  four  thousand  warriors,  with  those  of 
Fsesulse  and  the  Cottian  Alps,  were  among  the  last  who  main- 
tained their  independence;  and  their  gallant  resistance, which 
almost  tired  the  patience,  deserved  the  esteem,  of  the  con- 
queror. His  prudence  refused  to  subscribe  the  safe-conduct 
which  they  asked  to  join  their  brethren  of  Ravenna:  but 
they  saved,  by  an  honorable  capitulation,  one  moiety  at  least 
of  their  wealth,  with  the  free  alternative  of  retiring  peace- 
ably to  their  estates  or  enlisting  to  serve  the  emperor  in  his 
Persian  wars.  The  multitudes  which  yet  adhered  to  the 
[:  standard  of  Vitiges  far  surpassed  the  number  of  the  Roman 

102  Agathias,  1.  i.  [c.  4],  p.  14, 15  [edit.  Par.  ;  p.  20,  21,  edit.  Bonn].  Could  he 
have  seduced  or  subdued  the  Gepidas  or  Lombards  of  Pannonia,  the  Greek  histo- 
rian is  confident  that  he  must  have  been  destroyed  in  Thrace. 

103  The  king  pointed  his  spear — the  bull  overturned  a  tree  on  his  head — he 
expired  the  same  day.  Such  is  the  story  of  Agathias  ;  but  the  original  historians 
of  France  (torn.  ii.  p.  202,  403,  558,  667)  impute  his  death  to  a  fever. 

104  Without  losing  myself  in  a  labyrinth  of  species  and  names — the  aurochs, 
urus,  bisons,  bubalus,  bonasus,  buffalo,  etc.  (Buffon,  Hist.  Nat.  torn.  xi.  and  Sup- 
plement, torn.  iii.  vi.),  it  is  certain  that  in  the  sixth  century  a  large  wild  species 
uf  horned  cattle  was  hunted  in  the  great  forests  of  the  Vosges,  in  Lorraine,  and 
the  Ardennes  (Greg.  Turon.  torn.  ii.  1.  x.  c.  10,  p.  369). 


•  Auximum. — M. 


*.D.  538.]  BELISARIUS  BESIEGES  RAVENNA.  295 

troops,  but  neither  prayers  nor  defiance,  nor  the  extreme  dan- 
ger of  his  most  faithful  subjects,  could  tempt  the  Gothic  king 
beyond  the  fortifications  of  Ravenna.  These  fortifications 
were  indeed  impregnable  to  the  assaults  of  art  or  violence, 
and  when  Belisarius  invested  the  capital,  he  was  soon  con- 
vinced that  famine  only  could  tame  the  stubborn  spirit  of  the 
barbarians.  The  sea,  the  land,  and  the  channels  of  the  Po 
were  guarded  by  the  vigilance  of  the  Roman  general ;  and 
his  morality  extended  the  rights  of  war  to  the  practice  of  poi- 
soning the  waters105  and  secretly  firing  the  granaries108  of  a 
besieged  city.107  While  he  pressed  the  blockade  of  Ravenna, 
ho  was  surprised  by  the  arrival  of  two  ambassadors  from  Con 
stantinople,  with  a  treaty  of  peace,  which  Justinian  had  im- 
prudently signed  without  deigning  to  consult  the  author  of 
his  victory.  By  this  disgraceful  and  precarious  agreement, 
Italy  and  the  Gothic  treasure  were  divided,  and  the  provinces 
beyond  the  Po  were  left  with  the  regal  title  to  the  successor 
of  Theodoric.  The  ambassadors  were  eager  to  accomplish 
their  salutary  commission ;  the  captive  Yitiges  accepted  with 
transport  the  unexpected  offer  of  a  crown ;  honor  was  less 
prevalent  among  the  Goths  than  the  want  and  appetite  of 


105  In  the  siege  of  Auximum,  he  first  labored  to  demolish  an  old  aqueduct,* 
and  then  cast  into  the  stream — 1.  dead  hodies  ;  2.  mischievous  herbs;  and,  8.  quick- 
lime, which  is  named  (says  Procopius,  1.  ii.  c.  27)  riravoQ  by  the  ancients ;  by  the 
moderns  atr&orof.  Yet  both  words  are  used  as  synonymous  in  Galen,  Dioscori- 
des,  and  Lucian  (Hen.  Steph.  Thesaur.  Ling.  Gisec.  torn.  iii.  p.  748). 

106  The  Goths  suspected  Mathasuenta  as  an  accomplice  in  the  mischief,  which, 
perhaps,  was  occasioned  by  accidental  lightning. 

101  In  strict  philosophy,  a  limitation  of  the  rights  of  war  seems  to  imply  non- 
sense and  contradiction.  Grotius  himself  is  lost  in  an  idle  distinction  between 
the  jus  natural  and  the  jus  gentium,  between  poison  and  infection.  He  balances 
in  one  scale  the  passages  of  Homer  (Odyss.  A,  259,  etc.)  and  Floras  (1.  ii.  c. 
20,  No.  7,  ult.);  and  in  the  other,  the  examples  of  Solon  (Pausanias,  1.  x.  c.  37) 
and  Belisarius.  See  his  great  work  De  Jure  Belli  et  Pacis  (1.  iii.  c.  4,  s.  15, 16, 
17,  and  in  Barbeyrac's  version,  torn.  ii.  p.  257,  etc.).  Yet  I  can  understand  the 
benefit  and  validity  of  an  agreement,  tacit  or  express,  mutually  to  abstain  from 
certain  modes  of  hostility.  See  the  Amphictyonic  oath  in  iEschines,  de  Fals& 
Legatione.  -  

1  Lord  Mahon  (p.  265)  observes  that  it  was  a  cistern  or  reservoir  (St^afiivrf), 
not  an  aqueduct. — S. 


296  SIEGE  OF  RAVENNA.  [Ch.  XLL 

food ;  and  the  Roman  chiefs,  who  murmured  at  the  contin- 
uance of  the  war,  professed  implicit  submission  to  the  com- 
mands  of  the  emperor.  If  Belisarius  had  possessed  only  the 
courage  of  a  soldier,  the  laurel  would  have  been  snatched 
from  his  hand  by  timid  and  envious  counsels;  but  in  this 
decisive  moment  he  resolved,  with  the  magnanimity  of  a 
statesman,  to  sustain  alone  the  danger  and  merit  of  generous 
disobedience.  Each  of  his  officers  gave  a  written  opinion 
that  the  siege  of  Ravenna  was  impracticable  and  hopeless; 
the  general  then  rejected  the  treaty  of  partition,  and  declared 
his  own  resolution  of  leading  Yitiges  in  chains  to  the  feet 
of  Justinian.  The  Goths  retired  with  doubt  and  dismay; 
this  peremptory  refusal  deprived  them  of  the  only  signature 
which  they  could  trust,  and  filled  their  minds  with  a  just  ap- 
prehension that  a  sagacious  enemy  had  discovered  the  full 
extent  of  their  deplorable  state.  They  compared  the  fame 
and  fortune  of  Belisarius  with  the  weakness  of  their  ill-fated 
king,  and  the  comparison  suggested  an  extraordinary  project, 
to  which  Vitiges,  with  apparent  resignation,  was  compelled  to 
acquiesce.  Partition  would  ruin  the  strength,  exile  would 
disgrace  the  honor,  of  the  nation ;  but  they  offered  their 
arms,  their  treasures,  and  the  fortifications  of  Ravenna,  if 
Belisarius  would  disclaim  the  authority  of  a  master,  accept 
the  choice  of  the  Goths,  and  assume,  as  he  had  deserved,  the 
kingdom  of  Italy.  If  the  false  lustre  of  a  diadem  could  have 
tempted  the  loyalty  of  a  faithful  subject,  his  prudence  must 
have  foreseen  the  inconstancy  of  the  barbarians,  and  his  ra- 
tional ambition  would  prefer  the  safe  and  honorable  station 
of  a  Roman  general.  Even  the  patience  and  seeming  satis- 
faction with  which  he  entertained  a  proposal  of  treason  might 
be  susceptible  of  a  malignant  interpretation.  But  the  lieu- 
tenant of  Justinian  was  conscious  of  his  own  rectitude ;  he 
entered  into  a  dark  and  crooked  path,  as  it  might  lead  to  the 
voluntary  submission  of  the  Goths ;  and  his  dexterous  policy 
persuaded  them  that  he  was  disposed  to  comply  with  their 
wishes,  without  engaging  an  oath  or  a  promise  for  the  per- 
formance of  a  treaty  which  he  secretly  abhorred.  The  day 
of  the  surrender  of  Ravenna  was  stipulated  by  the  Gothic 


A.D.  539.]     FALL  OF  THE  GOTHIC  KINGDOM  OF  ITALY.  297 

ambassadors ;  a  fleet,  laden  with  provisions,  sailed  as  a  wel- 
come guest  into  the  deepest  recess  of  the  harbor, 
Gothic  king-  the  gates  were  opened  to  the  fancied  King  of  Italy, 
A.0.539,  De-'  and  Belisarius,  without  meeting  an  enemy,  trium- 
phantly marched  through  the  streets  of  an  impreg- 
nable city.108  The  Romans  were  astonished  by  their  success ; 
the  multitudes  of  tall  and  robust  barbarians  were  confounded 
by  the  image  of  their  own  patience;  and  the  masculine  fe- 
males, spitting  in  the  faces  of  their  sons  and  husbands,  most 
bitterly  reproached  them  for  betraying  their  dominion  and 
freedom  to  these  pigmies  of  the  South,  contemptible  in  their 
numbers,  diminutive  in  their  stature.  Before  the  Goths  could 
recover  from  the  first  surprise  and  claim  the  accomplishment 
of  their  doubtful  hopes,  the  victor  established  his  power  in 
Ravenna  beyond  the  danger  of  repentance  and  revolt.  Viti- 
ges,  who  perhaps  had  attempted  to  escape,  was  honorably 
captivity  guarded  in  his  palace  ;109  the  flower  of  the  Gothic 
of  vmges.  youth  was  selected  for  the  service  of  the  emperor ; 
the  remainder  of  the  people  was  dismissed  to  their  peaceful 
habitations  in  the  southern  provinces,  and  a  colony  of  Italians 
was  invited  to  replenish  the  depopulated  city.  The  submis- 
sion of  the  capital  was  imitated  in  the  towns  and  villages  of 
Italy  which  had  not  been  subdued  or  even  visited  by  the 
Romans ;  and  the  independent  Goths,  who  remained  in  arms 
at  Pavia  and  Yerona,  were  ambitious  only  to  become  the 
subjects  of  Belisarius.  But  his  inflexible  loyalty  rejected, 
except  as  the  substitute  of  Justinian,  their  oaths  of  allegiance, 


108  Ravenna  was  taken,  not  in  the  year  540,  but  in  the  latter  end  of  539 ;  and 
Pagi  (torn.  ii.  p.  569)  is  rectified  by  Muratori  (Annali  dTtalia,  torn.  v.  p.  62),  who 
proves,  from  an  original  act  on  papyrus  (Antiquit.  Italia?  Medii  JEvi,  torn.  ii.  dis- 
sert, xxxii.  p.  999-1007 ;  Maffei,  Istoria  Diplomat,  p.  155-160),  that  before  the 
third  of  January,  540,  peace  and  free  correspondence  were  restored  between  Ra- 
venna and  Faenza. 

109  He  was  seized  by  John  the  Sanguinary,  but  an  oath  or  sacrament  was 
pledged  for  his  safety  in  the  Basilica  Julii  (Hist.  Miscell.  1.  xvi.  in  Muratori,  torn. 
i.  p.  107).  Anastasius  (in  Vit.  Pont.  p.  40  [t.  iii.  p.  130,  edit.  Murat.])  gives  a 
dark  but  probable  account.  Montfaucon  is  quoted  by  Mascou  (Hist,  of  the  Ger- 
mans, xii.  21)  for  a  votive  shield  representing  the  captivity  of  Vitiges,  and  now 
in  the  collection  of  Signor  Landi  at  Rome. 


298  EECALL  OF  BELISARIUS.  [CH.XLL 

and  he  was  not  offended  by  the  reproach  of  their  deputies 
that  he  rather  chose  to  be  a  slave  than  a  king. 

After  the  second  victory  of  Belisarius,  envy  again  wMsper- 
ed,  Justinian  listened,  and  the  hero  was  recalled.  "  The  som- 
Eetum  and  nant  °*  tne  Gothic  war  was  no  longer  worthy  of 
leTiLvfus.  ms  presence :  a  gracious  sovereign  was  impatient 
a.d.  540,  etc.  to  rewar(j  jjig  services  and  to  consult  his  wisdom ; 
and  he  alone  was  capable  of  defending  the  East  against  the 
innumerable  armies  of  Persia."  Belisarius  understood  the 
suspicion, accepted  the  excuse,  embarked  at  Ravenna  his  spoils 
and  trophies,  and  proved  by  his  ready  obedience  that  such  an 
abrupt  removal  from  the  government  of  Italy  was  not  less 
unjust  than  it  might  have  been  indiscreet.  The  emperor  re- 
ceived with  honorable  courtesy  both  Yitiges  and  his  more  no- 
ble consort ;  and  as  the  king  of  the  Goths  conformed  to  the 
Athanasian  faith,  he  obtained,  with  a  rich  inheritance  of  lands 
in  Asia,  the  rank  of  senator  and  patrician.110  Every  spectator 
admired,  without  peril,  the  strength  and  stature  of  the  young 
barbarians  :  they  adored  the  majesty  of  the  throne,  and  prom- 
ised to  shed  their  blood  in  the  service  of  their  benefactor. 
Justinian  deposited  in  the  Byzantine  palace  the  treasures  of 
the  Gothic  monarchy.  A  flattering  senate  was  sometimes  ad- 
mitted  to  gaze  on  the  magnificent  spectacle,  but  it  was  envi- 
ously secluded  from  the  public  view ;  and  the  conqueror  of 
Italy  renounced  without  a  murmur,  perhaps  without  a  sigh, 
the  well-earned  honors  of  a  second  triumph.  His  glory  was, 
indeed,  exalted  above  all  external  pomp ;  and  the  faint  and 
hollow  praises  of  the  court  were  supplied,  even  in  a  servile 
age,  by  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  country.  "Whenever 
he  appeared  in  the  streets  and  public  places  of  Constantino- 
ple, Belisarius  attracted  and  satisfied  the  eyes  of  the  people. 
His  lofty  stature  and  majestic  countenance  fulfilled  their  ex- 
pectations of  a  hero,  the  meanest  of  his  fellow-citizens  were 

110  Vitiges  lived  two  years  at  Constantinople,  and  imperatoris  in  affectu  con- 
victus  (or  conjunctus)  rebus  excessit  hnmanis.  His  widow,  Mathasuenta,  the 
wife  and  mother  of  the  patricians,  the  elder  and  younger  Germanus,  united  the 
streams  of  Anician  and  Amali  blood.  (Jornandes,  c.  60,  p.  221,  in  Muratori, 
torn,  u) 


a.d.  539.1  GLORY  OF  BELISARIUS.  299 

emboldened  by  his  gentle  and  gracious  demeanor,  and  the 
martial  train  which  attended  his  footsteps  left  his  person 
more  accessible  than  in  a  day  of  battle.  Seven  thousand 
horsemen,  matchless  for  beauty  and  valor,  were  maintained 
in  the  service,  and  at  the  private  expense,  of  the  general.111 
Their  prowess  was  always  conspicuous  in  single  combats  or 
in  the  foremost  ranks,  and  both  parties  confessed  that  in  the 
siege  of  Rome  the  guards  of  Belisarius  had  alone  vanquished 
the  barbarian  host.  Their  numbers  were  continually  aug- 
mented by  the  bravest  and  most  faithful  of  the  enemy ;  and 
his  fortunate  captives,  the  Yandals,  the  Moors,  and  the  Goths, 
emulated  the  attachment  of  his  domestic  followers.  By  the 
union  of  liberality  and  justice  he  acquired  the  love  of  the  sol- 
diers, without  alienating  the  affections  of  the  people.  The 
sick  and  wounded  were  relieved  with  medicines  and  money, 
and  still  more  efficaciously  by  the  healing  visits  and  smiles  of 
their  commander.  The  loss  of  a  weapon  or  a  horse  was  in- 
stantly repaired,  and  each  deed  of  valor  was  rewarded  by  the 
rich  and  honorable  gifts  of  a  bracelet  or  a  collar,  which  were 
rendered  more  precious  by  the  judgment  of  Belisarius.  He 
was  endeared  to  the  husbandmen  by  the  peace  and  plenty 
which  they  enjoyed  under  the  shadow  of  his  standard.  In- 
stead of  being  injured,  the  country  was  enriched  by  the  march 
of  the  Roman  armies ;  and  such  was  the  rigid  discipline  of 
their  camp,  that  not  an  apple  was  gathered  from  the  tree,  not 
a  path  could  be  traced  in  the  fields  of  corn.  Belisarius  was 
chaste  and  sober.  In  the  license  of  a  military  life,  none  could 
boast  that  they  had  seen  him  intoxicated  with  wine;  the 
most  beautiful  captives  of  Gothic  or  Vandal  race  were  offered 
to  his  embraces,  but  he  turned  aside  from  their  charms,  and 
the  husband  of  Antonina  was  never  suspected  of  violating  the 
laws  of  conjugal  fidelity.  The  spectator  and  historian  of  his 
exploits  has  observed  that  amidst  the  perils  of  war  he  was 

111  Procopius,  Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  1  [p.  283,  edit.  Bonn].  Aimoin,  a  French  monk 
of  the  eleventh  century,  who  had  obtained,  and  has  disfigured,  some  authentic  in- 
formation cf  Belisarius,  mentions,  in  his  name,  12,000  pueri  or  slaves — quos  pro- 
priis  alimus  stipendiis — besides  18,000  soldiers  (Historians  of  France,  torn.  iii.  ; 
De  Gestis  Franc.  1.  ii.  c.  6,  p.  48). 


300  SECEET  HISTOEY  OF  ANTONINA.  [Ch.  XLt 

daring  without  rashness,  prudent  without  fear,  slow  or  rapid 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  moment ;  that  in  the  deep- 
est distress  he  was  animated  by  real  or  apparent  hope,  but 
that  he  was  modest  and  humble  in  the  most  prosperous  fort- 
une. By  these  virtues  he  equalled  or  excelled  the  ancient 
masters  of  the  military  art.  Victory,  by  sea  and  land,  attend- 
ed his  arms.  He  subdued  Africa,  Italy,  and  the  adjacent  isl- 
ands ;  led  away  captives  the  successors  of  Genseric  and  The- 
odoric;  tilled  Constantinople  with  the  spoils  of  their  palaces; 
and  in  the  space  of  six  years  recovered  half  the  provinces  of 
the  Western  empire.  In  his  fame  and  merit,  in  wealth  and 
power,  he  remained  without  a  rival,  the  first  of  the  Roman 
subjects:  the  voice  of  envy  could  only  magnify  his  dangerous 
importance,  and  the  emperor  might  applaud  his  own  discern- 
ing spirit,  which  had  discovered  and  raised  the  genius  of  Bel- 
isarius. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Roman  triumphs  that  a  slave 

should  be  placed  behind  the  chariot,  to  remind  the  conqueror 

of  the  instability  of  fortune  and  the  infirmities  of 

Secret  history  "  .       .,  .        . 

of  his  wife  human  nature,  rrocopius,  in  his  Anecdotes,  has 
assumed  that  servile  and  ungrateful  office.  The 
generous  reader  may  cast  away  the  libel,  but  the  evidence  of 
facts  will  adhere  to  his  memory ;  and  he  will  reluctantly  con- 
fess that  the  fame  and  even  the  virtue  of  Belisarius  were  pol- 
luted by  the  lust  and  cruelty  of  his  wife,  and  that  the  hero 
deserved  an  appellation  which  may  not  drop  from  the  pen  of 
the  decent  historian.  The  mother  of  Antonina112  was  a  the- 
atrical prostitute,  and  both  her  father  and  grandfather  exer- 
cised, at  Thessalonica  and  Constantinople,  the  vile  though  lu- 
crative profession  of  charioteers.  In  the  various  situations  of 
their  fortune  she  became  the  companion,  the  enemy,  the  ser- 
vant, and  the  favorite  of  the  Empress  Theodora :  these  loose 

112  The  diligence  of  Alemannus  could  add  but  little  to  the  four  first  and  most 
curious  chapters  of  the  Anecdotes.  Of  these  strange  Anecdotes,  a  part  may  be 
true,  because  probable ;  and  a  part  trne,  because  improbable.  Procopius  must 
have  known  the  former,  and  the  latter  he  could  scarcely  invent.* 


a  The  malice  of  court  scandal  is  proverbially  inventive}  and  of  such  scandal  tha 
;  Anecdota  "  may  be  an  embellished  record. — M. 


A.D.  539.]  8ECEET  HISTORY  OF  ANTONINA.  801 

and  ambitious  females  Lad  been  connected  by  similar  pleas- 
ures; they  were  separated  by  the  jealousy  of  vice,  and  at 
length  reconciled  by  the  partnership  of  guilt.  Before  her 
marriage  with  Belisarius,  Antonina  had  one  husband  and 
many  lovers ;  Photius,  the  son  of  her  former  nuptials,  was  of 
an  age  to  distinguish  himself  at  the  siege  of  Naples ;  and  it 
was  not  till  the  autumn  of  her  age  and  beauty113  that  she  in- 
dulged a  scandalous  attachment  to  a  Thracian  youth.  Theo- 
Her  lover  dosius  had  been  educated  in  the  Eunomian  heresy ; 
Theodosius.  ^Q  Afrjcan  voyage  was  consecrated  by  the  baptism 
and  auspicious  name  of  the  first  soldier  who  embarked,  and 
the  proselyte  was  adopted  into  the  family  of  his  spiritual 
parents,114  Belisarius  and  Antonina.  Before  they  touched  the 
shores  of  Africa,  this  holy  kindred  degenerated  into  sensual 
love;  and  as  Antonina  soon  overleaped  the  bounds  of  mod- 
esty and  caution,  the  Roman  general  was  alone  ignorant  of 
his  own  dishonor.  During  their  residence  at  Carthage  he 
surprised  the  two  lovers  in  a  subterraneous  chamber,  solita- 
ry, warm,  and  almost  naked.  Anger  flashed  from  his  eyes. 
"  With  the  help  of  this  young  man,"  said  the  unblushing  An- 
tonina, "  I  was  secreting  our  most  precious  effects  from  the 
knowledge  of  Justinian."  The  youth  resumed  his  garments, 
and  the  pious  husband  consented  to  disbelieve  the  evidence 
of  his  own  senses.  From  this  pleasing  and  perhaps  volunta- 
ry delusion,  Belisarius  was  awakened  at  Syracuse  by  the  offi- 
cious information  of  Macedonia ;  and  that  female  attendant, 
after  requiring  an  oath  for  her  security,  produced  two  cham- 
berlains who,  like  herself,  had  often  beheld  the  adulteries  of 
Antonina.  A  hasty  flight  into  Asia  saved  Theodosius  from 
the  justice  of  an  injured  husband,  who  had  signified  to  one  of 
his  guards  the  order  of  his  death  ;  but  the  tears  of  Antonina 

113  Procopius  insinuates  (Anecdot.  c.  4  [torn.  iii.  p.  35,  edit.  Bonn]),  that,  when 
Belisarius  returned  to  Italy  (a.d.  543),  Antonina  was  sixty  years  of  age.  A  forced, 
but  more  polite  construction,  which  refers  that  date  to  the  moment  when  he  was 
writing  (a.d.  559),  would  be  compatible  with  the  manhood  of  Photius  (Gothic,  1.  i. 
c.  10)  in  536. 

1,4  Compare  the  Vandalie  "War  (1.  i.  c.  12)  with  the  Anecdotes  (c.  i.  [torn.  iii.  p. 
14,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Alemannus  (p.  2,  3).  This  p»ode  of  baptismal  adoption  was 
revived  by  Leo  the  philosopher. 


302  SECEET  HISTORY  OF  ANTONINA.  [Ch.  XL1 

and  her  artful  seductions  assured  the  credulous  hero  of  her 
innocence,  and  he  stooped,  against  his  faith  and  judgment, 
to  abandon  those  imprudent  friends  who  had  presumed  to 
accuse  or  doubt  the  chastity  of  his  wife.  The  revenge  of 
a  guilty  woman  is  implacable  and  bloody:  the  unfortunate 
Macedonia,  with  the  two  witnesses,  were  secretly  arrested  by 
the  minister  of  her  cruelty ;  their  tongues  were  cut  out,  their 
bodies  were  hacked  into  small  pieces,  and  their  remains  were 
cast  into  the  Sea  of  Syracuse.  A  rash  though  judicious  say- 
ing of  Constantine,  "  I  would  sooner  have  punished  the  adul- 
teress than  the  boy,"  was  deeply  remembered  by  Antonma ; 
and  two  years  afterwards,  when  despair  had  armed  that  offi- 
cer against  his  general,  her  sanguinary  advice  decided  and 
hastened  his  execution.  Even  the  indignation  of  Photius  was 
not  forgiven  by  his  mother;  the  exile  of  her  son  prepared 
the  recall  of  her  lover,  and  Theodosius  condescended  to  ac- 
cept the  pressing  and  humble  invitation  of  the  conqueror  of 
Italy.  In  the  absolute  direction  of  his  household,  and  in  the 
important  commissions  of  peace  and  war,115  the  favorite  youth 
most  rapidly  acquired  a  fortune  of  four  hundred  thousand 
pounds  sterling ;  and  after  their  return  to  Constantinople  the 
passion  of  Antonina  at  least  continued  ardent  and  unabated. 
But  fear,  devotion,  and  lassitude  perhaps,  inspired  Theodosius 
with  more  serious  thoughts.  He  dreaded  the  busy  scandal 
of  the  capital,  and  the  indiscreet  fondness  of  the  wife  of  Beli- 
sarius,  escaped  from  her  embraces,  and,  retiring  to  Ephesus, 
shaved  his  head  and  took  refuge  in  the  sanctuary  of  a  monas- 
tic life.  The  despair  of  the  new  Ariadne  could  scarcely  have 
been  excused  by  the  death  of  her  husband.  She  wept,  she 
tore  her  hair,  she  filled  the  palace  with  her  cries ;  "  she  had 
lost  the  dearest  of  friends,  a  tender,  a  faithful,  a  laborious 
friend  !"  But  her  warm  entreaties,  fortified  by  the  prayers 
of  Belisarius,  were  insufficient  to  draw  the  holy  monk  from 
the  solitude  of  Ephesus.     It  was  not  till  the  general  moved 

118  In  November,  537,  Photius  arrested  the  pope  (Liberat.  Brev.  c.  22  ;  Pagi, 
torn.  ii.  p.  562).  About  the  end  of  539  Belisarius  sent  Theodosius — rbv  ry  oliciy 
ryavTov  iipturiDra — on  an  important  and  lucrative  commission  to  Ravenna  (Goth, 
1.  ii.  c.  28  [torn.  ii.  p.  261,  edit.  Bonn]). 


a.d.539.]  SECRET  HISTORY  OF  ANTONINA.  303 

forward  for  the  Persian  war  that  Theodosins  could  be  tempt- 
ed to  return  to  Constantinople,  and  the  short  interval  before 
the  departure  of  Antonina  herself  was  boldly  devoted  to  love 
and  pleasure. 

A  philosopher  may  pity  and  forgive  the  infirmities  of  fe- 
male nature  from  which  he  receives  no  real  injury ;  but  con- 
FveseDtment  temptible  is  the  husband  who  feels,  and  yet  en- 
auJ ?»?£?  dures,  his  own  infamy  in  that  of  his  wife.  Anto- 
Pnotms.  nj;na  pursue(i  her  son  wjth  implacable  hatred,  and 
the  gallant  Photius118  was  exposed  to  her  secret  persecutions 
in  the  camp  beyond  the  Tigris.  Enraged  by  his  own  wrongs 
and  by  the  dishonor  of  his  blood,  he  cast  away  in  his  turn  the 
sentiments  of  nature,  and  revealed  to  Belisarius  the  turpitude 
of  a  woman  who  had  violated  all  the  duties  of  a  mother  and 
a  wife.  From  the  surprise  and  indignation  of  the  Roman 
general, his  former  credulity  appears  to  have  been  sincere:  he 
embraced  the  knees  of  the  son  of  Antonina,  adjured  him  to 
remember  his  obligations  rather  than  his  birth,  and  confirmed 
at  the  altar  their  holy  vows  of  revenge  and  mutual  defence. 
The  dominion  of  Antonina  was  impaired  by  absence ;  and 
when  she  met  her  husband  on  his  return  from  the  Persian 
confines,  Belisarius,  in  his  first  and  transient  emotions,  con- 
fined her  person  and  threatened  her  life.  Photius  was  more 
resolved  to  punish,  and  less  prompt  to  pardon ;  he  flew  to 
Ephesus,  extorted  from  a  trusty  eunuch  of  his  mother  the 
full  confession  of  her  guilt,  arrested  Theodosius  and  his  treas- 
ures in  the  church  of  St.  John  the  Apostle,  and  concealed  his 
captives,  whose  execution  was  only  delayed,  in  a  secure  and 
sequestered  fortress  of  Cilicia.  Such  a  daring  outrage  against 
public  justice  could  not  pass  with  impunity,  and  the  cause  of 
Antonina  was  espoused  by  the  empress,  whose  favor  she  had 
deserved  by  the  recent  services  of  the  disgrace  of  a  prsefect, 
and  the  exile  and  murder  of  a  pope.  At  the  end  of  the  cam- 
paign Belisarius  was  recalled ;  he  complied  as  usual  with  the 
imperial  mandate.     His  mind  was  not  prepared  for  rebellion : 

116  Theophanes  (Chronograph,  p.  204  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  373,  edit.  Bonn]) 
styles  him  Photinus,  the  son-in-law  of  Belisarius ;  and  he  is  copied  by  the  Histo- 

via  Miscella  and  Anastasius, 


304  SECRET  HISTORY  OF  ANTONINA.  [Ch.  XLL 

his  obedience,  however  adverse  to  the  dictates  of  honor,  was 
consonant  to  the  wishes  of  his  heart ;  and  when  he  embraced 
his  wife,  at  the  command  and  perhaps  in  the  presence  of  the 
empress,  the  tender  husband  was  disposed  to  forgive  or  to  be 
forgiven.  The  bounty  of  Theodora  reserved  for  her  compan- 
ion a  more  precious  favor.  "  I  have  found,"  she  said,  "  my 
dearest  patrician,  a  pearl  of  inestimable  value ;  it  has  not  yet 
been  viewed  by  any  mortal  eye,  but  the  sight  and  the  posses- 
sion of  this  jewel  are  destined  for  my  f riend."a  As  soon  as  the 
curiosity  and  impatience  of  Antonina  were  kindled,  the  door 
of  a  bedchamber  was  thrown  open,  and  she  beheld  her  lover, 
whom  the  diligence  of  the  eunuchs  had  discovered  in  his  se- 
cret prison.  Her  silent  wonder  burst  into  passionate  excla- 
mations of  gratitude  and  joy,  and  she  named  Theodora  her 
queen,  her  benefactress,  and  her  savior.  The  monk  of  Eph- 
esus  was  nourished  in  the  palace  with  luxury  and  ambition ; 
but  instead  of  assuming,  as  he  was  promised,  the  command  of 
the  Roman  armies,  Theodosius  expired  in  the  first  fatigues 
Persecution  °%  an  amorous  interview.b  The  grief  of  Antonina 
of  her  son.  could  only  be  assuaged  by  the  sufferings  of  her  son. 
A  youth  of  consular  rank  and  a  sickly  constitution  was  pun- 
ished without  a  trial,  like  a  malefactor  and  a  slave ;  yet  such 
was  the  constancy  of  his  mind,  that  Photius  sustained  the 
tortures  of  the  scourge  and  the  rack  without  violating  the 
faith  which  he  had  sworn  to  Belisarius.  After  this  fruitless 
cruelty,  the  son  of  Antonina,  while  his  mother  feasted  with 
the  empress,  was  buried  in  her  subterraneous  prisons,  which 
admitted  not  the  distinction  of  night  and  day.  He  twice  es- 
caped to  the  most  venerable  sanctuaries  of  Constantinople, 
the  churches  of  St.  Sophia  and  of  the  "Virgin  ;  but  his  tyrants 
were  insensible  of  religion  as  of  pity,  and  the  helpless  youth, 


*  This  and  much  of  the  private  scandal  in  the  "  Anecdota"  is  liable  to  serious 
doubt.  Who  reported  all  these  private  conversations,  and  how  did  they  reach  the 
ears  of  Procopius  ? — M. 

b  This  is  a  strange  misrepresentation — he  died  of  a  dysentery ;  nor  does  it  ap- 
pear that  it  was  imviediaiely  after  this  scene.  Antonina  proposed  to  raise  him  to 
the  generalship  of  the  army — dXXd  nc  irporeptjaaaa  dim]  vo<t(}>  d\6vra  Svaevrspiag 
1%  dv9pu>ir<i)v  avrbv  dipavi&i  [c  3,  torn.  iii.  p.  28,  edit.  Bonn].  Procop.  Anecd.  p. 
14.  The  sudden  change  from  the  abstemious  diet  of  a  monk  to  the  luxury  of  the 
court  is  a  much  more  probable  cause  of  his  death. — M. 


A.D.  539.]  DISGRACE  OF  BELlSAKlUli  305 

amidst  the  clamors  of  the  clergy  and  people,  was  twice  drag- 
ged from  the  altar  to  the  dungeon.  His  third  attempt  was 
more  successful.  At  the  end  of  three  years  the  prophet  Zach- 
ariah,  or  some  mortal  friend,  indicated  the  means  of  an  escape : 
he  eluded  the  spies  and  guards  of  the  empress,  reached  the 
holy  sepulchre  of  Jerusalem,  embraced  the  profession  of  a 
monk,  and  the  abbot  Photius  was  employed,  after  the  death 
of  Justinian,  to  reconcile  and  regulate  the  churches  of  Egypt. 
The  son  of  Antonina  suffered  all  that  an  enemy  can  inflict ; 
her  patient  husband  imposed  on  himself  the  more  exquisite 
misery  of  violating  his  promise  and  deserting  his  friend. 

In   the   succeeding    campaign   Belisarius   was    again    sent 

against  the  Persians:   he  saved  the  East,  but  he   offended 

Theodora,  and  perhaps  the  emperor  himself.     The 

subrnf^ionof  malady  of  Justinian  had  countenanced  the  rumor 


of  his  death ;  and  the  Roman  general,  on  the  sup- 
position of  that  probable  event,  spoke  the  free  language  of  a 
citizen  and  a  soldier.  His  colleague  Buzes,  who  concurred  in 
the  same  sentiments,  lost  his  rank,  his  liberty,  and  his  health 
by  the  persecution  of  the  empress ;  but  the  disgrace  of  Beli- 
sarius was  alleviated  by  the  dignity  of  his  own  character  and 
the  influence  of  his  wife,  who  might  wish  to  humble,  but 
could  not  desire  to  ruin,  the  partner  of  her  fortunes.  Even 
his  removal  was  colored  by  the  assurance  that  the  sinking 
state  of  Italy  would  be  retrieved  by  the  single  presence  of 
its  conqueror.  But  no  sooner  had  he  returned,  alone  and  de- 
fenceless, than  a  hostile  commission  was  sent  to  the  East  to 
seize  his  treasures  and  criminate  his  actions ;  the  guards  and 
veterans  who  followed  his  private  banner  were  distributed 
among  the  chiefs  of  the  army,  and  even  the  eunuchs  pre- 
sumed to  cast  lots  for  the  partition  of  his  martial  domestics. 
When  he  passed  with  a  small  and  sordid  retinue  through 
the  streets  of  Constantinople,  his  forlorn  appearance  excited 
the  amazement  and  compassion  of  the  people.  Justinian 
and  Theodora  received  him  with  cold  ingratitude,  the  servile 
crowd  with  insolence  and  contempt ;  and  in  the  evening  he 
retired  with  trembling  steps  to  his  deserted  palace.  An  in- 
disposition, feigned  or  real,  had  confined  Antonina  to  her 
IV.—20 


306  SUBMISSION  OF  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.XLI 

apartment ;  and  she  walked  disdainfully  silent  in  the  adja- 
cent portico,  while  Belisarius  threw  himself  on  his  bed,  and 
expected,  in  an  agony  of  grief  and  terror,  the  death  which  he 
had  so  often  braved  under  the  walls  of  Home.  Long  after 
sunset  a  messenger  was  announced  from  the  empress:  he 
opened  with  anxious  curiosity  the  letter  which  contained  the 
sentence  of  his  fate.  "  You  cannot  be  ignorant  how  much 
you  have  deserved  my  displeasure.  I  am  not  insensible  of 
the  services  of  Antonina.  To  her  merits  and  intercession  1 
have  granted  your  life,  and  permit  you  to  retain  a  part  of 
your  treasures,  which  might  be  justly  forfeited  to  the  State. 
Let  your  gratitude  where  it  is  due  be  displayed,  not  in  words, 
but  in  your  future  behavior."  I  know  not  how  to  believe  or 
to  relate  the  transports  with  which  the  hero  is  said  to  have 
received  this  ignominious  pardon.  He  fell  prostrate  before 
his  wife,  he  kissed  the  feet  of  his  savior,  and  he  devoutly 
promised  to  live  the  grateful  and  submissive  slave  of  Anto- 
nina. A  fine  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pounds 
sterling  was  levied  on  the  fortunes  of  Belisarius ;  and  with 
the  office  of  count,  or  master  of  the  royal  stables,  he  accepted 
the  conduct  of  the  Italian  war.  At  his  departure  from  Con- 
stantinople, his  friends,  and  even  the  public,  were  persuaded 
that  as  soon  as  he  regained  his  freedom  he  would  renounce 
his  dissimulation  ;  and  that  his  wife,  Theodora,  and  perhaps 
the  emperor  himself,  would  be  sacrificed  to  the  just  revenge 
of  a  virtuous  rebel.  Their  hopes  were  deceived ;  and  the  un- 
conquerable patience  and  loyalty  of  Belisarius  appear  either 
below  or  above  the  character  of  a  man.1" 

117  The  continuator  of  the  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus  gives,  in  a  few  decent 
words,  the  substance  of  the  Anecdotes :  Belisarius  de  Oriente  evocatus,  in  offen- 
sam  periculumque  incurrens  grave,  et  invidue  subjacens  rursus  remittitur  in  Ita- 
lian! (p.  54). 


A.D.  527-565.  j  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  207 


OHAPTEE  XLIL 

State  of  the  Barbaric  World. — Establishment  of  the  Lombards  on  the  Danube.— 
Tribes  and  Inroads  of  the  Sclavonians. — Origin,  Empire,  and  Embassies  of  tha 
Turks. — The  Flight  of  the  Avars.— Chosroes  I.,  or  Nushirvan,  King  of  Persia. 
—His  prosperous  Reign  and  Wars  with  the  Romans. — The  Colchian  or  Lazie 
War. — The  ^Ethiopians. 

Our  estimate  of  personal  merit  is  relative  to  the  common 
faculties  of  mankind.  The  aspiring  efforts  of  genius  or  virt- 
weakness  of  ue>  either  in  active  or  speculative  life,  are  meas- 
Justinian?  °f  ured  n°t  so  rauch  by  their  real  elevation  as  by  the 
a.d.  52T-565.  height  t0  WJ1ich  they  ascend  above  the  level  of  their 
age  or  country;  and  the  same  stature  which  in  a  people  of 
giants  would  pass  unnoticed,  must  appear  conspicuous  in  a 
race  of  pigmies-  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred  companions 
devoted  their  lives  at  Thermopylae ;  but  the  education  of  the 
infant,  the  boy,  and  the  man  had  prepared  and  almost  insured 
this  memorable  sacrifice;  and  each  Spartan  would  approve, 
rather  than  admire,  an  act  of  duty,  of  which  himself  and  eight 
thousand  of  his  fellow-citizens  were  equally  capable.1  The 
great  Pompey  might  inscribe  on  his  trophies  that  he  had  de- 
feated in  battle  two  millions  of  enemies,  and  reduced  fifteen 
hundred  cities  from  the  lake  Mseotis  to  the  Bed  Sea  ;2  but  the 
fortune  of  Rome  flew  before  his  eagles ;  the  nations  were  op- 
pressed by  their  own  fears  ;  and  the  invincible  legions  which 
he  commanded  had  been  formed  by  the  habits  of  conquest 

1  It  mil  be  a  pleasure,  not  a  task,  to  read  Herodotus  (1.  vii.  c.  104, 134,  p.  550, 
615).  The  conversation  of  Xerxes  and  Demaratus  at  Thermopylae  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  and  moral  scenes  in  history.  It  was  the  torture  of  the  royal  Spar- 
tan  to  behold,  with  anguish  and  remorse,  the  virtue  of  his  country. 

2  See  this  proud  inscription  in  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  vii.  27).  Few  men  have 
more  exquisitely  tasted  of  glory  and  disgrace;  nor  could  Juvenal  (Satir.  x.)  pro- 
duce a  more  striking  example  of  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  and  the  vanity  of  ho» 
man  wishes 


308  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  [Ch.  XLII, 

and  the  discipline  of  ages.  In  this  view  the  character  of  Bel- 
isarius  may  be  deservedly  placed  above  the  heroes  of  the  an- 
cient republics.  His  imperfections  flowed  from  the  conta- 
gion of  the  times ;  his  virtues  were  his  own,  the  free  gift  of 
nature  or  reflection  ;  he  raised  himself  without  a  master  or 
a  rival ;  and  so  inadequate  were  the  arms  committed  to  his 
hand,  that  his  sole  advantage  was  derived  from  the  pride  and 
presumption  of  his  adversaries.  Under  his  command,  the 
subjects  of  Justinian  often  deserved  to  be  called  Romans; 
but  the  un warlike  appellation  of  Greeks  was  imposed  as  a 
term  of  reproach  by  the  haughty  Goths,  who  affected  to  blush, 
that  they  must  dispute  the  kingdom  of  Italy  with  a  nation 
of  tragedians,  pantomimes,  and  pirates.3  The  climate  of  Asia 
has  indeed  been  found  less  congenial  than  that  of  Europe  to 
military  spirit :  those  populous  countries  were  enervated  by 
luxury,  despotism,  and  superstition,  and  the  monks  were  more 
expensive  and  more  numerous  than  the  soldiers  of  the  East. 
The  regular  force  of  the  empire  had  once  amounted  to  six 
hundred  and  forty-five  thousand  men  :  it  was  reduced,  in  the 
time  of  Justinian,  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand ;  and  this 
number,  large  as  it  may  seem,  was  thinly  scattered  over  the 
sea  and  land — in  Spain  and  Italy,  in  Africa  and  Egypt,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Danube,  the  coast  of  the  Euxine,  and  the  fron- 
tiers of  Persia.  The  citizen  was  exhausted,  yet  the  soldier 
was  unpaid ;  his  poverty  was  mischievously  soothed  by  the 
privilege  of  rapine  and  indolence,  and  the  tardy  payments 
were  detained  and  intercepted  by  the  fraud  of  those  agents 
who  usurp,  without  courage  or  danger,  the  emoluments  of 
war.  Public  and  private  distress  recruited  the  armies  of  the 
State ;  but  in  the  field,  and  still  more  in  the  presence  of  the 
enemy,  their  numbers  were  always  defective.  The  want  of 
national  spirit  was  supplied  by  the  precarious  faith  and  dis- 
orderly service  of  barbarian  mercenaries.    Even  military  hon 

8  TpaiKovg  *  *  *  t£  £>v  ra  irpurspa  ovdeva  ec  'IrdXiav  l^Kovra  uSov,  on  ftr)  rpayfp- 
dove,  Kai  vavraq  XujTrodvrag  [Goth.  i.  18,  torn.  ii.  p.  93,  edit.  Bonn].  This  last 
epithet  of  Procopius  is  too  nobly  translated  by  pirates ;  naval  thieves  is  the  prop- 
er word  :  strippers  of  garments,  either  for  injury  or  insult  (Demosthenes  contra 
Conon.  in  Reiske,  Orator.  Grsec.  torn.  ii.  p.  1264.), 


A.D.  527-565.]  STATE  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.  309 

or,  which  has  often  survived  the  loss  of  virtue  and  freedom, 
was  almost  totally  extinct.  The  generals,  who  were  multi- 
plied  beyond  the  example  of  former  times,  labored  only  to 
prevent  the  success  or  to  sully  the  reputation  of  their  col- 
leagues ;  and  they  had  been  taught  by  experience  that,  if 
merit  sometimes  provoked  the  jealousy,  error,  or  even  guilt, 
would  obtain  the  indulgence  of  a  gracious  emperor.4  In  such 
an  age  the  triumphs  of  Belisarius,  and  afterwards  of  Narses, 
shine  with  incomparable  lustre;  but  they  are  encompassed 
with  the  darkest  shades  of  disgrace  and  calamity.  While  the 
lieutenant  of  Justinian  subdued  the  kingdoms  of  the  Goths 
and  Yandals,  the  emperor,5  timid,  though  ambitious,  balanced 
the  forces  of  the  barbarians,  fomented  their  divisions  by  flat- 
tery and  falsehood,  and  invited  by  his  patience  and  liberality 
the  repetition  of  injuries.8  The  keys  of  Carthage,  Rome,  and 
Pavenna  were  presented  to  their  conqueror,  while  Antioch 
was  destroyed  by  the  Persians,  and  Justinian  trembled  for 
the  safety  of  Constantinople. 

Even  the  Gothic  victories  of  Belisarius  were  prejudicial  to 
the  State,  since  they  abolished  the  important  barrier  of  the 
state  of  the  Upper  Danube,  which  had  been  so  faithfully  guard- 
barbarians.  e(j  hj  Theodoric  and  his  daughter.  For  the  de- 
fence of  Italy,  the  Goths  evacuated  Pannonia  and  Noricum, 
which  they  left  in  a  peaceful  and  flourishing  condition :  the 
sovereignty  was  claimed  by  the  emperor  of  the  Romans;  the 
actual  possession  was  abandoned  to  the  boldness  of  the  first 
invader.  On  the  opposite  banks  of  the  Danube,  the  plains  of 
Upper  Hungary  and  the  Transylvanian  hills  were  possessed, 
since  the  death  of  Attila,  by  the  tribes  of  the  Gepidse,  who  re- 
spected the  Gothic  arms,  and  despised,  not  indeed  the  gold  of 

4  See  the  third  and  fourth  books  of  the  Gothic  War :  the  writer  of  the  Anec- 
fflotes  cannot  aggravate  these  abuses. 

B  Agathias,  1.  v.  [c.  14]  p.  157,  158  [p.  306,  edit.  Bonn].  He  confines  this  weak- 
ness of  the  emperor  and  the  empire  to  the  old  age  of  Justinian ;  but,  alas  1  he  was 
never  young. 

6  This  mischievous  policy,  which  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  19  [torn.  iii.  p.  113, 
edit.  Bonn])  imputes  to  the  emperor,  is  revealed  in  his  epistle  to  a  Scythian  prince 
who  was  capable  of  understanding  it.  "Ayav  irpofxi]97}  icai  ayxivoiiGTaTov,  says 
Agathias  (1.  v.  [c.  5]  p.  170, 171  [p.  331,  edit.  Bonn]). 


310  THE  GEPID^  AND  LOMBARDS.  [Ch.  XLIL 

the  Romans,  but  the  secret  motive  of  their  annual  subsidies. 
_        .        The  vacant  fortifications  of  the  river  were  instant- 

The  Gepidse.  .  •>■>'•  i     •  it 

ly  occupied  by  these  barbarians;  their  standards 
were  planted  on  the  walls  of  Sirmium  and  Belgrade ;  and  the 
ironical  tone  of  their  apology  aggravated  this  insult  on  the 
majesty  of  the  empire :  "  So  extensive,  O  Caesar,  are  your  do- 
minions, so  numerous  are  your  cities,  that  you  are  continual- 
ly seeking  for  nations  to  whom,  either  in  peace  or  war,  you 
may  relinquish  these  useless  possessions.  The  Gepidaa  are 
your  brave  and  faithful  allies,  and,  if  they  have  anticipated 
your  gifts,  they  have  shown  a  just  confidence  in  your  boun- 
ty." Their  presumption  was  excused  by  the  mode  of  revenge 
which  Justinian  embraced.  Instead  of  asserting  the  rights  of 
a  sovereign  for  the  protection  of  his  subjects,  the  emperor  in- 
vited a  strange  people  to  invade  and  possess  the  Roman  prov- 
inces between  the  Danube  and  the  Alps;  and  the  ambition 
of  the  Gepidse  was  checked  by  the  rising  power  and  fame  of 
The  Lom-  the  Lombards.7  This  corrupt  appellation  has  been 
bards.  diffused  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  the  merchants 

and  bankers,  the  Italian  posterity  of  these  savage  warriors; 
but  the  original  name  of  Langobcvrds  is  expressive  only  of  the 
peculiar  length  and  fashion  of  their  beards.a  I  am  not  dis- 
posed either  to  question  or  to  justify  their  Scandinavian  or- 


1  Gens  Germans  feritate  ferocior,  says  Velleius  Paterculus  of  the  Lombards  (ii. 
106)  Langobardos  paucitas  nobilitat.  Plurimis  ac  valentissimis  nationibus  cincti 
non  per  obsequium,  sed  proeliis  et  periclitando,  tuti  sunt  (Tacit,  de  Moribus  Ger- 
man, c.  40).  See.  likewise  Strabo  (1.  vii.  p.  446  [p.  290,  291,  edit.  Casaub.J).  The 
best  geographers  place  them  beyond  the  Elbe,  in  the  bishopric  of  Magdeburg  and 
the  middle  march  of  Brandenburg ;  and  their  situation  will  agree  with  the  patri- 
otic remark  of  the  Count  de  Hertzberg,  that  most  of  the  barbarian  conquerors  is- 
sued from  the  same  countries  which  still  produce  the  armies  of  Prussia. 


a  This  etymology,  which  is  given  by  Paulus  Diaconus  and  others,  has  been 
questioned  by  some  modern  writers,  who  derive  the  name  of  the  Langobardi  from, 
the  district  they  inhabited  on  the  banks  of  the  Elbe,  where  Horde  (or  Bord)  still 
signifies  "a  fertile  plain  by  the  side  of  a  river,"  and  a  district  near  Magdeburg  is 
still  called  the  lange  Boide.  According  to  this  view,  Langobardi  would  signify 
"inhabitants  of  the  long  bord  of  the  river;"  and  traces  of  their  name  are  sup- 
posed still  to  occur  in  such  names  as  Bardengau  and  Bardewick,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Elbe.  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  aud  Roman  Geogr.  vol.  ii.  p. 
119.--S. 


A.D.527-5G5.J  THE  LOMBARDS.  311 

igin,*  nor  to  pursue  the  migrations  of  the  Lombards  through 
unknown  regions  and  marvellous  adventures.  About  the 
time  of  Augustus  and  Trajan,  a  ray  of  historic  light  breaks 
on  the  darkness  of  their  antiquities,  and  they  are  discovered, 
for  the  first  time,  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Oder.  Fierce, 
beyond  the  example  of  the  Germans,  they  delighted  to  prop- 
agate the  tremendous  belief  that  their  heads  were  formed  like 
the  heads  of  dogs,  and  that  they  drank  the  blood  of  their  en- 
emies whom  they  vanquished  in  battle.  The  smallness  of 
their  numbers  was  recruited  by  the  adoption  of  their  bravest 
slaves;  and  alone,  amidst  their  powerful  neighbors,  they  de- 
fended by  arms  their  high-spirited  independence.  In  the 
tempests  of  the  north,  which  overwhelmed,  so  many  names 
and  nations,  this  little  bark  of  the  Lombards  still  floated  on 
the  surface;  they  gradually  descended  towards  the  south  and 
the  Danube,  and  at  the  end  of  four  hundred  years  they  again 
appear  writh  their  ancient  valor  and  renown.  Their  manners 
were  not  less  ferocious.  The  assassination  of  a  royal  guest 
was  executed  in  the  presence  and  by  the  command  of  the 
king's  daughter,  who  had  been  provoked  by  some  words  of 
insult,  and  disappointed  by  his  diminutive  stature;  and  a  trib- 
ute, the  price  of  blood,  was  imposed  on  the  Lombards  by  his 
brother,  the  king  of  the  Iieruli.  Adversity  revived  a  sense 
of  moderation  and  justice,  and  the  insolence  of  conquest  was 
chastised  by  the  signal  defeat  and  irreparable  dispersion  of 
the  Iieruli,  who  were  seated  in  the  southern  provinces  of  To 
land.9  The  victories  of  the  Lombards  recommended  them 
to  the  friendship  of  the  emperors ;  and,  at  the  solicitation  of 
Justinian,  they  passed  the  Danube  to  reduce,  according  to 
their  treaty,  the  cities  of  Noricuui  and  the  fortresses  of  Pan- 


8  The  Scandinavian  origin  of  the  Goths  and  Lombards,  as  stated  by  Paul  War- 
nefrid  [1.  i.  c.  2],  surnamed  the  Deacon,  is  attacked  by  Clayerius  ^Germania  Antiq. 
1.  iii.  c.  26,  p.  102,  etc.),  a  native  of  Prussia,  and  defended  by  Grotius  (Prolegom. 
ad  Hist.  Goth.  p.  28,  etc.),  the  Swedish  ambassador. 

9  Two  facts  in  the  narrative  of  Paul  Diaconus  (1.  i.  c.  20)  are  expressive  of  na< 
tional  manners:  1.  Dum  ad  tabulam  luderet — while  he  played  at  draughts.  2. 
Camporum  viridantia  Una.  The  cultivation  of  flax  supposes  property,  commerce, 
agriculture,  and  manufactures. 


312  THE  LOMBARDS.  [Ch.XLD. 

tionia-  But  the  spirit  of  rapine  soon  tempted  them  beyond 
these  ample  limits ;  they  wandered  along  the  coast  of  the 
Adriatic  as  far  as  Dyrraehium,  and  presumed,  with  familiar 
rudeness,  to  enter  the  towns  and  houses  of  their  Roman  allies, 
and  to  seize  the  captives  who  had  escaped  from  their  auda- 
cious hands.  These  acts  of  hostility,  the  sallies,  as  it  might 
be  pretended,  of  some  loose  adventurers,  were  disowned  by 
the  nation  and  excused  by  the  emperor ;  but  the  arms  of  the 
Lombards  were  more  seriously  engaged  by  a  contest  of  thirty 
years9  which  was  terminated  only  by  the  extirpation  of  the 
Gepidse.  The  hostile  nations  often  pleaded  their  cause  before 
the  throne  of  Constantinople ;  and  the  crafty  Justinian,  to 
whom  the  barbarians  were  almost  equally  odious,  pronounced 
a  partial  and  ambiguous  sentence,  and  dexterously  protracted 
the  war  by  slow  and  ineffectual  succors.  Their  strength  was 
formidable,  since  the  Lombards,  who  sent  into  the  field  sev- 
eral myriads  of  soldiers,  still  claimed,  as  the  weaker  side,  the 
protection  of  the  Romans.  Their  spirit  was  intrepid;  yet 
such  is  the  uncertainty  of  courage,  that  the  two  armies  were 
suddenly  struck  with  a  panic:  they  fled  from  each  other, 
and  the  rival  kings  remained  with  their  guards  in  the  midst 
of  an  empty  plain.  A  short  truce  was  obtained;  but  their 
mutual  resentment  again  kindled,  and  the  remembrance  of 
their  shame  rendered  the  next  encounter  more  desperate  and 
bloody.  Forty  thousand  of  the  barbarians  perished  in  the  de- 
cisive battle  which  broke  the  power  of  the  Gepidse,  transfer- 
red the  fears  and  wishes  of  Justinian,  and  first  displayed  the 
character  of  Alboin,  the  youthful  prince  of  the  Lombards,  and 
the  future  conqueror  of  Italy.10 

The  wild  people  who  dwelt  or  wandered  in  the  plains  of 
Russia,  Lithuania,  and  Poland  might  be  reduced?  in  the  age 
of  Justinian,  under  the  two  great  families  of  the  Bxtlga- 


10  I  have  used,  without  undertaking  to  reconcile,  the  facts  in  Procopius  (Goth. 
1.  ii.  c.  14 ;  1.  iii.  c.  33,  34 ;  1.  iv.  c.  18,  25),  Paul  Diaconns  (de  Gestis  Langobard.  1.  i. 
c.  1-23,  in  Muratori,  Script.  Rerum  Italicarum,  torn.  i.  p„  405-419),  and  Jornandes 
(de  Success.  Regnorum,  p.  242).  The  patient  reader  may  draw  some  light  from 
Mascou  (Hist,  of  the  Germans,  and  Annotat.  xxiii.)  and  De  Buat  (Hist,  des  Peu- 
ples,  etc.,  torn.  is.  s.  si  ), 


A.D.6K7-5GG.]  THE  SCLAVONIANS.  313 

rians"*  and  the  Sclavonians.1*    According  to  the  Greek  writ- 

11  I  adopt  the  appellation  of  Bulgarians  from  Ennodius  (in  Panegyr.  Theodo 
rici,  Opp.  Sirmond,  torn.  i.  p.  1598,  1599),  Jornandes  (de  Kebus  Geticis,  c.  5,  p. 
194,  et  de  Eegu.  Successione,  p.  242),  Theophanes  (p.  185  [torn.  i.  p.  338,  edit. 
BonnJ),  and  the  Chronicles  of  Cassiodorus  and  Marcellinus.  The  name  of  Huns 
is  too  vague ;  the  tribes  of  the  Cutturgurians  and  Utturgurians  are  too  minute 
and  too  harsh.  

•  The  ethnological  relations  of  the  Bulgarians  are  discussed  in  a  note  on  c.  Iv. 
init.,  where  Gibbon  relates  their  history.  It  is  sufficient  to  remark  here  that  the 
Greek  writers  correctly  represented  the  Bulgarians  as  deriving  their  descent  from 
the  Huns,  and  that  consequently  the  Bulgarians  belonged  to  the  Turkish  race. 
See  note,  vol.  iii.  p.  113. — S. 

b  The  Sclavonians  or  Slavonians  belong,  as  is  well  known,  to  the  great  Indo- 
European  family  of  nations.  They  are  mentioned  by  classical  writers  under  the 
name  of  Sarmatians.  (See  editor's  note,  vol.  ii.  p.  339.)  The  Sarmatians  were 
driven  out  of  their  seats  on  the  Danube  and  on  the  Pontus  by  the  Goths  and  the 
Huns,  and  retired  towards  the  north.  But  upon  the  downfall  of  the  empire  of 
the  Huns,  and  upon  the  emigration  of  the  Goths  from  the  Danube,  they  again 
pressed  towards  the  south,  and  appeared  in  their  former  seats  on  the  Pontus  and 
the  Lower  Danube.  An  account  of  them  is  given  in  the  reign  of  Justinian  both  by 
Jornandes  and  Procopius.  Jornandes  distinguishes  them  by  the  collective  name 
of  Winidas,  which  is  the  same  as  the  term  Wends,  the  name  given  by  the  Germans 
at  the  present  day  to  all  Slavonians.  These  Winidse  he  divides  into  two  principal 
tribes,  named  Sclaveni  and  Antes — the  Sclaveni  being  the  western  division,  occu- 
pying the  country  between  the  Danube  and  the  Dniester,  and  extending  as  far  as 
the  Vistula ;  and  the  Antes  the  eastern  division,  extending  eastward  of  the  Scla- 
veni and  the  Dniester  to  the  Dnieper  and  the  coast  of  the  Euxine.  (Jornandes, 
de  Reb.  Getic.  c.  5.)  In  another  passage  (c.  23)  the  same  writer  speaks  of  three 
Slavonic  tribes,  called  Veneti,  Antes,  and  Sclavi,  or  Sclaveni ;  but  it  is  clear  that 
these  Veneti  are  the  same  as  the  Winidas,  the  collective  name  of  the  people.  Pro- 
copius in  like  manner  makes  two  principal  divisions  of  the  Slavonians,  namely, 
Sclaveni  (2(e\aj3?jvoi)  and  Anta3  ("Avrai),  the  former  dwelling  westward  and  the 
latter  eastward.  (Hist.  Arc.  c.  18 ;  Bell.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  27 ;  1.  ii.  c.  15  ;  lib.  iv.  c.  4.) 
But  instead  of  designating  the  whole  nation  by  the  German  name  of  Winidse  or 
Wends,  he  uses  Spori  (27ropot)  as  their  collective  name  (Bell.  Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  14). 
This  term  Spori  is  probably  only  another  form  of  the  word  Serb,  which  was  the 
name  of  several  tribes  of  the  Slavonic  family. 

The  best  modern  writers  on  the  history  and  languages  of  the  Slavonians  have 
also  divided  the  nation  into  two  great  branches,  a  western  one  corresponding  to 
the  Sclaveni,  and  an  eastern  one  corresponding  to  the  Antes,  the  distinction  be- 
tween these  being  founded  upon  the  languages  spoken  by  the  tribes  belonging  to 
either  division.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  tribes  of  the  two  classes,  but  a  more 
particular  account  of  them  will  be  given  as  their  names  occur  in  Gibbon's  text : 

I.  Western  Slavonians. — 1.  The  Bohemians,  called  by  other  Slaves  Tschechi 
or  Chechi,  Bohemia  being  the  name  not  of  the  people  but  of  the  country.  2.  The 
Slovaks,  inhabiting  the  northwestern  parts  of  Hungary.  Before  the  arrival  of  the 
Magyars,  the  greater  part  of  Hungary  was  inhabited  by  Slavonic  tribes.  3.  The 
Lekhs  or  Poles.  "  Lekh  "  signifies  "  free  or  noble  men  ;"  and  those  who  dwelt  on 
She  plains  (polie)  of  the  Ukraine  were  first  called  "Polyane"  or  Poles,  that  is, 
"inhabitants  of  the  plains."  4.  The  Sorabians  and  Northern  Wends,  called  by 
themselves  Srbie,  extending  along  the  Baltic  from  the  Vistula  to  the  Elbe. 

II.  Eastern  Slavonians. — 1.  The  Russians.  See  editor's  note,  ch.  Iv.  note  43. 
2.  The  Servians,  inhabiting  the  Turkish  and  Austrian  provinces  of  Servia,  Bosnia, 
Herzegovina,  Montenegro,  Dalmatia,  Slavonia,  and  the  eastern  part  of  Croatia, 


314  THE  SCLAVONICS.  [Ch.  XLII. 

ers,  the  former,  who  touched  the  Euxine  and  the  lake  Msso- 
The  scia-  ^s?  derived  from  the  Huns  their  name  or  descent ; 
vouians.  and  it  is  needless  to  renew  the  simple  and  well- 
known  picture  of  Tartar  manners.  They  were  bold  and  dex- 
terous archers,  who  drank  the  milk  and  feasted  on  the  flesh 
of  their  fleet  and  indefatigable  horses;  whose  flocks  and 
herds  followed,  or  rather  guided,  the  motions  of  their  roving 
camps ;  to  whose  inroads  no  country  was  remote  or  impervi- 
ous, and  who  were  practised  in  flight,  though  incapable  of  fear. 
The  nation  was  divided  into  two  powerful  and  hostile  tribes, 
who  pursued  each  other  with  fraternal  hatred.  They  eagerly 
disputed  the  friendship  or  rather  the  gifts  of  the  emperor; 
and  the  distinction  which  nature  had  fixed  between  the  faith- 
ful dog  and  the  rapacious  wolf  was  applied  by  an  ambassador 
who  received  only  verbal  instructions  from  the  mouth  of  his 
illiterate  prince.14  The  Bulgarians,  of  whatsoever  species, 
were  equally  attracted  by  Eoman  wealth :  they  assumed  a 
vague  dominion  over  the  Sclavonian  name,  and  their  rapid 
marches  could  only  be  stopped  by  the  Baltic  Sea,  or  the  ex- 
treme cold  and  poverty  of  the  north.  But  the  same  race  of 
Sclavonians  appears  to  have  maintained,  in  every  age,  the  pos- 
session of  the  same  countries.  Their  numerous  tribes,  how- 
ever distant  or  adverse,  used  one  common  language  (it  was 
harsh  and  irregular),  and  were  known  by  the  resemblance  of 
their  form,  which  deviated  from  the  swarthy  Tartar,  and  ap- 
proached without  attaining  the  lofty  stature  and  fair  com- 

12  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  iv„  c.  19  [torn.  ii.  p„  556,  edit.  Bonn]).  His  verbal  mes- 
sage (he  owns  himself  an  illiterate  barbarian)  is  delivered  as  an  epistle.  The  style 
is  savage,  figurative,  and  original 


8.  The  Croats,  inhabiting  the  Austrian  kingdom  of  Croatia.  4.  The  Wends,  called 
by  themselves  Slovenzi,  inhabiting  Carinthia,  Carniola,  Styria,  and  Eisenburg,  and 
Saala  in  Hungary. 

The  name  of  Slavi,  or  Slavonians,  is  derived  by  most  modern  writers  from 
" Slowane,"  "the  speakers,"  in  opposition  to  Niem,  "the  dumb,"  that  is,  the 
strangers,  the  name  especially  applied  by  the  Slavonians  to  the  Teutonic  nations. 
The  name  of  Slavonians  is  of  course  the  same  as  that  of  the  Sclaveni,  one  of  the 
two  great  divisions  of  the  nation ;  and  this  name  in  course  of  time  supplanted 
that  of  the  Antse,  and  became  the  collective  appellation  of  the  whole  people.  See 
Zeuss,  Die  Deutschen  und  die  Nachbarstamme,  p.  592  seq. ;  Schafarik,  Slawischd 
Alterthumer,  Leipzig.  1843;  Prichard,  Researches  into  the  Physical  History  of 
Mankind,  vol.  iii.  p.  404,  seq. — S. 


A.D.  527-565.]  THE  SCLAVONIANS.  315 

plexion  of  the  German.  Four  thousand  six  hundred  vil- 
lages18 were  scattered  over  the  provinces  of  Bussia  and  Po- 
land, and  their  huts  were  hastily  built  of  rough  timber,  in  a 
country  deficient  both  in  stone  and  iron.  Erected,  or  rather 
concealed,  in  the  depth  of  forests,  on  the  banks  of  rivers,  or 
the  edge  of  morasses,  we  may  not  perhaps,  without  flattery, 
compare  them  to  the  architecture  of  the  beaver,  which  they 
resembled  in  a  double  issue,  to  the  land  and  water,  for  the  es- 
cape of  the  savage  inhabitant,  an  animal  less  cleanly,  less  dili- 
gent, and  less  social,  than  that  marvellous  quadruped.  The 
fertility  of  the  soil,  rather  than  the  labor  of  the  natives,  sup- 
plied the  rustic  plenty  of  the  Sclavonians.  Their  sheep  and 
horned  cattle  were  large  and  numerous,  and  the  fields  which 
they  sowed  with  millet  and  panic14  afforded,  in  the  place  of 
bread,  a  coarse  and  less  nutritive  food.  The  incessant  rapine 
of  their  neighbors  compelled  them  to  bury  this  treasure  in 
the  earth ;  but  on  the  appearance  of  a  stranger  it  was  freely 
imparted  by  a  people  whose  unfavorable  character  is  qualified 
bj  the  epithets  of  chaste,  patient,  and  hospitable.  As  their 
supreme  god,  they  adored  an  invisible  master  of  the  thunder. 
The  rivers  and  the  nymphs  obtained  their  subordinate  hon- 
ors, and  the  popular  worship  was  expressed  in  vows  and  sac- 
rifice. The  Sclavonians  disdained  to  obey  a  despot,  a  prince, 
or  even  a  magistrate ;  but  their  experience  was  too  narrow, 
their  passions  too  headstrong,  to  compose  a  system  of  equal 
law  or  general  defence.     Some  voluntary  respect  was  yielded 

13  This  sum  is  the  result  of  a  particular  list,  in  a  curious  MS.  fragment  of  the 
year  550,  found  in  the  library  of  Milan.a  The  obscure  geography  of  the  timea 
provokes  and  exercises  the  patience  of  the  Count  de  Buat  (torn.  xi.  p.  69-189^ 
The  French  minister  often  loses  himself  in  a  wilderness  which  requires  a  Saxon 
and  Polish  guide. 

14  Panicum,  milium.  See  Columella,  I.  ii.  c.  9,  p.  430,  edit.  Gesner.  Plin. 
Hist.  Natur.  xviii.  24,  25.  The  Sarmatians  made  a  pap  of  millet,  miagled  with 
mare's  milk  or  blood.  In  the  wealth  of  modern  husbandry,  our  millet  feeds  poul- 
try, and  not  heroes.     See  the  dictionaries  of  Bomare  and  Miller. 


*  Karamsin,  a  learned  Sclavonian  scholar,  has  examined  this  list,  and  says  that 
it  contains  many  words  which  are  not  Sclavonic.  He  deems  it  unworthy  of  cred- 
it. See  Prichard,  Researches  into  tu©  Physical  History  of  Mankind,  vol.  iii.  p. 
407.  -S 


31G  INROADS  OF  THE  SCLAVONIANS.  [Ch.XLIL 

to  age  and  valor;  but  each  tribe  or  village  existed  as  a  sepa- 
rate republic,  and  all  must  be  persuaded  where  none  could  be 
compelled.  They  fought  on  foot,  almost  naked,  and,  except 
an  unwieldy  shield, without  any  defensive  armor:  their  weap- 
ons of  offence  were  a  bow,  a  quiver  of  small  poisoned  arrows, 
and  a  long  rope,  which  they  dexterously  threw  from  a  dis- 
tance, and  entangled  their  enemy  in  a  running  noose.  In  the 
field,  the  Sclavonian  infantry  was  dangerous  by  their  speed, 
agility,  and  hardiness :  they  swam,  they  dived,  they  remained 
under  water,  drawing  their  breath  through  a  hollow  cane ; 
and  a  river  or  lake  was  often  the  scene  of  their  unsuspected 
ambuscade.  But  these  wrere  the  achievements  of  spies  or 
stragglers:  the  military  art  was  unknown  to  the  Sclavonians; 
their  name  was  obscure,  and  their  conquests  were  inglo- 
rious.16 

I  have  marked  the  faint  and  general  outline  of  the  Sclavo- 
nians and  Bulgarians,  without  attempting  to  define  their  in- 
Their  in-  terinediate  boundaries,  which  were  not  accurately 
roads.  known  or  respected  by  the  barbarians  themselves. 
Their  importance  was  measured  by  their  vicinity  to  the  em- 
pire ;  and  the  level  country  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  was 
occupied  by  the  Antes,16  a  Sclavonian  tribe,  wdiich  swelled 
the  titles  of  Justinian  with  an  epithet  of  conquest."  Against 
the  Antes  he  erected  the  fortifications  of  the  Lower  Danube, 
and  labored  to  secure  the  alliance  of  a  people  seated  in  the 

16  For  the  name  and  nation,  the  situation  and  manners,  of  the  Sclavonians,  see 
the  original  evidence  of  the  sixth  century,  in  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  26 ;  1.  iii. 
c.  14),  and  the  emperor  Mauritius  or  Maurice  (Stratagemat.  1.  xi.  c.  5,  apud  Mas- 
cou,  Annotat.  xxxi.).  The  Stratagems  of  Maurice  have  been  printed  only,  as  I 
understand,  at  the  end  of  Scheffer's  edition  of  Arrian's  Tactics,  at  Upsal,  1664 
(Fabric.  Bibliot.  Graec.  1.  iv.  c.  8,  torn.  iii.  p.  278),  a  scarce,  and  hitherto,  to  me, 
an  inaccessible  book. 

16  Antes  eorum  fortissimi  *  *  *  Taysis  [Tausis]  qui  rapidus  et  verticosus  in 
Histri  fluenta  furens  devolvitur  (Jornandes,  c.  5,  p.  194,  edit.  Murator.  Proco- 
pius, Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  14,  et  de  iEdific.  1.  iv.  c.  7).  Yet  the  same  Procopius  men- 
tions the  Goths  and  Huns  as  neighbors,  ytiTovovvTa,  to  the  Danube  (de  iEdific. 
1.  iv.  c.  1). 

II  The  national  title  of  Anticus,  in  the  laws  and  inscriptions  of  Justinian,  was 
adopted  by  his  successors,  and  is  justified  by  the  pious  Ludewig  (in  Vit.  Justinian, 
p.  515).     It  had  strangely  puzzled  the  civilians  of  the  Middle  Age. 


A.D.  527-565.]    INROADS  OF  THE  SCLAVONIANS  317 

direct  channel  of  northern  inundation,  an  interval  of  two 
hundred  miles  between  the  mountains  of  Transylvania  and 
the  Euxiue  Sea.  But  the  Antes  wanted  power  and  inclina- 
tion to  stem  the  fury  of  the  torrent :  and  the  light-armed 
Sclavonians  from  a  hundred  tribes  pursued  with  almost  equal 
speed  the  footsteps  of  the  Bulgarian  horse.  The  payment 
of  one  piece  of  gold  for  each  soldier  procured  a  safe  and  easy 
retreat  through  the  country  of  the  Gepid£e,  who  commanded 
the  passage  of  the  Upper  Danube.18  The  hopes  or  fears  of 
the  barbarians,  their  intestine  union  or  discord,  the  accident 
of  a  frozen  or  shallow  stream,  the  prospect  of  harvest  or  vin- 
tage, the  prosperity  or  distress  of  the  Romans,  were  the  causes 
which  produced  the  uniform  repetition  of  annual  visits,19  te- 
dious in  the  narrative,  and  destructive  in  the  event.  The 
same  year,  and  possibly  the  same  month,  in  which  Ravenna 
surrendered,  was  marked  by  an  invasion  of  the  Huns  or  Bul- 
garians, so  dreadful  that  it  almost  effaced  the  memory  of  their 
past  inroads.  They  spread  from  the  suburbs  of  Constantino- 
ple to  the  Ionian  Gulf,  destroyed  thirty-two  cities  or  castles, 
erased  Potidsea,  which  Athens  had  built,  and  Philip  had  be- 
sieged, and  repassed  the  Danube,  dragging  at  their  horses' 
heels  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  of  the  subjects  of 
Justinian.  In  a  subsequent  inroad  they  pierced  the  wall  of 
the  Thracian  Chersonesus,  extirpated  the  habitations  and  the 
inhabitants,  boldly  traversed  the  Hellespont,  and  returned  to 
their  companions  laden  with  the  spoils  of  Asia.  Another 
party,  which  seemed  a  multitude  in  the  eyes  of  the  Romans, 
penetrated  without  opposition  from  the  straits  of  Thermop- 
yles  to  the  isthmus  of  Corinth ;  and  the  last  ruin  of  Greece 
has  appeared  an  object  too  minute  for  the  attention  of  histo- 
ry. The  works  which  the  emperor  raised  for  the  protection, 
but  at  the  expense,  of  his  subjects,  served  only  to  disclose  the 
weakness  of  some  neglected  part ;  and  the  walls,  which  by 
flattery  had  been  deemed  impregnable,  were  either  deserted 

18  Procopius,  Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  25  [torn.  ii.  p.  592,  edit.  Bonn]. 

19  An  inroad  of  the  Huns  is  connected  by  Procopius  with  a  comet ;  perhaps 
that  of  531  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  4).  Agathias  (1.  v.  [c.  11]  p.  154,  155  [p.  300,  edit. 
Bonnp  borrows  from  his  predecessor  some  early  facts. 


318  INROADS  OF  THE  SCLAVONIANS.  [Ch.  XLIL 

by  the  garrison  or  scaled  by  the  barbarians.  Three  thousand 
Sclavonians,  who  insolently  divided  themselves  into  two  bands, 
discovered  the  weakness  and  misery  of  a  triumphant  reign, 
They  passed  the  Danube  and  the  Hebrus,  vanquished  the  Ro- 
man generals  wrho  dared  to  oppose  their  progress,  and  plun- 
dered with  impunity  the  cities  of  Illyricum  and  Thrace,  each 
of  which  had  arms  and  numbers  to  overwhelm  their  con- 
temptible assailants.  Whatever  praise  the  boldness  of  the 
Sclavonians  may  deserve,  it  is  sullied  by  the  wanton  and  de- 
liberate cruelty  which  they  are  accused  of  exercising  on  their 
prisoners.  Without  distinction  of  rank  or  age  or  sex,  the 
captives  were  impaled  or  flayed  alive,  or  suspended  between 
four  posts,  and  beaten  with  clubs  till  they  expired,  or  enclosed 
in  some  spacious  building,  and  left  to  perish  in  the  flames  with 
the  spoil  and  cattle  which  might  impede  the  march  of  these 
savage  victors.20  Perhaps  a  more  impartial  narrative  would 
reduce  the  number  and  qualify  the  nature  of  these  horrid 
acts,  and  they  might  sometimes  be  excused  by  the  cruel  laws 
of  retaliation.  In  the  siege  of  Topirus,21  whose  obstinate 
defence  had  enraged  the  Sclavonians,  they  massacred  fifteen 
thousand  males,  but  they  spared  the  women  and  children  ;  the 
most  valuable  captives  were  always  reserved  for  labor  or  ran- 
som ,  the  servitude  was  not  rigorous,  and  the  terms  of  their 
deliverance  were  speedy  and  moderate.  But  the  subject,  or 
the  historian  of  Justinian,  exhaled  his  just  indignation  in  the 
language  of  complaint  and  reproach  ;  and  Procopius  has  con- 
fidently affirmed  that  in  a  reign  of  thirty-two  years  each  an- 
nual inroad  of  the  barbarians  consumed  two  hundred  thou- 
sand of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Roman  empire.  The  entire 
population  of  Turkish  Europe,  which  nearly  corresponds  with 
the  provinces  of  Justinian,  would  perhaps  be  incapable   of 


20  The  cruelties  of  the  Sclavonians  are  related  or  magnified  by  Procopius  (Goth. 
1.  iii.  c.  29,  38).  For  their  mild  and  liberal  behavior  to  their  prisoners  we  may- 
appeal  to  the  authority,  somewhat  more  recent,  of  the  Emperor  Maurice  (Strata- 
gem. 1.  xi.  c.  5  [p.  272  seq.]). 

21  Topirus  was  situate  near  Philippi  in  Thrace,  or  Macedonia,  opposite  to  the 
isle  of  Thasos,  twelve  days' journey  from  Constantinople  (Cellarius,  torn.  i.  p.  67^ 
840). 


A.D.  545.]  ORIGIN  OF  THE  TURKS.  319 

supplying  six  millions  of  persons,  the  result  of  this  incredible 
estimate." 

In  the  midst  of  these  obscure  calamities,  Europe  felt  the 

shock  of  a  revolution,  which  first  revealed  to  the  world  the 

name  and  nation  of  the  Turks.*    Like  Romulus, 

monarchy  of    the  founder  of  that  martial  people  was  suckled  by 

in  Asia.         a  she-wolf,  who  afterwards  made  him  the  father  of  a 

a.d.  545,  etc  „     , 

numerous  progeny ;  and  the  representation  ot  that 
animal  in  the  banners  of  the  Turks  preserved  the  memory, 
or  rather  suggested  the  idea,  of  a  fable  which  was  invented, 
without  any  mutual  intercourse,  by  the  shepherds  of  Latium 
and  those  of  Scythia,  At  the  equal  distance  of  two  thousand 
miles  from  the  Caspian,  the  Icy,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Bengal 
seas,  a  ridge  of  mountains  Is  conspicuous,  the  centre,  and  per- 
haps the  summit,  of  Asia,  which,  in  the  language  of  different 

22  According  to  the  malevolent  testimony  of  the  Anecdotes  (a  18  [torn.  lii.  p„ 
108,  edit,  Bonn])  these  inroads  had  reduced  the  provinces  sooth  of  the  Danube 
to  the  state  of  a  Scythian  wilderness. 


a  The  name  Turks  is  the  collective  appellation  of  a  vast  number  of  tribes  ex- 
tending from  the  neighborhood  of  the  lake  Baikal,  110°  E„  longitude,  So  the  east- 
ern boundaries  of  the  Greek  and  Sclavonic  countries  of  Europe.  A  list  of  the  va° 
rious  Turkish  tribes  is  given  in  editor's  note,  vol.  iii.  p.  108.  Although  the  namo 
of  the  Turks*  first  became  known  to  the  western  nations  in  the  sixth  century,  the 
people  had  appeared  in  the  west  a  century  earlier,  for  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  Huns  belonged  to  the  Turkish  stock.     (See  note,  vol,  iii.  p.  113.) 

The  Turks  of  Mount  Altai  are  called  Thu-kiu  by  the  Chinese  writers,  and  are 
regarded  as  the  same  people  as  the  Hiong-nu  of  earlier  times.  Abel-Rernusat  and 
Klaproth  assure  us  that  numerous  words  are  preserved  by  Chinese  writers  from 
the  idiom  of  the  Thu-kiu,  which  are  to  be  recognized  in  the  modern  Turkish.  The 
name  of  Thu-kiu  first  appears  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  in  the  Chinese 
writers,  who  relate  that  500  families  of  the  Hiong-nu,  under  the  leader  Assena, 
abandoned  their  abodes  in  Pe-leang,  and  settled  at  the  foot  of  a  helmet-shaped 
mountain,  from  which  circumstance  they  derived  their  name.  The  Chinese  name 
of  the  people  appears  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  Turkish  word  ' '  terlc, "  which  sig- 
nifies a  "helmet."  The  Thu-kiu,  became  very  powerful  under  their  leader  Tu- 
mere,  who  conquered  the  Jeujen  (the  Geougen  of  Gibbon),  united  under  his  sway 
all  the  Turkish  tribes  in  Central  and  Northern  Asia,  and  assumed  the  title  of 
Chagan  or  Khan,  a.d.  546.  Tumere  seems  to  have  been  succeeded  by  Disabul, 
to  whom  the  embassy  mentioned  below  was  sent  by  Justin  II.,  a.d.  569  (Remusat, 
Recherches  stir  les  Langues  Tartares  ;  Klaproth,  Asia  Polyglotta,  p.  212  ;  Gabe- 
lentz,  Ueber  den  Namen  Tiirken,  in  Zeitschrift  fur  die  Kunde  des  Mcrgenlandea. 
vol.  ii.  p.  70  ;  Neumann,  Die  Volker  des  siidlichen  Russlands5  p.  85  ;  Prichard, 
Researches  into  the  Physical  History  of  Mankind,  vol  iv.  p.  310). — S. 


*  The  name  Turcfe,  in  most  editions  of  Pomponins  Mela  (lib.  i.  c.  19)  and  Pliny  (1.  7i.  c.  7), 
is  borrowed  from  the  'Iuokcu  of  Herodotus  (iv.  22),  and  ought  to  be  written  lyrcce.  These 
lyrcse  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Turks, 


320  ORIGIN  AND  MONARCHY  OF  [Ch.  XLIL 

nations,  has  been  styled  Imaus,  and  Caf,89  and  Altai,  and  the 
Golden  Mountains,8,  and  the  Girdle  of  the  Earth.  The  sides 
of  the  hills  were  productive  of  minerals ;  and  the  iron-forges,8* 
for  the  purpose  of  war,  were  exercised  by  the  Turks,  the  most 
despised  portion  of  the  slaves  of  the  great  khan  of  the  Geou- 
gen.  But  their  servitude  could  only  last  till  a  leader,  bold 
and  eloquent,  should  arise  to  persuade  his  countrymen  that 
the  same  arms  which  they  forged  for  their  masters  might 
become  in  their  own  hands  the  instruments  of  freedom  and 
victory.  They  sallied  from  the  mountain  ;26  a  sceptre  was  the 
reward  of  his  advice ;  and  the  annual  ceremony,  in  which  a 
piece  of  iron  was  heated  in  the  fire,  and  a  smith's  hammer1* 
was  successively  handled,  by  the  prince  and  his  nobles,  re- 
corded for  ages  the  humble  profession  and  rational  pride  of 
the  Turkish  nation.     Bertezena,0  their  first  leader,  signalized 

23  From  Caf  to  Caf ;  which  a  more  rational  geography  would  interpret,  from 
Imaus,  perhaps,  to  Mount  Atlas.  According  to  the  religious  philosophy  of  tha 
Mahometans,  the  basis  of  Mount  Caf  is  an  emerald,  whose  reflection  produces  the 
azure  of  the  sky.  The  mountain  is  endowed  with  a  sensitive  action  in  its  roots 
or  nerves ;  and  their  vibration,  at  the  command  of  God,  is  the  cause  of  earth- 
quakes (D'Herbelot,  p.  230,  231). 

24  The  Siberian  iron  is  the  best  and  most  plentiful  in  the  world :  and  In  the 
southern  parts  above  sixty  mines  are  now  worked  by  the  industry  of  the  Rus- 
sians (Strahlenberg,  Hist,  of  Siberia,  p.  342,  387 ;  Voyage  en  SibeVie,  par  TAbbe 
Chappe  d'Auteroche,  p.  603-608,  edit,  in  12mo,  Amsterdam,  1770).  The  Turks 
offered  iron  for  sale  ;  yet  the  Roman  ambassadors,  with  strange  obstinacy,  per- 
sisted in  believing  that  it  was  all  a  trick,  and  that  their  country  produced  none 
(Menander  in  Excerpt.  Leg.  p.  152  [edit.  Par.  ;  p.  380,  edit.  Bonn]). 

25  Of  Irgana-kon  (Abuighazi  Khan,  Hist.  Ge'nealogique  des  Tatars,  P.  ii.  ch.  5, 
p.  71-77,  ch.  15,  p.  1 55).  The  tradition  of  the  Moguls,  of  the  450  years  which  they 
passed  in  the  mountains,  agrees  with  the  Chinese  periods  of  the  history  of  the 
Huns  and  Turks  (De  Guignes,  torn.  i.  part  ii.  p.  376),  and  the  twenty  generations 
from  their  restoration  to  Zingis. 


*  Altai,  c.  e. ,  Altun  Tagh,  the  Golden  Mountain.  Von  Hammer,  Osman.  Ge- 
■chichte,  vol.  i.  p.  2. — M. 

b  The  Mongol  Temngin  is  also,  though  erroneously,  explained  by  Rubruquis,  a 
smith.     Schmidt,  p.  376.— M. 

c  There  appears  the  same  confusion  here.  Bertezena  (Berte-Scheno)  is  claimed 
as  the  founder  of  the  Mongol  race.  The  name  means  the  gray  (blauliche)  wolf. 
In  fact,  the  same  tradition  of  the  origin  from  a  wolf  seems  common  to  the  Mon- 
gols and  the  Turks.  The  Mongol  Berte-Scheno,  of  the  very  curious  Mongol  His- 
tory published  and  translated  by  M.  Schmidt  of  Petersburg,  is  brought  from  Thi- 
bet.    M.  Schmidt  considers  this  tradition  of  the  Thibetane  descent  of  the  royal 


a.d.  545.]  THE  TUEKS  IN  ASIA.  321 

their  valor  and  his  own  in  successful  combats  against  the 
neighboring  tribes;  but  when  he  presumed  to  ask  in  mar- 
riage the  daughter  of  the  great  khan,  the  insolent  demand  of 
a  slave  and  a  mechanic  was  contemptuously  rejected.  The 
disgrace  was  expiated  by  a  more  noble  alliance  with  a  prin- 
cess of  China ;  and  the  decisive  battle  which  almost  extirpated 
the  nation  of  the  Geougen  established  in  Tartary  the  new 
and  more  powerful  empire  of  the  Turks.  They  reigned  over 
the  North ;  but  they  confessed  the  vanity  of  conquest  by  their 
faithful  attachment  to  the  mountain  of  their  fathers.  The 
royal  encampment  seldom  lost  sight  of  Mount  Altai,  from 
whence  the  river  Irtish  descends  to  water  the  rich  pastures 
of  the  Calmucks,28  which  nourish  the  largest  sheep  and  oxen 
in  the  world.  The  soil  is  fruitful,  and  the  climate  mild  and 
temperate :  the  happy  region  was  ignorant  of  earthquake  and 
pestilence ;  the  emperor's  throne  was  turned  towards  the  east, 
and  a  golden  wolf  on  the  top  of  a  spear  seemed  to  guard  the 
entrance  of  his  tent.  One  of  the  successors  of  Bertezena  was 
tempted  by  the  luxury  and  superstition  of  China ;  but  his  de- 
sign of  building  cities  and  temples  was  defeated  by  the  sim- 
ple wisdom  of  a  barbarian  counsellor.  "  The  Turks,"  he  said, 
"  are  not  equal  in  number  to  one  hundredth  part  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  China.  If  we  balance  their  power  and  elude  their 
armies,  it  is  because  we  wander  without  any  fixed  habita- 
tions in  the  exercise  of  war  and  hunting.  Are  we  strong  ? 
we  advance  and  conquer :  are  we  feeble  ?  we  retire  and  are 
concealed.  Should  the  Turks  confine  themselves  within  tlja 
walls  of  cities,  the  loss  of  a  battle  would  be  the  destruction 
of  their  empire.  The  bonzes  preach  only  patience,  humility, 
and  the  renunciation  of  the  world.  Such,  O  king !  is  not  the 
religion  of  heroes."      They  entertained  with  less  reluctance 

26  The  country  of  the  Turks,  now  of  the  Calmucks,  is  well  described  in  tha 
Genealogical  History,  p.  521-562.  The  curious  notes  of  the  French  translator 
are  enlarged  and  digested  in  the  second  volume  of  the  English  version. 


race  of  the  Mongols  to  be  much  earlier  than  their  conversion  to  Lnmaism,  yet  it 
seems  very  suspicious.  See  Elaproth,  Tabl.  de  l'Asie,  p.  159.  The  Turkish  Ber- 
tezena is  called  Thou-men  by  Klaproth,  p.  115.  In  552  Thou-men  took  the  titla 
of  Kha-Khan,  and  was  called  II  Khan.— M. 

IV.— 21 


822  ORIGIN  AND  MONARCHY  OF  [Ch.  XLIi. 

the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster;  but  the  greatest  part  of  the  na- 
tion acquiesced  without  inquiry  in  the  opinions,  or  rather  in 
the  practice,  of  their  ancestors.  The  honors  of  sacrifice  were 
reserved  for  the  supreme  deity ;  they  acknowledged  in  rude 
hymns  their  obligations  to  the  air,  the  fire,  the  water,  and  the 
earth ;  and  their  priests  derived  some  profit  from  the  art  of 
divination.  Their  unwritten  laws  were  rigorous  and  impar- 
tial :  theft  was  punished  by  a  tenfold  restitution ;  adultery, 
treason,  and  murder  with  death ;  and  no  chastisement  could 
be  inflicted  too  severe  for  the  rare  and  inexpiable  guilt  of 
cowardice.  As  the  subject  nations  marched  under  the  stand 
ard  of  the  Turks,  their  cavalry,  both  men  and  horses,  were 
proudly  computed  by  millions ;  one  of  their  effective  armies 
consisted  of  four  hundred  thousand  soldiers,  and  in  less  than 
fifty  years  they  were  connected  in  peace  and  war  with  the 
Eomans,  the  Persians,  and  the  Chinese.  In  their  northern 
limits  some  vestige  may  be  discovered  of  the  form  and  situ- 
ation of  Kamtchatka,  of  a  people  of  hunters  and  fishermen, 
whose  sledges  were  drawn  by  dogs,  and  whose  habitations 
were  buried  in  the  earth.  The  Turks  were  ignorant  of  as- 
tronomy; but  the  observation  taken  by  some  learned  Chi- 
nese, with  a  gnomon  of  eight  feet,  fixes  the  royal  camp  in  the 
latitude  of  forty-nine  degrees,  and  marks  their  extreme  prog- 
ress within  three,  or  at  least  ten,  degrees  of  the  polar  circle.27 
Amoug  their  southern  conquests  the  most  splendid  was  that 
of  the  Kephthalites,  or  White  Huns,  a  polite  and  warlike  peo- 
ple, who  possessed  the  commercial  cities  of  Bochara  and  Sam- 
arcand,  who  had  vanquished  the  Persian  monarch,  and  car- 
ried  their  victorious  arms  along  the  banks  and  perhaps  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Indus.  On  the  side  of  the  west  the  Turkish 
cavalry  advanced  to  the  lake  Mseotis.  They  passed  that  lake 
on  the  ice.  The  khan^  who  dwelt  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Altai, 
issued  his  commands  for  the  siege  of  Bosphorus,88  a  city  the 

27  Visdelon,  p.  141, 151.  The  fact,  though  it  strictly  belongs  to  a  subordinate 
and  successive  tribe,  may  be  introduced  here. 

28  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  12;  1.  ii.  c.  3;  Peyssonel,  Observations  sur  les  Peu- 
ples  Barbares,  p.  99,  100)  defines  the  distance  between  CafFa  and  the  old  Bos- 
phorus  at  sixteen  long  Tartar  leagues. 


A.D.  545.1  THE  TURKS  IN  ASIA.  323 

voluntary  subject  of  Borne,  and  whose  princes  had  formerly 
been  the  friends  of  Athens.88  To  the  east  the  Turks  invaded 
China  as  often  as  the  vigor  of  the  government  was  relaxed: 
and  I  am  taught  to  read  in  the  history  of  the  times  that  they 
mowed  down  their  patient  enemies  like  hemp  or  grass,  and 
that  the  mandarins  applauded  the  wisdom  of  an  emperor  who 
repulsed  these  barbarians  with  golden  lances.  This  extent 
of  savage  empire  compelled  the  Turkish  monarch  to  establish 
three  subordinate  princes  of  his  own  blood,  who  soon  forgot 
their  gratitude  and  allegiance.  The  conquerors  were  ener- 
vated by  luxury,  which  is  always  fatal  except  to  an  industri- 
ous people ;  the  policy  of  China  solicited  the  vanquished  na- 
tions to  resume  their  independence;  and  the  power  of  the 
Turks  was  limited  to  a  period  of  two  hundred  years.  The 
revival  of  their  name  and  dominion  in  the  southern  countries 
of  Asia  are  the  events  of  a  later  age ;  and  the  dynasties  which 
succeeded  to  their  native  realms  may  sleep  in  oblivion,  since 
their  history  bears  no  relation  to  the  decline  and  fall  of  the 
Boman  empire.80 

In  the  rapid  career  of  conquest  the  Turks  attacked  and  sub- 
dued the  nation  of  the  Ogors,  or  Yarchonites,  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  Til,  which  derived  the  epithet  of  Black  from  its 
dark  water  or  gloomy  forests.31     The  khan  of  the  Ogors  was 

29  See,  in  a  Me'moire  of  M.  de  Boze  (Mem.  de  1'Acade'mie  des  Inscriptions, 
torn.  vi.  p.  549-565),  the  ancient  kings  and  medals  of  the  Cimmerian  Bocphoru3| 
and  the  gratitude  of  Athens,  in  the  Oration  of  Demosthenes  against  Leptines  (m 
Eeiske,  Orator.  Grsec.  torn.  i.  p.  466,  467). 

30  For  the  origin  and  revolutions  of  the  first  Turkish  empire,  the  Chinese  details 
are  borrowed  from  De  Guignes  (Hist,  des  Huns,  torn.  i.  pt.  ii.  p.  367-462)  and  Vis- 
delou  (Supple'ment  a  la  Bibliotheque  Orient.  d'Herbelot,  p.  82-114).  The  Greek 
or  Roman  hints  are  gathered  in  Menander  (p.  108-164  [p.  298,  \04,  edit.  Bonn]), 
and  Theophylact  Simocatta  (1.  vii.  c.  7,  8). 

31  The  river  Til,  or  Tula,  according  to  the  geography  of  De  Guignes  (torn.  i. 
pt.  ii.  p.  lviii.  and  352),  is  a  small,  though  grateful,  stream  of  the  desert,  that  falls 
into  the  Orhon,  Selinga,  etc.  See  Bell,  Journey  from  Petersburg  to  Pekin  (vol.  ii. 
p.  124) ;  yet  his  own  description  of  the  Keat,  down  which  he  sailed  into  the  Oby, 
represents  the  name  and  attributes  of  the  black  river  (p.  139).a 


*  M.  Klaproth  (Tableaux  Historiques  de  1'Asie,  p.  274)  supposes  this  river  to 
be  an  eastern  affluent  of  the  Volga,  the  Kama,  which,  from  the  color  of  its  waters, 
might  be  called  black.     M.  Abel  Remusat  (Recherches  sur  les  Langues  TartareSj 


324  THE  AVARS  FLY  BEFORE  THE  TURKS.       [Ch.  XLIL 

slain  with  three  hundred  thousand  of  his  subjects,  and  their 
bodies  were  scattered  over  the  space  of  four  days' 
ay  beibre"the  journey :  their  surviving  countrymen  acknowledged 
prUoachath«ap*  the  strength  and  mercy  of  the  Turks ;  and  a  small 
portion,  about  twenty  thousand  warriors,  prefer- 
red exile  to  servitude.  They  followed  the  well-known  road 
of  the  Volga,  cherished  the  error  of  the  nations  who  con- 
founded them  with  the  Avars,*  and  spread  the  terror  of  that 
false,  though  famous  appellation,  which  had  not,  however, 
saved  its  lawful  proprietors  from  the  yoke  of  the  Turks.3* 
After  a  long  and  victorious  march  the  new  Avars  arrived  at 
the  foot  of  Mount  Caucasus,  in  the  country  of  the  Alani33  and 
Circassians,  where  they  first  heard  of  the  splendor  and  weak- 
ness of  the  Roman  empire.      They  humbly  requested  their 

82  Theophylact,  1.  vii.  c.  7,  8.  And  yet  his  true  Avars  are  invisible  even  to  the 
eyes  of  M.  de  Guignes;  and  what  can  be  more  illustrious  than  the  false?  The 
right  of  the  fugitive  Ogors  to  that  national  appellation  is  confessed  by  the  Turks 
themselves  (Menander,  p.  108). 

33  The  Alani  are  still  found  in  the  Genealogical  History  of  the  Tartars  (p.  61 7), 
and  in  D'Anville's  maps.  They  opposed  the  march  of  the  generals  of  Zingis 
round  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  were  overthrown  in  a  great  battle  (Hist,  de  Gengis- 
can,  1.  iv.  c.  9,,  p.  447). 

vol.  i.  p.  320)  and  M.  St.  Martin  (vol.  ix.  p.  373)  consider  it  the  Volga,  which  is 
called  Atel  or  Etel  by  all  the  Turkish  tribes.  It  is  called  Attilas  by  Menander, 
and  Ettilia  by  the  monk  Ruysbroek  (1253).  See  Klaproth,  Tabl.  Hist.  p.  247. 
This  geography  is  much  more  clear  and  simple  than  that  adopted  by  Gibbon  from 
De  Guignes,  or  suggested  from  Bell. — M. 

a  The  Avars,  like  the  Huns,  belonged  to  the  Turkish  stock.  Their  chiefs  bear 
the  Turkish  or  Mongolian  titles  of  chagan  or  khan  in  the  Byzantine  and  later 
writers,  by  whom  they  are  also  frequently  identified  with  the  Huns.  (Avare9 
primum  Huni,  postea  de  regis  proprii  nomine  Avares  appellati  sunt,  Paulus  Dia- 
conus,  i.  27.)  They  are  first  mentioned  after  the  downfall  of  the  empire  of  the 
Huns,  between  461  and  465,  as  devastating  the  lands  of  the  tribes  on  the  Masotis 
and  the  Caspian  Sea  (Friscus,  p.  158,  edit.  Bonn) ;  but  their  name  does  not  occur 
again  till  nearly  a  century  afterwards  on  the  occasion  mentioned  by  Gibbon,  when 
we  find  them,  after  long  wanderings,  settled  in  the  country  of  the  Caucasus.  On 
this  occasion  Theophylactus  (vii.  7,  8)  says  that  the  Avars  were  a  section  of  the 
ancient  tribes  of  the  Var  (Ovc'tp)  and  Chunni  (Xovvvi),  i.  e.,  Huns,  who  formed 
part  of  the  nation  called  Ogor  ('Oyoip).  They  are  also  called  Varchonites  (Ovap- 
Xuvltcii)  in  the  speech  of  Turxanth,  the  successor  of  Disabul,  to  Valentinus,  the 
ambassador  of  Tiberius,  a  name  which  appears  to  be  only  a  compound  of  Var  and 
Chuni  (Menander,  p.  400,  edit.  Bonn).  The  Ogor  of  Theophylactus  is  evidently 
the  same  name  as  that  of  the  Ouigours,  on  the  west  of  the  Mongol  frontier,  the 
most  anciently  civilized  tribe  of  the  Turkish  race.  See  Zeuss,  Die  Deutschen  und 
die  Nachbarstamme,  p.  727  seq. ;  Smith's  Diet,  of  Geogr.  vol.  L  p.  349  ;  Prichard, 
Researches,  etc.,  vol.  iv.  p.  349. — S. 


A.D.  558.]         THEIE  EMBASSY  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE.  325 

confederate,  the  prince  of  the  Alani,  to  lead  them  to  this 
source  of  riches;  and  their  ambassador, with  the  permission 
of  the  Governor  of  Lazica,  was  transported  bj  the  Euxine 
Sea  to  Constantinople.  The  whole  city  was  poured  forth  to 
behold  with  curiosity  and  terror  the  aspect  of  a  strange  peo- 
ple ;  their  long  hair,  which  hung  in  tresses  down  their  backs, 
was  gracefully  bound  with  ribbons,  but  the  rest  of  their  hab- 
Theirem-  &  appeared  to  imitate  the  fashion  of  the  Huns. 
Sfiuopte!,n"  When  they  were  admitted  to  the  audience  of  Jus- 
A.D.S58.  tinian,  Candish,  the  first  of  the  ambassadors,  ad- 
dressed the  Roman  emperor  in  these  terms :  "  You  see  be- 
fore you,  O  mighty  prince,  the  representatives  of  the  strong- 
est and  most  populous  of  nations,  the  invincible,  the  irresisti- 
ble Avars.  "We  are  willing  to  devote  ourselves  to  your  ser- 
vice :  we  are  able  to  vanquish  and  destroy  all  the  enemies  who 
now  disturb  your  repose.  But  we  expect,  as  the  price  of  our 
alliance,  as  the  reward  of  our  valor,  precious  gifts,  annual  sub- 
sidies, and  fruitful  possessions."  At  the  time  of  this  embassy 
Justinian  had  reigned  above  thirty,  he  had  lived  above  seven- 
ty-five years :  his  mind,  as  well  as  his  body,  was  feeble  and 
languid ;  and  the  conqueror  of  Africa  and  Italy,  careless  of 
the  permanent  interest  of  his  people,  aspired  only  to  end  his 
days  in  the  bosom  even  of  inglorious  peace.  In  a  studied 
oration,  he  imparted  to  the  senate  his  resolution  to  dissemble 
the  insult  and  to  purchase  the  friendship  of  the  Avars ;  and 
the  whole  senate,  like  the  mandarins  of  China,  applauded  the 
incomparable  wisdom  and  foresight  of  their  sovereign.  The 
instruments  of  luxury  were  immediately  prepared  to  capti- 
vate the  barbarians — silken  garments,  soft  and  splendid  beds, 
and  chains  and  collars  incrusted  with  gold.  The  ambassa- 
dors, content  with  such  liberal  reception,  departed  from  Con- 
stantinople, and  Yalentin,  one  of  the  emperor's  guards,  was 
sent  with  a  similar  character  to  their  camp  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Caucasus.  As  their  destruction  or  their  success  must 
be  alike  advantageous  to  the  empire,  he  persuaded  them  to 
invade  the  enemies  of  Rome ;  and  they  were  easily  tempted, 
by  gifts  and  promises,  to  gratify  their  ruling  inclinations. 
Thege  fugitives,  who  fled  before  the  Turkish  arme,  passed  the 


626  EMBASSIES  OF  THE  [Ch.  XLH. 

Tanais  and  Borysthenes,  and  boldly  advanced  into  the  heart 
of  Poland  and  Germany,  violating  the  law  of  nations  and 
abusing  the  rights  of  victory.  Before  ten  years  had  elapsed 
their  camps  were  seated  on  the  Danube  and  the  Elbe,  many 
Bulgarian  and  Sclavonian  names  were  obliterated  from  the 
earth,  and  the  remainder  of  their  tribes  are  found,  as  tributa- 
ries and  vassals,  under  the  standard  of  the  Avars.  The  cha- 
gan,  the  peculiar  title  of  their  king,  still  affected  to  cultivate 
the  friendship  of  the  emperor;  and  Justinian  entertained 
some  thoughts  of  fixing  them  in  Pannonia,  to  balance  the 
prevailing  power  of  the  Lombards.  But  the  virtue  or  treach- 
ery of  an  Avar  betrayed  the  secret  enmity  and  ambitious  de- 
signs of  their  countrymen ;  and  they  loudly  complained  of 
the  timid  though  jealous  policy  of  detaining  their  ambassa- 
dors, and  denying  the  arms  which  they  had  been  allowed  to 
purchase  in  the  capital  of  the  empire.34 

Perhaps  the  apparent  change  in  the  dispositions  of  the  em- 
perors may  be  ascribed  to  the  embassy  which  was  received 
Embassies  from  the  conquerors  of  the  Avars.86  The  immense 
audRo^ans.  distance  which  eluded  their  arms  could  not  ex- 
A.D.569-es2.  tinguish  their  resentment:  the  Turkish  ambassa- 
dors pursued  the  footsteps  of  the  vanquished  to  the  Jaik, 
the  Yolga,  Mount  Caucasus,  the  Euxine,  and  Constantinople, 
and  at  length  appeared  before  the  successor  of  Constan- 
tine,  to  request  that  he  would  not  espouse  the  cause  of  reb- 
els and  fugitives.  Even  commerce  had  some  share  in  this 
remarkable  negotiation  :  and  the  Sogdoites,  who  were  now 
the  tributaries  of  the  Turks,  embraced  the  fair  occasion  of 
opening,  by  the  north  of  the  Caspian,  a  new  road  for  the  im- 
portation of  Chinese  silk  into  the  Roman  empire.     The  Per- 

34  The  embassies  and  first  conquests  of  the  Avars  may  be  read  in  Menander 
(Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  99,  100,  101,  154,  155  [p.  282-287,  385-388,  edit.  Bonn']), 
Theophanes  (p.  196  [torn.  i.  p.  359,  edit.  Bonn]),  the  Historia  Miscella  (1.  xvi.  p. 
109),  and  Gregory  of  Tours  (1.  iv.  c.  23,  29,  in  the  Historians  of  France,  torn.  ii. 
p.  214,  217). 

35  Theophanes  (Chron.  p.  201)  and  the  Hist.  Miscella  (1.  xvi.  p.  110),  as  under- 
stood by  De  Guignes  (torn.  i.  part  ii.  p.  354),  appear  to  speak  of  a  Turkish  em- 
bassy to  Justinian  himself;  but  that  of  Maniach,  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  succes- 
sor Justin,  is  positively  the  first  that  reached  Constantinople  (Menander,  p.  108\ 


A.D.5G9-582.]  TURKS  AND  ROMANS.  327 

sian,  who  preferred  the  navigation  of  Ceylon,  had  stopped  the 
caravans  of  Bochara  and  Samarcand  :  their  silk  was  contempt- 
uously burned :  some  Turkish  ambassadors  died  in  Persia, 
with  a  suspicion  of  poison  ;  and  the  great  khan  permitted  his 
faithful  vassal  Maniach,  the  prince  of  the  Sogdoites,  to  pro- 
pose, at  the  Byzantine  court,  a  treaty  of  alliance  against  their 
common  enemies.  Their  splendid  apparel  and  rich  presents, 
the  fruit  of  Oriental  luxury,  distinguished  Maniach  and  his 
colleagues  from  the  rude  savages  of  the  North  :  their  letters, 
in  the  Scythian  character  and  language,  announced  a  people 
who  had  attained  the  rudiments  of  science  :S6  they  enumerated 
the  conquests,  they  offered  the  friendship  and  military  aid,  of 
the  Turks ;  and  their  sincerity  was  attested  by  direful  impre- 
cations (if  they  were  guilty  of  falsehood)  against  their  own 
head  and  the  head  of  Disabul  their  master.a  The  Greek 
prince  entertained  with  hospitable  regard  the  ambassadors  of 
a  remote  and  powerful  monarch :  the  sight  of  silk-worms  and 
looms  disappointed  the  hopes  of  the  Sogdoites ;  the  emperor 
renounced,  or  seemed  to  renounce,  the  fugitive  Avars,  brat  he 
accepted  the  alliance  of  the  Turks;  and  the  ratification  of 
the  treaty  was  carried  by  a  Roman  minister  to  the  foot  of 
Mount  Altai.  Under  the  successors  of  Justinian  the  friend- 
ship of  the  two  nations  was  cultivated  by  frequent  and  cor- 
dial intercourse ;  the  most  favored  vassals  were  permitted  to 
imitate  the  example  of  the  great  khan ;  and  one  hundred  and 
six  Turks,  who  on  various  occasions  had  visited  Constantino- 

S6  The  Russians  have  found  characters,  rude  hieroglyphics,  on  the  Irtish  and 
Yenisei,  on  medals,  tombs,  idols,  rocks,  obelisks,  etc.  (Strahlenberg,  Hist,  of  Si- 
beria, p.  324,  346,  406,  429).  Dr.  Hyde  (de  Religione  Veterum  Persarum,  p. 
521,  etc.)  has  given  two  alphabets  of  Thibet  and  of  the  Eygours.  I  have  long 
harbored  a  suspicion  that  all  the  Scythian,  and  some,  perhaps  much,  of  the  Indian 
science,  was  derived  from  the  Greeks  of  Bactriana.b 


a  A  reference  is  made  to  this  place  in  vol.  iii.  p.  113,  for  an  account  of  the  Turks 
ruled  by  Disabul;  but  these  Turks  have  been  already  spoken  of  in  p.  319. — S. 

b  Modern  discoveries  give  no  confirmation  to  this  suspicion.  The  character 
of  Indian  science,  as  well  as  of  their  literature  and  mythology,  indicates  an  orig- 
inal source.  Grecian  art  may  have  occasionally  found  its  way  into  India.  Oua 
or  two  of  the  sculptures  in  Colonel  Tod's  account  of  the  Jain  temples,  if  correct, 
show  a  finer  outline  and  purer  sense  of  beauty,  than  appears  native  to  India, 
where  the  monstrous  always  predominated  ovar  simple  nature, — M, 


328  EMBASSIES  OP  THE  [Ch.  XLII. 

pie,  departed  at  the  same  time  for  their  native  country.  The 
duration  and  length  of  the  journey  from  the  Byzantine  court 
to  Mount  Altai  are  not  specified :  it  might  have  been  difficult 
to  mark  a  road  through  the  nameless  deserts,,  the  mountains, 
rivers,  and  morasses  of  Tartary;  but  a  curious  account  has 
been  preserved  of  the  reception  of  the  Roman  ambassadors  at 
the  royal  camp.  After  they  had  been  purified  with  firo  and 
incense,  according  to  a  rite  still  practised  under  the  sons  of 
Zingis,a  they  were  introduced  to  the  presence  of  Disabul.  In 
a  valley  of  the  Golden  Mountain  they  found  the  great  khan 
in  his  tent,  seated  in  a  chair  with  wheels,  to  which  a  horse 
might  be  occasionally  harnessed.  As  soon  as  they  had  deliv- 
ered their  presents,  which  were  received  by  the  proper  offi- 
cers, they  exposed  in  a  florid  oration  the  wishes  of  the  Ro- 
man emperor  that  victory  might  attend  the  arms  of  the 
Turks,  that  their  reign  might  be  long  and  prosperous,  and 
that  a  strict  alliance,  without  envy  or  deceit,  might  forever 
be  maintained  between  the  two  most  powerful  nations  of 
the  earth.  The  answer  of  Disabul  corresponded  with  these 
friendly  professions,  and  the  ambassadors  were  seated  by  hia 
side  at  a  banquet  which  lasted  the  greatest  part  of  the  day : 
the  tent  was  surrounded  with  silk  hangings,  and  a  Tartar 
liquor  was  served  on  the  table  which  possessed  at  least  the 
intoxicating  qualities  of  wine.  The  entertainment  of  the 
succeeding  day  was  more  sumptuous;  the  silk  hangings  of 
the  second  tent  were  embroidered  in  various  figures ;  and  the 
royal  seat,  the  cups,  and  the  vases  were  of  gold.  A  third  pa- 
vilion was  supported  by  columns  of  gilt  wood ;  a  bed  of  puro 

*  This  rite  is  so  curious,  that  I  have  subjoined  the  description  of  It  % 
When  these  (the  exorcisers,  the  Shamans)  approached  Zemarchus,  they  took  all 
our  baggage  and  placed  it  in  the  centre.  Then,  kindling  a  fire  with  branches  of 
frankincense,  lowly  murmuring  certain  barbarous  words  in  the  Scythian  language, 
beating  on  a  kind  of  bell  (a  gong)  and  a  drum,  they  passed  over  the  baggage  the 
leaves  of  the  frankincense,  crackling  with  the  fire ;  and  at  the  same  time,  them- 
selves becoming  frantic,  and  violently  leaping  about,  seemed  to  exorcise  the  evil 
spirits.  Having  thus,  as  they  thought,  averted  all  evil,  they  led  Zemarchus  him- 
self through  the  fire.  Menander,  in  Niebuhr's  Byzant.  Hist.  p.  381.  Compare 
Carpini's  Travels.  The  princes  of  the  race  of  Zingis  Khan  condescended  to  re- 
ceive the  ambassadors  of  the  King  of  France,  at  tho  end  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
without  their  submitting  to  this  humiliating  rite.  See  Correspondence  published 
by  Abel  Ke'musat,  Nouv.  Mem.  de  l'Acad.  des  Inscrip.  vol.  vii.  On  the  embassy 
of  Zemarchus,,  compare  JUaprotfi,  Tableaux,  de  1'Asie,  p.  116.— M. 


A.D.  569-582.]  TURKS  AND  ROMANS.  329 

and  massy  gold  was  raised  on  four  peacocks  of  the  same  met- 
al :  and  before  the  entrance  of  the  tent,  dishes,  basins,  and 
statues  of  solid  silver  and  admirable  art  were  ostentatiously 
piled  in  wagons,  the  monuments  of  valor  rather  than  of  in- 
dustry. When  Disabul  led  his  armies  against  the  frontiers 
of  Persia,  his  Koman  allies  followed  many  days  the  march  of 
the  Turkish  camp,  nor  were  they  dismissed  till  they  had  en- 
joyed their  precedency  over  the  envoy  of  the  Great  King, 
whose  loud  and  intemperate  clamors  interrupted  the  silence 
of  the  royal  banquet.  The  power  and  ambition  of  Chosroes 
cemented  the  union  of  the  Turks  and  Komans,  who  touched 
his  dominions  on  either  side :  but  those  distant  nations,  re- 
gardless of  each  other,  consulted  the  dictates  of  interest,  with- 
out recollecting  the  obligations  of  oaths  and  treaties.  While 
the  successor  of  Disabul  celebrated  his  father's  obsequies^  he 
was  saluted  by  the  ambassadors  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius,  who 
proposed  an  invasion  of  Persia,  and  sustained  with  firmness 
the  angry  and  perhaps  the  just  reproaches  of  that  haughty 
barbarian.  "  You  see  my  ten  fingers,"  said  the  great  khan, 
and  he  applied  them  to  his  mouth.  "You  Eomans  speak 
with  as  many  tongues,  but  they  are  tongues  of  deceit  and 
perjury.  To  me  you  hold  one  language,  to  my  subjects  an- 
other ;  and  the  nations  are  successively  deluded  by  your  per- 
fidious eloquence.  You  precipitate  your  allies  into  war  and 
danger,  you  enjoy  their  labors,  and  you  neglect  your  benefac- 
tors. Hasten  your  return,  inform  your  master  that  a  Turk  is 
incapable  of  uttering  or  forgiving  falsehood,  and  that  he  shall 
speedily  meet  the  punishment  which  he  deserves.  While  he 
solicits  my  friendship  with  flattering  and  hollow  words,  he  is 
sunk  to  a  confederate  of  my  fugitive  YarchoniteSc  If  I  con- 
descend to  march  against  those  contemptible  slaves,  they  will 
tremble  at  the  sound  of  our  whips;  they  will  be  trampled, 
like  a  nest  of  ants,  under  the  feet  of  my  innumerable  caval- 
ry. I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  road  which  they  have  followed 
to  invade  your  empire ;  nor  can  I  be  deceived  by  the  vain 
pretence  that  Mount  Caucasus  is  the  impregnable  barrier  of 
the  Romans.  I  know  the  course  of  the  Dniester,  the  Dan- 
ube, and  the  Hebrus ;  the  most  warlike  nations  have  yielded 


330  STATE  OF  PEKSIA.  [Ch.  XLII. 

to  the  arms  of  the  Turks ;  and  from  the  rising  to  the  setting 
sun,  the  earth  is  my  inheritance."  Notwithstanding  this  men- 
ace, a  sense  of  mutual  advantage  soon  renewed  the  alliance  of 
the  Turks  and  Romans  :  but  the  pride  of  the  great  khan  sur- 
vived his  resentment ;  and  when  he  announced  an  important 
conquest  to  his  friend  the  Emperor  Maurice,  he  styled  him- 
self the  master  of  the  seven  races  and  the  lord  of  the  seven 
climates  of  the  world.37 

Disputes  have  often  arisen  between  the  sovereigns  of  Asia 

for  the  title  of  king  of  the  world,  while  the  contest  has  proved 

that  it  could  not  belong  to  either  of  the  competi- 

Persia.  tors.     The  kingdom  of  the  Turks  was  bounded  by 

a.d.  500-530.  =>  J 

the  Ox  us,  or  (xihon ;  and  I  our  an  was  separated  by 
that  great  river  from  the  rival  monarchy  of  Iran,  or  Persia, 
which  in  a  smaller  compass  contained  perhaps  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  power  and  population.  The  Persians,  who  alternately 
invaded  and  repulsed  the  Turks  and  the  Romans,  were  still 
ruled  by  the  House  of  Sassan,  which  ascended  the  throne 
three  hundred  years  before  the  accession  of  Justinian.  His 
contemporary,  Cabades,  or  Kobad,  had  been  successful  in  war 
against  the  Emperor  Anastasius;  but  the  reign  of  that  prince 
was  distracted  by  civil  and  religious  troubles.  A  prisoner  in 
the  hands  of  his  subjects,  an  exile  among  the  enemies  of  Per- 
sia, he  recovered  his  liberty  by  prostituting  the  honor  of  his 
wife,  and  regained  his  kingdom  with  the  dangerous  and  mer- 
cenary aid  of  the  barbarians  who  had  slain  his  father.  His 
nobles  were  suspicious  that  Kobad  never  forgave  the  authors 
of  his  expulsion,  or  even  those  of  his  restoration.  The  peo- 
ple was  deluded  and  inflamed  by  the  fanaticism  of  Mazdak,38 

37  All  the  details  of  these  Turkish  and  Roman  embassies,  so  curious  in  the  his- 
tory of  human  manners,  are  drawn  from  the  Extracts  of  Menander(p.  106-110, 
151-154,  161-164:  [295-303,  380-385,  397-405,  edit.  Bonn]),  in  which  we  often 
regret  the  want  of  order  and  connection. 

38  See  D'Herbelot  (Bibliot.  Orient,  p.  568,  929);  Hyde  (de  Religione  Vet.  Per- 
sarum,  c.  21,  p.  290,  291);  Pocock  (Specimen  Hist.  Arab.  p.  70,  71);  Eutychim 
(Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  176);  Texeira  (in  Stevens,  Hist,  of  Persia,  1.  i.  ch.  34).* 


a  Mazdak  was  an  Archimagus,  born,  according  to  Mirkhond  (translated  by  De 
Sacy,  p.  353,  and  Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  104),  at  Istakhar  or  Persepolis,  according  to 
an  inedited  and  anonymous  history  (the  Modjmal-alte-warikh  in  the  Royal  Libra- 


A-D.  500-530.]  STATE  OF  PERSIA.  331 

who  asserted  the  community  of  women88  and  the  equality  of 
mankind,  whilst  he  appropriated  the  richest  lands  and  most 
beautiful  females  to  the  use  of  his  sectaries.  The  view  of 
these  disorders,  which  had  been  fomented  by  his  laws  and 
example,40  embittered  the  declining  age  of  the  Persian  mon- 
arch ;  and  his  fears  were  increased  by  the  consciousness  of  his 
design  to  reverse  the  natural  and  customary  order  of  succes- 
sion in  favor  of  his  third  and  most  favored  son,  so  famous 
under  the  names  of  Chosroes  and  ISTu  shir  van.  To  render  the 
youth  more  illustrious  in  the  eyes  of  the  nations,  Kobad  was 
desirous  that  he  should  be  adopted  by  the  Emperor  Justin  :a 
the  hope  of  peace  inclined  the  Byzantine  court  to  accept  this 
singular  proposal ;  and  Chosroes  might  have  acquired  a  spe- 
cious claim  to  the  inheritance  of  his  Roman  parent.  But  the 
future  mischief  was  diverted  by  the  advice  of  the  qusestor 
Proclus :  a  difficulty  was  started,  whether  the  adoption  should 

39  The  fame  of  the  new  law  for  the  community  of  women  was  soon  propagated 
in  Syria  (Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  iii.  p.  402)  and  Greece  (Procop.  Persic. 
1.  i.  "c.  5). 

40  He  offered  his  own  wife  and  sister  to  the  prophet ;  but  the  prayers  of  Nushir- 
van  saved  his  mother,  and  the  indignant  monarch  never  forgave  the  humiliation 
to  which  his  filial  piety  had  stooped :  pedes  tuos  deosculatus  (said  he  to  Mazdak) 
cujus  foetor  adhuc  nares  occupat  (Pocock,  Specimen  Hist.  Arab.  p.  71). 


ry  at  Paris,  quoted  by  St.  Martin,  vol.  vii.  p.  322),  at  Nischapour  in  Chorasan : 
his  father's  name  was  Bamdadan.  He  announced  himself  as  a  reformer  of  Zoro- 
astrianism,  and  carried  the  doctrine  of  the  two  principles  to  a  much  greater  height. 
He  preached  the  absolute  indifference  of  human  action,  perfect  equality  of  rank, 
community  of  property  and  of  women,  marriages  between  the  nearest  kindred : 
he  interdicted  the  use  of  animal  food,  proscribed  the  killing  of  animals  for  food, 
enforced  a  vegetable  diet.  See  St.  Martin,  vol.  vii.  p.  322.  Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p. 
10-1.  Mirkhond  translated  by  De  Sacy.  It  is  remarkable  that,  the  doctrine  of 
Mazdak  spread  into  the  West.  Two  inscriptions  found  in  Cyrene,  in  1823,  and 
explained  by  M.  Gesenius,  and  by  M.  Hamaker  of  Leyden,  prove  c'early  that  his 
doctrines  had  been  eagerly  embraced  by  the  remains  of  the  ancient  Gnostics;  and 
Mazdak  was  enrolled  with  Thoth,  Saturn,  Zoroaster,  Pythagoras,  Epicurus,  John, 
and  Christ,  as  the  teache.'s  of  true  Gnostic  wisdom.  See  St.  Martin,  vol.  vii.  p. 
338.  Gesenius  de  Inscriptione  Phcenicio- Grtsca  in  Cyrenaiea  nuper  reperta, 
Halle,  1825.     Hamaker,  Lettre  a  M.  Raoul  Pochette,  Leyden,  1825. — M. 

3  St.  Martin  questions  this  adoption  :  he  argues  its  improbability  ;  and  supposes 
that  Procopius,  perverting  some  popular  traditions,  or  the  remembrance  of  some 
fruitless  negotiations  which  took  place  at  that  time,  has  mistaken,  for  a  treaty  of 
adoption,  some  treaty  of  guarantee  or  protection  for  the  purpose  of  insuring  the 
crown,  after  the  death  of  Kobad,  to  his  favorite  son  Chosroes,  vol.  viii.  p.  32.  Yet 
the  Greek  historians  seem  unanimous  as  to  the  proposal :  the  Persians  might  be 
expected  to  maintain  silence  on  such  a  subject.— M. 


332  EEIGN  OF  CHOSEOES.  [Ch.  XLII. 

be  performed  as  a  civil  or  military  rite;41  the  treaty  was 
abruptly  dissolved ;  and  the  sense  of  this  indignity  sunk  deep 
into  the  mind  of  Chosroes,  who  had  already  advanced  to  the 
Tigris  on  his  road  to  Constantinople.  His  father  did  not 
long  survive  the  disappointment  of  his  wishes :  the  testament 
of  their  deceased  sovereign  was  read  in  the  assembly  of  the 
nobles ;  and  a  powerful  faction,  prepared  for  the  event,  and 
regardless  of  the  priority  of  age,  exalted  Chosroes  to  the 
throne  of  Persia.  He  filled  that  throne  during  a  prosperous 
period  of  forty-eight  years ;"  and  the  justice  of  Nushirvan  is 
celebrated  as  the  theme  of  immortal  praise  by  the  nations  of 
the  East. 

But  the  justice  of  kings  is  understood  by  themselves,  and 
even  by  their  subjects,  with  an  ample  indulgence  for  the 
Reign  of  gratification  of  passion  and  interest.  The  virtue 
^"choTroe's.  °f  Chosroes  was  that  of  a  conqueror  who,  in  the 
a.d.  531-679.  measures  0f  peace  and  war,  is  excited  by  ambition 
and  restrained  by  prudence;  who  confounds  the  greatness 
with  the  happiness  of  a  nation,  and  calmly  devotes  the  lives 
of  thousands  to  the  fame,  or  even  the  amusement,  of  a  single 
man.  In  his  domestic  administration  the  just  Nushirvan 
would  merit  in  our  feelings  the  appellation  of  a  tyrant.  His 
two  elder  brothers  had  been  deprived  of  their  fair  expecta- 
tions of  the  diadem :  their  future  life,  between  the  supreme 
rank  and  the  condition  of  subjects,  was  anxious  to  themselves 
and  formidable  to  their  master:  fear,  as  well  as  revenge, 
might  tempt  them  to  rebel ;  the  slightest  evidence  of  a  con- 

41  Procopius,  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  11.  Was  not  Proclus  over-wise?  Was  not  the 
danger  imaginary  ? — The  excuse,  at  least,  was  injurious  to  a  nation  not  ignorant 
of  letters :  ov  ypdfi{iaffiv  oi  f3dp€apoi  rovg  ircudae  iroiovvrai  d\\'  oirXwv  ctctvg. 
Whether  any  mode  of  adoption  was  practised  in  Persia  I  much  doubt. 

42  From  Procopius  and  Agathias,  Pagi  (torn.  ii.  p.  543,  626)  has  proved  that 
Chosroes  Nushirvan  ascended  the  throne  in  the  fifth  year  of  Justinian  (a.d.  531, 
April  1-a.d.  532,  April  1).  But  the  true  chronology,  which  harmonizes  with  the 
Greeks  and  Orientals,  is  ascertained  by  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  211  [edit.  Oxon. ; 
p.  471,  edit.  Bonn]).  Cabades,  or  Kobad,  after  a  reign  of  forty-three  years  and 
two  months,  sickened  the  8th,  and  died  the  13th  of  September,  a.d.  531,  aged 
eighty-two  years.  According  to  the  Annals  of  Entychius,  Nushirvan  reigned  for- 
ty-seven years  and  six  months ;  and  his  death  must  consequently  be  placed  in 
March,  a.d.  579. 


a.d.  531-579.]  REIGN  OF  CHOSROES.  333 

epiracy  satisfied  the  author  of  their  wrongs ;  and  the  repose  of 
Chosroes  was  secured  by  the  death  of  these  unhappy  princes, 
with  their  families  and  adherents.  One  guiltless  youth  was 
saved  and  dismissed  by  the  compassion  of  a  veteran  general ; 
and  this  act  of  humanity,  which  was  revealed  by  his  son,  over- 
balanced the  merit  of  reducing  twelve  nations  to  the  obedi- 
ence of  Persia.  The  zeal  and  prudence  of  Mebodes  had  fixed 
the  diadem  on  the  head  of  Chosroes  himself ;  but  he  delayed 
to  attend  the  royal  summons  till  he  had  performed  the  duties 
of  a  military  review :  he  was  instantly  commanded  to  repair 
to  the  iron  tripod  which  stood  before  the  gate  of  the  palace,43 
where  it  was  death  to  relieve  or  approach  the  victim;  and 
Mebodes  languished  several  days  before  his  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced by  the  inflexible  pride  and  calm  ingratitude  of  the 
son  of  Kobad.  But  the  people,  more  especially  in  the  East, 
is  disposed  to  forgive,  and  even  to  applaud,  the  cruelty  which 
strikes  at  the  loftiest  heads — at  the  slaves  of  ambition,  whose 
voluntary  choice  has  exposed  them  to  live  in  the  smiles  and 
to  perish  by  the  frown  of  a  capricious  monarch.  In  the  exe- 
cution of  the  laws  which  he  had  no  temptation  to  violate ;  in 
the  punishment  of  crimes  which  attacked  his  own  dignity,  as 
well  as  the  happiness  of  individuals,  Nushirvan,  or  Chosroes, 
deserved  the  appellation  of  just.  His  government  was  firm, 
rigorous,  and  impartial.  It  was  the  first  labor  of  his  reign  to 
abolish  the  dangerous  theory  of  common  or  equal  possessions : 
the  lands  and  women  which  the  sectaries  of  Mazdak  had 
usurped  were  restored  to  their  lawful  owners ;  and  the  tem- 
peratea  chastisement  of  the  fanatics  or  impostors  confirmed 
the  domestic  rights   of  society.      Instead  of  listening  with 

43  Procopius,  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  23  [torn.  i.  p.  118,  edit.  Bonn].  Brisson  de  Regn. 
Pers.  p.  494.  The  gate  of  the  palace  of  Ispahan  is,  or  was,  the  fatal  scene  of  dis- 
grace or  death  (Chardin,  Voyage  en  Perse,  torn.  iv.  p.  312,  313). 


1  This  is  a  strange  term.  Nushirvan  employed  a  stratagem  similar  to  that  of 
Jehu,  2  Kings  x.  1 8-28,  to  separate  the  followers  of  Mazdak  from  the  rest  of  his 
subjects,  and  with  a  body  of  his  troops  cut  them  all  in  pieces.  The  Greek  writers 
concur  with  the  Persian  in  this  representation  of  Nushirvan's  temperate  conduct. 
Theophanes,  p.  146.  Mirkhond,  p.  362.  Eutychius,  Ann.  vol.  ii.  p.  179.  Abulfe- 
da,  in  an  unedited  part,  consulted  by  St.  Martin,  as  well  as  in  a  passage  formerly 
cited.     Le  Beau,  vol.  \/ii.  p.  38.     Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  109. — M. 


334:  EEIGN  OF  CHOSROES.  [Ch.XLII. 

blind  confidence  to  a  favorite  minister,  he  established  four  viz- 
iers over  the  four  great  provinces  of  his  empire — Assyria,  Me- 
dia, Persia,  and  Bactriana.  In  the  choice  of  judges,  prsefects, 
and  counsellors,  he  strove  to  remove  the  mask  which  is  always 
worn  in  the  presence  of  kings :  he  wished  to  substitute  the 
natural  order  of  talents  for  the  accidental  distinctions  of  birth 
and  fortune;  he  professed,  in  specious  language,  his  intention 
to  prefer  those  men  who  carried  the  poor  in  their  bosoms,  and 
to  banish  corruption  from  the  seat  of  justice,  as  dogs  were  ex- 
cluded from  the  temples  of  the  Magi.  The  code  of  laws  of 
the  first  Artaxerxes  was  revived  and  published  as  the  rule  of 
the  magistrates ;  but  the  assurance  of  speedy  punishment  was 
the  best  security  of  their  virtue.  Their  behavior  was  inspect- 
ed by  a  thousand  eyes,  their  words  were  overheard  by  a  thou- 
sand ears,  the  secret  or  public  agents  of  the  throne ;  and  the 
provinces,  from  the  Indian  to  the  Arabian  confines,  were  en- 
lightened by  the  frequent  visits  of  a  sovereign  who  affected 
to  emulate  his  celestial  brother  in  his  rapid  and  salutary  ca- 
reer. Education  and  agriculture  he  viewed  as  the  two  ob- 
jects most  deserving  of  his  care.  In  every  city  of  Persia,  or- 
phans and  the  children  of  the  poor  were  maintained  and  in- 
structed at  the  public  expense ;  the  daughters  were  given  in 
marriage  to  the  richest  citizens  of  their  own  rank,  and  the 
sons,  according  to  their  different  talents,  were  employed  in 
mechanic  trades  or  promoted  to  more  honorable  service.  The 
deserted  villages  were  relieved  by  his  bounty ;  to  the  peasants 
and  farmers  who  were  found  incapable  of  cultivating  their 
lands  he  distributed  cattle,  seed,  and  the  instruments  of  hus- 
bandry ;  and  the  rare  and  inestimable  treasure  of  fresh  water 
was  parsimoniously  managed,  and  skilfully  dispersed  over  the 
arid  territory  of  Persia.44  The  prosperity  of  that  kingdom 
was  the  effect  and  the  evidence  of  his  virtues ;  his  vices  are 
those  of  Oriental  despotism ;  but  in  the  long  competition  be- 

44  In  Persia  the  prince  of  the  waters  is  an  officer  of  state.  The  number  of 
wells  and  subterraneous  channels  is  much  diminished,  and  with  it  the  fertility  of 
the  soil :  400  wells  have  been  recently  lost  near  Tauris,  and  42,000  were  once 
reckoned  in  the  province  of  Khorasan  (Chardin,  torn.  iii.  p.  99,  100 ;  Tavernier, 
torn.  i.  p.  416). 


*.D.  531-579.]  HIS  LOVE  OF  LEARNING.  335 

tween  Chosroes  and  Justinian,  the  advantage,  both  of  merit 
and  fortune,  is  almost  always  on  the  side  of  the  barbarian." 

To  the  praise  of  justice  Nushirvan  united  the  reputation  of 
knowledge ;  and  the  seven  Greek  philosophers  who  visited 
His  love  of  his  court  were  invited  and  deceived  by  the  strange 
learning.  assurance  that  a  disciple  of  Plato  was  seated  on  the 
Persian  throne.  Did  they  expect  that  a  prince,  strenuously 
exercised  in  the  toils  of  war  and  government,  should  agitate, 
with  dexterity  like  their  own,  the  abstruse  and  profound  ques- 
tions which  amused  the  leisure  of  the  schools  of  Athens? 
Could  they  hope  that  the  precepts  of  philosophy  should  di- 
rect the  life  and  control  the  passions  of  a  despot  whose  infan- 
cy had  been  taught  to  consider  his  absolute  and  fluctuating 
will  as  the  only  rule  of  moral  obligation  V6  The  studies  of 
Chosroes  were  ostentatious  and  superficial ;  but  his  example 
awakened  the  curiosity  of  an  ingenious  people,  and  the  light 
of  science  was  diffused  over  the  dominions  of  Persia."  At 
Gondi  Sapor,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  royal  city  of  Susa, 
an  academy  of  physic  was  founded,  which  insensibly  became 
a  liberal  school  of  poetry,  philosophy,  and  rhetoric.48  The  an- 
nals of  the  monarchy49  were  composed;  and  while  recent  and 

45  The  character  and  government  of  Nushirvan  is  represented  sometimes  in  the 
words  of  D'Herbelot  (Bibliot.  Orient,  p.  680,  etc.,  from  Khondemir),  Eutychius 
(Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  179,  180 — very  rich),  Abulpharagius  (Dynast,  vii.  p.  94,  95 — 
very  poor),  Tarikh  Schikard  (p.  144-150),  Texeira  (in  Stevens,  1.  i.  c.  35),  Asse- 
man  (Bibliot.  Orient,  torn.  iii.  p.  404-410),  and  the  Abbe  Fourmont  (Hist,  de 
l'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  vii.  p.  325-334),  who  has  translated  a  spurious  or 
genuine  testament  of  Nushirvan. 

46  A  thousand  years  before  his  birth,  the  judges  of  Persia  had  given  a  solemn 
opinion — r<p  fiavikivovTi  Uepasiov  i%elvai  iroikuv  to  av  fiovXrirai  (Herodot.  1.  iii. 
c.  31,  p.  210,  edit.  Wesseling).  Nor  had  this  constitutional  maxim  been  neglect- 
ed as  a  useless  and  barren  theory. 

41  On  the  literary  state  of  Persia,  the  Greek  versions,  philosophers,  sophists,  the 
learning  or  ignorance  of  Chosroes,  Agathias  (1.  ii.  [c.  28  seq.]  p.  66-71  [p.  126 
seq.,  edit.  Bonn  J)  displays  much  information  and  strong  prejudices. 

48  Asseman.  Bibliot.  Orient,  torn.  iv.  p.  dccxlv.  vi.  vii. 

49  The  Shah  Nameh,  or  Book  of  Kings,  is  perhaps  the  original  record  of  history 
which  was  translated  into  Greek  by  the  interpreter  Sergius  (Agathias,  1.  iv.  [c.  30] 
p.  141  [p.  273,  edit.  Bonn]),  preserved  after  the  Mahometan  conquest,  and  versi- 
fied, in  the  year  994,  by  the  national  poet  Ferdoussi.  See  D'Anquetil  (Me'm.  da 
i'Academie,  torn,  xxxi,  p.  379)  and  Sir  William  Jones  (Hist,  of  Nadir  Shah,  p.  161). 


336         CHOSROES'S  LOVE  OF  LEARNING.     [Ch.  XLIL 

authentic  history  might  afford  some  useful  lessons  both  to  the 
prince  and  people,  the  darkness  of  the  first  ages  was  embel- 
lished by  the  giants,  the  dragons,  and  the  fabulous  heroes  of 
Oriental  romance.60  Every  learned  or  confident  stranger  was 
enriched  by  the  bounty  and  flattered  by  the  conversation  of 
the  monarch :  he  nobly  rewarded  a  Greek  physician31  by  the 
deliverance  of  three  thousand  captives  ;  and  the  sophists,  who 
contended  for  his  favor,  were  exasperated  by  the  wealth  and 
insolence  of  Uranius,  their  more  successful  rival.  Nushirvan 
believed,  or  at  least  respected,  the  religion  of  the  Magi ;  and 
some  traces  of  persecution  may  be  discovered  in  his  reign.69 
Yet  he  allowed  himself  freely  to  compare  the  tenets  of  the  va- 
rious sects ;  and  the  theological  disputes,  in  which  he  frequent- 
ly presided,  diminished  the  authority  of  the  priest  and  enlight- 
ened the  minds  of  the  people.  At  his  command  the  most 
celebrated  writers  of  Greece  and  India  were  translated  into 
the  Persian  language  —  a  smooth  and  elegant  idiom,  recom- 
mended by  Mahomet  to  the  use  of  paradise,  though  it  is 
branded  with  the  epithets  of  savage  and  unmusical  by  the  ig- 
norance and  presumption  of  Agathias.63  Yet  the  Greek  his- 
torian might  reasonably  wonder  that  it  should  be  found  pos- 
sible to  execute  an  entire  version  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  in  a 


60  In  the  fifth  century,  the  name  of  Restom,  or  Rostam,  a  hero  who  equalled  the 
strength  of  twelve  [one  hundred  and  twenty — S.]  elephants,  was  familiar  to  the 
Armenians  (Moses  Chorenensis,  Hist.  Armen.  1.  ii.  c.  7,  p.  96,  edit.  Whiston).  In 
the  beginning  of  the  seventh,  the  Persian  romance  of  Rostam  and  Isfendiarwas  ap- 
plauded at  Mecca  (Sale's  Koran,  ch.  xxxi.  p.  335).  Yet  this  exposition  of  ludierum 
nova3  historian  is  not  given  by  Maracci  (Refutat.  Alcoran,  p.  544-548). 

51  Procop.  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  10  [torn.  ii.  p.  505,  edit.  Bonn]).  Kobad  had  a  favorite 
Greek  physician,  Stephen  of  Edessa  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  26  [torn.  i.  p.  271,  edit.  Bonn]). 
The  practice  was  ancient ;  and  Herodotus  relates  the  adventures  of  Democedes  of 
Crotona  (1.  iii.  c.  125-137). 

52  See  Pagi,  torn.  ii.  p.  626.  In  one  of  the  treaties  an  honorable  article  was 
inserted  for  the  toleration  and  burial  of  the  Catholics  (Menander,  in  Excerpt.  Le- 
gat.  p.  142  [p.  363  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]).  Nushizad,  a  son  of  Nushirvan,  was  a  Chris- 
tian, a  rebel,  and — a  martyr?    (D'Herbelot,  p.  681.) 

63  On  the  Persian  language,  and  its  three  dialects,  consult  D'Anquetil  (p.  339- 
343)  and  Jones  (p.  153-185) :  aypiq,  rivi  yXwrry  km  aytovaoTary,  is  the  character 
which  Agathias  (1.  ii.  [c.  28]  p.  67  [p.  126,  edit.  Bonn])  ascribes  to  an  idiom  re- 
nowned in  the  East  for  poetical  softness. 


A.D.  531-579.]       CHOSROES'S  LOVE  OF  LEARNING.  337 

foreign  dialect,  which  had  not  been  framed  to  express  the  spir- 
it of  freedom  and  the  subtleties  of  philosophic  disquisition. 
And,  if  the  reason  of  the  Stagyrite  might  be  equally  dark 
or  equally  intelligible  in  every  tongue,  the  dramatic  art  and 
verbal  argumentation  of  the  disciple  of  Socrates"  appear  to 
be  indissolubly  mingled  with  the  grace  and  perfection  of  his 
Attic  style.  In  the  search  of  universal  knowledge,  Nushirvan 
was  informed  that  the  moral  and  political  fables  of  Pilpay, 
an  ancient  Brachman,  were  preserved  with  jealous  reverence 
among  the  treasures  of  the  kings  o"  India.  The  physician 
Perozes  was  secretly  despatched  to  the  banks  of  the  Ganges, 
with  instructions  to  procure,  at  any  price,  the  communication 
of  this  valuable  work.  His  dexterity  obtained  a  transcript, 
his  learned  diligence  accomplished  the  translation;  and  the 
fables  of  Pilpay55  were  read  and  admired  in  the  assembly  of 
Nushirvan  and  his  nobles.  The  Indian  original  and  the  Per- 
sian copy  have  long  since  disappeared ;  but  this  venerable 
monument  has  been  saved  by  the  curiosity  of  the  Arabian 
caliphs,  revived  in  the  modern  Persic,  the  Turkish,  the  Syriac, 
the  Hebrew,  and  the  Greek  idioms,  and  transfused  through 
successive  versions  into  the  modern  languages  of  Europe.     In 


64  Agathias  p.  c]  specifies  the  Gorgias,  Phasdon,  Parmenides,  and  Timaeus. 
Renaudot  (Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Graec.  torn.  xii.  p.  246-261)  does  not  mention  this 
barbaric  version  of  Aristotle. 

65  Of  these  fables  I  have  seen  three  copies  in  three  different  languages :  1.  In 
Greek,  translated  by  Simeon  Seth  (a.d.  1100)  from  the  Arabic,  and  published  by 
Starck  at  Berlin  in  1697,  in  12ino.  2.  In  Latin,  a  version  from  the  Greek,  Sapi- 
entia  Indorum,  inserted  by  Pere  Poussin  at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Pachymer 
(p.  547-620,  edit.  Roman.).  3.  In  French,  from  the  Turkish,  dedicated,  in  1540, 
to  Sultan  Soliman.  Contes  et  Fables  Indiennes  de  Bidpai  et  de  Lokman,  par  MM. 
Galland  et  Cardonnp,  Paris,  1778,  3  vols,  in  12mo.  Mr.  Warton  (History  of 
English  Poatry,  vol.  i.  p.  129-131)  takes  a  larger  scope.* 


*  The  oldest  Indian  collection  extant  is  the  Pancha-tantra  (the  five  collectioas) 
analyzed  by  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  It  was 
translated  into  Persian  by  Barsuyah,  the  physician  of  Nushirvan,  under  the  name 
of  the  Fables  of  Bidpai  (Vidyapriya,  the  Friend  of  Knowledge,  or,  as  the  Oriental 
writers  understand  it,  the  Friend  of  Medicine).  It  was  translated  into  Arabic  by 
Abdolla  Ibn  Mokaffa,  under  the  name  of  Kalila  and  Dimnah.  From  the  Arabic 
it  passed  into  the  European  languages.  Compare  Wilson,  in  Trans.  As.  Soc.  i. 
52.  Bohlen,  das  alte  Indien,  ii.  p.  386.  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  Me'moire  sur  Kalila 
Ta  Dimnah. — M. 

IV.— 22 


338  THE  "ENDLESS"  PEACE.  [Ch.XLIL 

their  present  form,  the  peculiar  character,  the  manners  and 
religion  of  the  Hindoos,  are  completely  obliterated ;  and  the 
intrinsic  merit  of  the  fables  of  Pilpay  is  far  inferior  to  the 
concise  elegance  of  Phsedrus  and  the  native  graces  of  La  Fon- 
taine. Fifteen  moral  and  political  sentences  are  illustrated 
in  a  series  of  apologues ;  but  the  composition  is  intricate,  the 
narrative  prolix,  and  the  precept  obvious  and  barren.  Yet 
the  Brachman  may  assume  the  merit  of  inventing  a  pleasing 
fiction,  which  adorns  the  nakedness  of  truth,  and  alleviates, 
perhaps,  to  a  royal  ear,  the  harshness  of  instruction.  With  a 
similar  design,  to  admonish  kings  that  they  are  strong  only 
in  the  strength  of  their  subjects,  the  same  Indians  invented 
the  game  of  chess,  which  was  likewise  introduced  into  Persia 
under  the  reign  of  Nushirvan.66 

The  son  of  Kobad  found  his  kingdom  involved  in  a  war 
with  the  successor  of  Constantine ;  and  the  anxiety  of  his  do- 
Peaceand  mestic  situation  inclined  him  to  grant  the  suspen- 
se Romans.  si°n  °f  arms  which  Justinian  was  impatient  to  pur- 
a.d. 533-539.  ciiase>  Chosroes  saw  the  Roman  ambassadors  at 
his  feet.  He  accepted  eleven  thousand  pounds  of  gold  as 
the  price  of  an  endless  or  indefinite  peace ;"  some  mutual  ex- 
changes were  regulated;  the  Persian  assumed  the  guard  of 
the  gates  of  Caucasus,  and  the  demolition  of  Dara  was  sus- 
pended on  condition  that  it  should  never  be  made  the  resi- 
dence of  the  general  of  the  East.  This  interval  of  repose 
had  been  solicited  and  was  diligently  improved  by  the  am- 
bition of  the  emperor:  his  African  conquests  were  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  Persian  treaty ;  and  the  avarice  of  Chosroes  was 
soothed  by  a  large  portion  of  the  spoils  of  Carthage,  which 
his  ambassadors  required  in  a  tone  of  pleasantry  and  under 
the  color  of  friendship.58    But  the  trophies  of  Belisarius  dis- 


66  See  the  Historia  Shahiludii  of  Dr.  Hyde  (Syntagm.  Dissertat.  torn.  ii.  p. 
61-69). 

67  The  endless  peace  (Procopius,  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  22  [torn.  i.  p.  114,  edit.  Bonn]) 
was  concluded  or  ratified  in  the  sixth  year,  and  third  consulship,  of  Justinian 
(a.d.  533,  between  January  1  and  April  1 ;  Pagi,  torn.  ii.  p.  550).  Marcellinus, 
in  his  Chronicle,  Uses  the  style  of  Medes  and  Persians. 

68  Procopius,  P§rsic.  1.  i.  c.  26  [p.  137,  edit.  Bonn]. 


A.D.  533-539.]  THE  "ENDLESS"  PEACE.  339 

turbed  the  slumbers  of  the  Great  King;  and  he  heard  with 
astonishment,  envy,  and  fear,  that  Sicily,  Italy,  and  Rome  it- 
self, had  been  reduced  in  three  rapid  campaigns  to  the  obedi- 
ence of  Justinian.  Unpractised  in  the  art  of  violating  trea- 
ties, he  secretly  excited  his  bold  and  subtle  vassal  Almondar. 
That  prince  of  the  Saracens,  who  resided  at  Hira,69  had  not 
been  included  in  the  general  peace,  and  still  waged  an  ob- 
scure war  against  his  rival  Arethas,  the  chief  of  the  tribe  of 
Gassan,  and  confederate  of  the  empire.  The  subject  of  their 
dispute  was  an  extensive  sheep-walk  in  the  desert  to  the 
south  of  Palmyra.  An  immemorial  tribute  for  the  license  of 
pasture  appeared  to  attest  the  rights  of  Almondar,  while  the 
Gassanite  appealed  to  the  Latin  name  of  strata,  a  paved  road, 
as  an  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  sovereignty  and  labors 
of  the  Romans.60  The  two  monarchs  supported  the  cause  of 
their  respective  vassals ;  and  the  Persian  Arab,  without  ex- 
pecting the  event  of  a  slow  and  doubtful  arbitration,  enriched 
his  flying  camp  with  the  spoil  and  captives  of  Syria.  Instead 
of  repelling  the  arms,  Justinian  attempted  to  seduce  the  fidel- 
ity of  Almondar,  while  he  called  from  the  extremities  of  the 
earth  the  nations  of  ^Ethiopia  and  Scythia  to  invade  the  do- 
minions of  his  rival.  But  the  aid  of  such  allies  was  distant 
and  precarious,  and  the  discovery  of  this  hostile  correspond- 
ence justified  the  complaints  of  the  Goths  and  Armenians, 
who  implored,  almost  at  the  same  time,  the  protection  of 
Chosroes.  The  descendants  of  Arsaces,  who  were  still  nu- 
merous in  Armenia,  had  been  provoked  to  assert  the  last  rel- 
ics of  national  freedom  and  hereditary  rank ;  and  the  ambas- 
sadors of  Yitiges  had  secretly  traversed  the  empire  to  expose 
the  instant,  and  almost  inevitable,  danger  of  the  kingdom  of 
Italy.     Their  representations  were  uniform,  weighty,  and  ef- 

69  Almondar,  king  of  Hira,  was  deposed  by  Kobad  and  restored  by  Nushirvan. 
His  mother,  from  her  beauty,  was  surnamed  Celestial  Water,  an  appellation  which 
became  hereditary,  and  was  extended  for  a  more  noble  cause  (liberality  in  famine) 
to  the  Arab  princes  of  Syria  (Pocock,  Specimen  Hist.  Arab.  p.  69,  70). 

60  Procopius,  Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  1  [torn.  i.  p.  154,  edit.  Bonn].  We  are  ignorant  of 
the  origin  and  object  of  this  strata,  a  paved  road  often  days' journey  from  Aura- 
nitis  to  Babylonia.  (See  a  Latin  note  in  Delisle's  Map  Imp.  Orient.)  Wess&- 
ling  and  D'Anville  are  silent. 


340  CHOSEOES  EtfVADES  SYEIA.  [Ch.  XLU. 

fectual.  "We  stand  before  your  throne,  the  advocates  of 
your  interest  as  well  as  of  our  own.  The  ambitious  and 
faithless  Justinian  aspires  to  be  the  sole  master  of  the  world. 
Since  the  endless  peace,  which  betrayed  the  common  freedom 
of  mankind,  that  prince,  your  ally  in  words,  your  enemy  in 
actions,  has  alike  insulted  his  friends  and  foes,  and  has  filled 
the  earth  with  blood  and  confusion.  Has  he  not  violated  the 
privileges  of  Armenia,  the  independence  of  Colchis,  and  the 
wild  liberty  of  the  Tzanian  mountains  ?  Has  he  not  usurped, 
with  equal  avidity,  the  city  of  Bosphorus  on  the  frozen  Mseo- 
tis,  and  the  vale  of  palm-trees  on  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea  % 
The  Moors,  the  Yandals,  the  Goths,  have  been  successively 
oppressed,  and  each  nation  has  calmly  remained  the  spectator 
of  their  neighbor's  ruin.  Embrace,  O  king!  the  favorable 
moment ;  the  East  is  left  without  defence,  while  the  armies  of 
Justinian  an  his  renowned  general  are  detained  in  the  dis- 
tant regions  of  the  West.  If  you  hesitate  and  delay,  Belisa' 
rius  and  his  victorious  troops  will  soon  return  from  the  Tiber 
to  the  Tigris,  and  Persia  may  enjoy  the  wretched  consolation 
of  being  the  last  devoured."61  By  such  arguments,  Chosroes 
was  easily  persuaded  to  imitate  the  example  which  he  col 
demned;  but  the  Persian,  ambitious  of  military  fame,  dis- 
dained the  inactive  warfare  of  a  rival  who  issued  his  san- 
guinary commands  from  the  secure  station  of  the  Byzantine 
palace. 

Whatever  might  be  the  provocations  of  Chosroes,  he  abused 
the  confidence  of  treaties ;  and  the  just  reproaches 
Syria,  of  dissimulation  and  falsehood  could  only  be  con- 

cealed by  the  lustre  of  his  victories.83     The  Per- 
sian army,  which  had  been  assembled  in  the  plains  of  Babylon, 

61  I  have  blended,  in  a  short  speech,  the  two  orations  of  the  Arsacides  of  Arme- 
nia and  the  Gothic  ambassadors.  Procopius,  in  his  public  history,  feels,  and  makes 
us  feel,  that  Justinian  was  the  true  author  of  the  war  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  2,  3). 

62  The  invasion  of  Syria,  the  ruin  of  Antioch,  etc.,  are  related  in  a  full  and  reg- 
ular series  by  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  5-14).  Small  collateral  aid  can  be  drawn 
from  the  Orientals :  yet  not  they,  but  D'Herbelot  himself  (p.  680),  should  blush 
when  he  blames  them  for  making  Justinian  and  Nushirvan  contemporaries.  On 
the  geography  of  the  seat  of  war,  DAnville  (l'Euphrate  et  le  Tigre)  is  sufficient 
and  satisfactory. 


a.d.  540.]  RUIN  OF  ANTIOCH.  341 

prudently  declined  the  strong  cities  of  Mesopotamia,  and 
followed  the  western  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  till  the  small 
though  populous  town  of  Duraa  presumed  to  arrest  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Great  King.  The  gates  of  Dura,  by  treachery 
and  surprise,  were  burst  open ;  and  as  soon  as  Chosroes  had 
stained  his  scimitar  with  the  blood  of  the  inhabitants,  he  dis- 
missed the  ambassador  of  Justinian  to  inform  his  master  in 
what  place  he  had  left  the  enemy  of  the  Komans.  The  con- 
queror still  affected  the  praise  of  humanity  and  justice;  and 
as  he  beheld  a  noble  matron  with  her  iufant  rudely  dragged 
along  the  ground,  he  sighed,  he  wept,  and  implored  the  di- 
vine justice  to  punish  the  author  of  these  calamities.  Yet 
the  herd  of  twelve  thousand  captives  was  ransomed  for  two 
hundred  pounds  of  gold ;  the  neighboring  bishop  of  Sergio- 
polis  pledged  his  faith  for  the  payment,  and  in  the  subse- 
quent year  the  unfeeling  avarice  of  Chosroes  exacted  the  pen- 
alty of  an  obligation  which  it  was  generous  to  contract  and  im- 
possible to  discharge.  He  advanced  into  the  heart  of  Syria ; 
but  a  feeble  enemy,  who  vanished  at  his  approach,  disappoint- 
ed him  of  the  honor  of  victory  ;  and  as  he  could  not  hope  to 
establish  his  dominion,  the  Persian  king  displayed  in  this  in- 
road the  mean  and  rapacious  vices  of  a  robber.  Hierapolis, 
Berrhcea  or  Aleppo,  Apamea  and  Chalcis,  were  successively 
besieged  :  they  redeemed  their  safety  by  a  ransom  of  gold  or 
silver  proportioned  to  their  respective  strength  and  opulence, 
and  their  new  master  enforced  without  observing  the  terms 
of  capitulation.  Educated  in  the  religion  of  the  Magi,  he  ex- 
ercised, without  remorse,  the  lucrative  trade  of  sacrilege ;  and, 
after  stripping  of  its  gold  and  gems  a  piece  of  the  true  cross, 
he  generously  restored  the  naked  relic  to  the  devotion  of  the 
ana  rains  Christians  of  Apamea.  No  more  than  fourteen 
Antioch.  years  had  elapsed  since  Antioch  was  ruined  by  an 
earthquake  ;b  but  the  Queen  of  the  East,  the  new  Theopolis, 
had  been  raised  from  the  ground  by  the  liberality  of  Justin- 
ian; and  the  increasing  greatness  of  the  buildings  and  the 


*  It  is  Sura  in  Procopius,  p.  152.     Is  it  a  misprint  in  Gibbon? — M. 
b  Joannes  Lydus  attributes  the  easy  capture  of  Antioch  to  the  want  of  fortifica« 
tions,  which  had  not  been  restored  since  the  earthquake:  L  iii.  c.  54,  p.  246. — M. 


342  RUIN  OF  ANTIOCH ;  [Ch.  XLII. 

people  already  erased  the  memory  of  this  recent  disaster. 
On  one  side  the  city  was  defended  by  the  mountain,  on  the 
other  by  the  river  Orontes ;  but  the  most  accessible  part  was 
commanded  by  a  superior  eminence:  the  proper  remedies 
were  rejected,  from  the  despicable  fear  of  discovering  its 
weakness  to  the  enemy;  and  Germanus, the  emperor's  neph- 
ew, refused  to  trust  his  person  and  dignity  within  the  walls 
of  a  besieged  city.  The  people  of  Antioch  had  inherited  the 
vain  and  satirical  genius  of  their  ancestors:  they  were  elated 
by  a  sudden  reinforcement  of  six  thousand  soldiers ;  they  dis- 
dained the  offers  of  an  easy  capitulation,  and  their  intemper- 
ate clamors  insulted  from  the  ramparts  the  majesty  of  the 
Great  King.  Under  his  eye  the  Persian  myriads  mounted 
with  scaling-ladders  to  the  assault ;  the  Roman  mercenaries 
fled  through  the  opposite  gate  of  Daphne ;  and  the  generous 
assistance  of  the  youth  of  Antioch  served  only  to  aggravate 
the  miseries  of  their  country.  As  Chosroes,  attended  by  the 
ambassadors  of  Justinian,  was  descending  from  the  mountain, 
he  affected,  in  a  plaintive  voice,  to  deplore  the  obstinacy  and 
ruin  of  that  unhappy  people ;  but  the  slaughter  still  raged 
with  unrelenting  fury,  and  the  city,  at  the  command  of  a  bar- 
barian, was  delivered  to  the  flames.  The  cathedral  of  An- 
tioch was  indeed  preserved  by  the  avarice,  not  the  piety,  of 
the  conqueror:  a  more  honorable  exemption  was  granted  to 
the  Church  of  St.  Julian  and  the  quarter  of  the  town  where 
the  ambassadors  resided ;  some  distant  streets  were  saved  by 
the  shifting  of  the  wind,  and  the  walls  still  subsisted  to  pro- 
tect, and  soon  to  betray,  their  new  inhabitants.  Fanaticism 
had  defaced  the  ornaments  of  Daphne  ;  but  Chosroes  breathed 
a  purer  air  amidst  her  groves  and  fountains,  and  some  idola- 
ters in  his  train  might  sacrifice  with  impunity  to  the  nymphs 
of  that  elegant  retreat.  Eighteen  miles  below  Antioch  the 
river  Orontes  falls  into  the  Mediterranean.  The  haughty 
Persian  visited  the  term  of  his  conquests,  and  after  bathing 
alone  in  the  sea,  he  offered  a  solemn  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving 
to  the  sun,  or  rather  to  the  Creator  of  the  sun,  whom  the 
Magi  adored.  If  this  act  of  superstition  offended  the  preju- 
dices of  the  Syrians,  they  were  pleased  by  the  courteous  and 


a.d.540.]  AND  FOUNDATION  OF  A  NEW  CITY.  343 

even  eager  attention  with  which  he  assisted  at  the  games  of 
the  circus ;  and  as  Chosroes  had  heard  that  the  blue  faction 
was  espoused  by  the  emperor,  his  peremptory  command  se- 
cured the  victory  of  the  green  charioteer.  From  the  disci- 
pline of  his  camp  the  people  derived  more  solid  consolation, 
and  they  interceded  in  vain  for  the  life  of  a  soldier  who  had 
too  faithfully  copied  the  rapine  of  the  just  Nushirvan.  At 
length,  fatigued  though  unsatiated  with  the  spoil  of  Syria,a 
he  slowly  moved  to  the  Euphrates,  formed  a  temporary  bridge 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Barbalissus,  and  defined  the  space  of 
three  days  for  the  entire  passage  of  his  numerous  host.  Af- 
ter his  return  he  founded,  at  the  distance  of  one  day's  jour- 
ney from  the  palace  of  Ctesiphon,  a  new  city,  which  perpet- 
uated the  joint  names  of  Chosroes  and  of  Antioch.  The  Syr- 
ian captives  recognized  the  form  and  situation  of  their  native 
abodes ;  baths  and  a  stately  circus  were  constructed  for  their 
use;  and  a  colony  of  musicians  and  charioteers  revived  in 
Assyria  the  pleasures  of  a  Greek  capital.  By  the  munifi- 
cence of  the  royal  founder,  a  liberal  allowance  was  assigned 
to  these  fortunate  exiles,  and  they  enjoyed  the  singular  priv- 
ilege of  bestowing  freedom  on  the  slaves  whom  they  acknowl- 
edged as  their  kinsmen.  Palestine  and  the  holy  wealth  of 
Jerusalem  were  the  next  objects  that  attracted  the  ambition, 
or  rather  the  avarice,  of  Chosroes.  Constantinople  and  the 
palace  of  the  Caesars  no  longer  appeared  impregnable  or  re- 
mote ;  and  his  aspiring  fancy  already  covered  Asia  Minor 
with  the  troops,  and  the  Black  Sea  with  the  navies,  of  Persia. 
These  hopes  might  have  been  realized,  if  the  conqueror  of 
Italy  had  not  been  seasonably  recalled  to  the  defence  of  the 
East.63  While  Chosroes  pursued  his  ambitious  designs  on  the 
coast  of  the  Euxine,  Belisarius,  at  the  head  of  an  army  without 
pay  or  discipline,  encamped  beyond  the  Euphrates,  within  six 

63  In  the  public  history  of  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  16,  18,  19,  20,  21,  24,  25, 
26,  27,  28) ;  and  with  some  slight  exceptions,  we  may  reasonably  shut  our  ears 
against  the  malevolent  whisper  of  the  Anecdotes  (c.  2,  3,  with  the  Notes,  as  usual, 
of  Alemannus). 

k  Lydus  asserts  that  he  carried  away  all  the  statues,  pictures,  and  marbles 
which"  adorned  the  city  :  1.  iii.  c.  54,  p.  247  [edit.  Bonn], — M. 


344  DEFENCE  OF  THE  EAST  [Ch.  XLIL 

miles  of  Nisibis.  He  meditated,  by  a  skilful  operation,  to 
Defence  of  draw  the  Persians  from  their  impregnable  citadel, 
BeiifariusJ  an^>  improving  his  advantage  in  the  field,  either  to 
a.d.541.  intercept  their  retreat,  or  perhaps  to  enter  the  gates 
with  the  flying  barbarians.  He  advanced  one  day's  journey 
on  the  territories  of  Persia,  reduced  the  fortress  of  Sisaurane, 
and  sent  the  governor,  with  eight  hundred  chosen  horsemen, 
to  serve  the  emperor  in  his  Italian  wars.  He  detached  Are- 
thas  and  his  Arabs,  supported  by  twelve  hundred  Romans,  to 
pass  the  Tigris,  and  to  ravage  the  harvests  of  Assyria,  a  fruit- 
ful province,  long  exempt  from  the  calamities  of  war.  But 
the  plans  of  Belisarius  were  disconcerted  by  the  untractable 
spirit  of  Arethas,  who  neither  returned  to  the  camp,  nor  sent 
any  intelligence  of  his  motions.  The  Roman  general  was 
fixed  in  anxious  expectation  to  the  same  spot;  the  time  of 
action  elapsed ;  the  ardent  sun  of  Mesopotamia  inflamed  with 
fevers  the  blood  of  his  European  soldiers ;  and  the  stationary 
troops  and  officers  of  Syria  affected  to  tremble  for  the  safety 
of  their  defenceless  cities.  Yet  this  diversion  had  already 
succeeded  in  forcing  Chosroes  to  return  with  loss  and  precip- 
itation ;  and  if  the  skill  of  Belisarius  had  been  seconded  by 
discipline  and  valor,  his  success  might  have  satisfied  the  san- 
guine wishes  of  the  public,  who  required  at  his  hands  the 
conquest  of  Ctesiphon,  and  the  deliverance  of  the  captives  of 
Antioch.  At  the  end  of  the  campaign,  he  was  recalled  to 
Constantinople  by  an  ungrateful  court,  but  the  dan- 
gers of  the  ensuing  spring  restored  his  confidence 
and  command ;  and  the  hero,  almost  alone,  was  despatched, 
with  the  speed  of  post-horses,  to  repel,  by  his  name  and  pres- 
ence, the  invasion  of  Syria.  He  found  the  Roman  generals, 
among  whom  was  a  nephew  of  Justinian,  imprisoned  by  their 
fears  in  the  fortifications  of  Hierapolis.  But  instead  of  lis- 
tening to  their  timid  counsels,  Belisarius  commanded  them  to 
follow  him  to  Europus,  where  he  had  resolved  to  collect  his 
forces,  and  to  execute  whatever  God  should  inspire  him  to 
achieve  against  the  enemy.  His  firm  attitude  on  the  banka 
of  the  Euphrates  restrained  Chosroes  from  advancing  towards 
Palestine ;  and  he  received  with  art  and  dignity  the  ambassa' 


A.D.543.]  BY  BELISARIUS.  34o 

dors,  or  rather  spies,  of  the  Persian  monarch.  The  plain  be- 
tween Ilierapolis  and  the  river  was  covered  with  the  squad- 
rons of  cavalry,  six  thousand  hunters,  tall  and  robust,  who 
pursued  their  game  without  the  apprehension  of  an  enemy. 
On  the  opposite  bank  the  ambassadors  descried  a  thousand 
Armenian  horse,  who  appeared  to  guard  the  passage  of  the 
Euphrates.  The  tent  of  Belisarius  was  of  the  coarsest  linen, 
the  simple  equipage  of  a  warrior  who  disdained  the  luxury 
of  the  East.  Around  his  tent  the  nations  who  marched  un- 
der his  standard  were  arranged  with  skilful  confusion.  The 
Thracians  and  Illyrians  were  posted  in  the  front,  the  Heruli 
and  Goths  in  the  centre  ;  the  prospect  was  closed  by  the 
Moors  and  Yandals,  and  their  loose  array  seemed  to  multiply 
their  numbers.  Their  dress  was  light  and  active ;  one  sol- 
dier carried  a  whip,  another  a  sword,  a  third  a  bow,  a  fourth, 
perhaps,  a  battle-axe,  and  the  whole  picture  exhibited  the 
intrepidity  of  the  troops  and  the  vigilance  of  the  general. 
Chosroes  was  deluded  by  the  address,  and  awed  by  the  gen- 
ius, of  the  lieutenant  of  Justinian.  Conscious  of  the  merit, 
and  ignorant  of  the  force,  of  his  antagonist,  he  dreaded  a  de- 
cisive battle  in  a  distant  country,  from  whence  not  a  Persian 
might  return  to  relate  the  melancholy  tale.  The  Great  King 
hastened  to  repass  the  Euphrates :  and  Belisarius  pressed  his 
retreat,  by  affecting  to  oppose  a  measure  so  salutary  to  the 
empire,  and  which  could  scarcely  have  been  prevented  by  an 
army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men.  Envy  might  suggest  to 
ignorance  and  pride  that  the  public  enemy  had  been  suffered 
to  escape ;  but  the  African  and  Gothic  triumphs  are  less  glo- 
rious than  this  safe  and  bloodless  victory,  in.  which  neither 
fortune  nor  the  valor  of  the  soldiers  can  subtract  any  part  of 
the  general's  renown.  The  second  removal  of  Bel- 
isarius from  the  Persian  to  the  Italian  war  reveal- 
ed the  extent  of  his  personal  merit,  which  had  corrected  or 
supplied  the  want  of  discipline  and  courage.  Fifteen  gen- 
erals, without  concert  or  skill,  led  through  the  mountains  of 
Armenia  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  Romans,  inattentive  to 
their  signals,  their  ranks,  and  their  ensigns.  Four  thousand 
Persians,  intrenched  in  the  camp  of  Dubis,  vanquished,  al« 


346  DESCRIPTION  OF  COLCHIS.  [Ch.  XLIL 

most  without  a  combat,  this  disorderly  multitude ;  their  use* 
less  arms  were  scattered  along  the  road,  and  their  horses  sunk 
under  the  fatigue  of  their  rapid  flight.  But  the  Arabs  of  the 
Roman  party  prevailed  over  their  brethren  ;  the  Armenians 
returned  to  their  allegiance ;  the  cities  of  Dara  and  Edessa 
resisted  a  sudden  assault  and  a  regular  siege,  and  the  calami- 
ties of  war  were  suspended  by  those  of  pestilence.  A  tacit 
or  formal  agreement  between  the  two  sovereigns  protected 
the  tranquillity  of  the  Eastern  frontier ;  and  the  arms  of 
Chosroes  were  confined  to  the  Colchian  or  Lazic  war,  which 
has  been  too  minutely  described  by  the  historians  of  the 
times.64 

The  extreme  length  of  the  Euxiue  Sea,65  from  Constantino- 
ple to  the  mouth  of  the  Phasis,  may  be  computed  as  a  voy- 
Description  age  °f  nme  days,  and  a  measure  of  seven  hundred 
Lfazici°,hor'  miles.  From  the  Iberian  Caucasus,  the  most  lofty 
Mmgreiia.  an(j  craggy  mountains  of  Asia,  that  river  descends 
with  such  oblique  vehemence,  that  in  a  short  space  it  is  trav- 
ersed by  one  hundred  and  twenty  bridges.  Nor  does  the 
stream  become  placid  and  navigable  till  it  reaches  the  town 
of  Sarapana,  five  days'  journey  from  the  Cyrus,  which  flows 
from  the  same  hills,  but  in  a  contrary  direction  to  the  Caspian 
lake.  The  proximity  of  these  rivers  has  suggested  the  prac- 
tice, or  at  least  the  idea,  of  wafting  the  precious  merchandise 
of  India  down  the  Oxus,  over  the  Caspian,  up  the  Cyrus,  and 

64  The  Lazic  war,  the  contest  of  Rome  and  Persia  on  the  Phasis.  is  tediously 
spun  through  many  a  page  of  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  15, 17,  28,  29,  30 ;  Gothic. 
1.  iv.  c.  7-16)  and  Agathias  (1.  ii.,  iii.,  and  iv.,  p.  55-132,  141). 

65  The  Peri-plus,  or  circumnavigation  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  was  described  in  Latin 
by  Sallust,  and  in  Greek  by  Arrian :  1.  The  former  work,  which  no  longer  exists, 
has  been  restored  by  the  singular  diligence  of  M.  de  Brasses,  first  president  of  tha 
parliament  of  Dijon  (Hist,  de  la  Republique  Romaine,  torn.  ii.  1.  iii.  p.  199-208), 
who  ventures  to  assume  the  character  of  the  Roman  historian.  His  description 
of  the  Euxine  is  ingeniously  formed  of  all  the  fragments  of  the  original,  and  of 
all  the  Greeks  and  Latins  whom  Sallust  might  copy,  or  by  whom  he  might  be 
copied  ;  and  the  merit  of  the  execution  atones  for  the  whimsical  design.  2.  The 
Periplus  of  Arrian  is  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Hadrian  (in  Geograph.  Minor. 
Hudson,  torn,  i.),  and  contains  whatever  the  Governor  of  Pontus  had  seen  from 
Trebizond  to  Dioscurias ;  whatever  he  had  heard  from  Dioscurias  to  the  Danube; 
and  whatever  he  knew  from  the  Danube  to  Trebizond* 


A.D.543.]  DESCRIPTION  OF  COLCHIS.  347 

with  the  current  of  the  Phasis  into  the  Euxine  and  Mediter- 
ranean seas.  As  it  successively  collects  the  streams  of  tha 
plain  of  Colchis,  the  Phasis  moves  with  diminished  speed, 
though  accumulated  weight.  At  the  mouth  it  is  sixty  fath- 
om deep  and  half  a  league  broad,  but  a  small  woody  island  is 
interposed  in  the  midst  of  the  channel :  the  water,  so  soon  as 
it  has  deposited  an  earthy  or  metallic  sediment,  floats  on  the 
surface  of  the  waves,  and  is  no  longer  susceptible  of  corrup- 
tion. In  a  course  of  one  hundred  miles,  forty  of  which  are 
navigable  for  large  vessels,  the  Phasis  divides  the  celebrated 
region  of  Colchis,68  or  Mingrelia,67  which,  on  three  sides,  is  for- 
tified by  the  Iberian  and  Armenian  mountains,  and  whose 
maritime  coast  extends  about  two  hundred  miles  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Trebizond  to  Dioscurias  and  the  confines  of 
Circassia.  Both  the  soil  and  climate  are  relaxed  by  excessive 
moisture :  twenty-eight  rivers,  besides  the  Phasis  and  his  de- 
pendent streams,  convey  their  waters  to  the  sea ;  and  the  hol- 
lowness  of  the  ground  appears  to  indicate  the  subterraneous 
channels  between  the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian.  In  the  fields 
where  wheat  or  barley  is  sown,  the  earth  is  too  soft  to  sustain 
the  action  of  the  plough ;  but  the  gom,  a  small  grain,  not  un- 
like the  millet  or  coriander  seed,  supplies  the  ordinary  food 
of  the  people ;  and  the  use  of  bread  is  confined  to  the  prince 
and  his  nobles.  Yet  the  vintage  is  more  plentiful  than  the 
harvest ;  and  the  bulk  of  the  stems,  as  well  as  the  quality  of 
the  wine,  display  the  unassisted  powers  of  nature.  The  same 
powers  continually  tend  to  overshadow  the  face  of  the  coun- 


66  Besides  the  many  occasional  hints  from  the  poets,  historians,  etc.,  of  antiq- 
uity, we  may  consult  the  geographical  descriptions  of  Colchis  by  Strabo  (1.  xi.  p. 
760-765  [p.  497-501,  edit.  Casaub.])  and  Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  vi.  5, 19,  etc.). 

61  I  shall  quote,  and  have  used,  three  modern  descriptions  of  Mingrelia  and  the 
adjacent  countries.  1.  Of  the  Pere  Archangeli  Lamberti  (Relations  de  Thevenot, 
part  i.  p.  31-52,  with  a  map),  who  has  all  the  knowledge  and  prejudices  of  a  mis- 
sionary. 2.  Of  Chardin  (Voyages  en  Perse,  torn.  i.  p.  54,  68-168):  his  observa- 
tions are  judicious  ;  and  his  own  adventures  in  the  country  are  still  more  instruc- 
tive than  his  observations.  3.  Of  Peyssonel  (Observations  sur  les  Peuples  Bar- 
bares,  p.  49,  50,  51,  58,  62,  64,  65,  71,  etc.,  and  a  more  recent  treatise,  Sur  la 
Commerce  de  la  Mer  Noire,  torn.  ii.  p.  1-53) :  he  had  long  resided  at  Caffa,  aa 
consul  of  France  ;  and  his  erudition  is  less  valuable  than  his  experience. 


348  DESCRIPTION  OF  COLCHIS.  [Ch.  XLIL 

try  with  thick  forests  :  the  timber  of  the  hills,  and  the  flax  of 
the  plains,  contribute  to  the  abundance  of  naval  stores ;  the 
wild  and  tame  animals,  the  horse,  the  ox,  and  the  hog,  are  re- 
markably prolific,  and  the  name  of  the  pheasant  is  expressive 
of  his  native  habitation  on  the  banks  of  the  Phasis.  The 
gold-mines  to  the  south  of  Trebizond,  which  are  still  worked 
with  sufficient  profit,  were  a  subject  of  national  dispute  be- 
tween Justinian  and  Chosroes ;  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to 
believe  that  a  vein  of  precious  metal  may  be  equally  diffused 
through  the  circle  of  the  hills,  although  these  secret  treasures 
are  neglected  by  the  laziness,  or  concealed  by  the  prudence, 
of  the  Mingrelians.  The  waters,  impregnated  with  particles 
of  gold,  are  carefully  strained  through  sheepskins  or  fleeces ; 
but  this  expedient,  the  groundwork,  perhaps,  of  a  marvellous 
fable,  affords  a  faint  image  of  the  wealth  extracted  from  a 
virgin  earth  by  the  power  and  industry  of  ancient  kings. 
Their  silver  palaces  and  golden  chambers  surpass  our  belief; 
but  the  fame  of  their  riches  is  said  to  have  excited  the  enter- 
prising avarice  of  the  Argonauts.68  Tradition  has  affirmed, 
with  some  color  of  reason,  that  Egypt  planted  on  the  Phasis 
a  learned  and  polite  colony,69  which  manufactured  linen,  built 
navies,  and  invented  geographical  maps.  The  ingenuity  of  the 
moderns  has  peopled  with  flourishing  cities  and  nations  the 
isthmus  between  the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian ;T0  and  a  lively 
writer,  observing  the  resemblance  of  climate,  and,  in  his  ap- 
prehension, of  trade,  has  not  hesitated  to  pronounce  Colchis 
the  Holland  of  antiquity.71 

But  the  riches  of  Colchis  shine  only  through  the  darkness 


68  Pliny,  Hist.  Natur.  I.  xxxiii.  15.  The  gold  and  silver  mines  of  Colchis  at- 
tracted the  Argonauts  (Strab.  1.  i.  p.  77  [p.  45,  edit.  Casaub.]).  The  sagacious 
Chardin  could  find  no  gold  in  mines,  rivers,  or  elsewhere.  Yet  a  Mingrelian  lost 
his  hand  and  foot  for  showing  some  specimens  at  Constantinople  of  native  gold. 

69  Herodot.  1.  ii.  c.  104,  105,  p.  150,  151 ;  Diodor.  Sicul.  1.  i.  [c.  28]  p.  33,  edit. 
Wesseling ;  Dionys.  Perieget.  689 ;  and  Eustath.  ad  loc  Scholiast,  ad  Apollonium 
Argonaut.  I.  iv.  282-291. 

10  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxi.  ch.  6.  LTsthme  *  *  *  couvert  de  villea 
et  nations  qui  ne  sont  plus. 

11  Bougainville,  Me'moires  de  l'Acade'mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  xxvi.  p.  33,  on 
the  African  voyage  of  Hanno  and  the  commerce  of  antiquity. 


a.d.500.]       MANNERS  OF  THE  COLCHIANS.  349 

of  conjecture  or  tradition  ;  and  its  genuine  history  presents 
Manners  of  a  uniform  scene  of  rudeness  and  poverty.  If  one 
the  natives,  hundred  and  thirty  languages  were  spoken  in  the 
market  of  Dioscurias/2  they  were  the  imperfect  idioms  of  so 
many  savage  tribes  or  families,  sequestered  from  each  oth- 
er in  the  valleys  of  Mount  Caucasus;  and  their  separation, 
which  diminished  the  importance,  must  have  multiplied  the 
number,  of  their  rustic  capitals.  In  the  present  state  of  Min- 
grelia,  a  village  is  an  assemblage  of  huts  within  a  wooden 
fence ;  the  fortresses  are  seated  in  the  depth  of  forests ;  the 
princely  town  of  Cyta,  or  Cotatis,  consists  of  two  hundred 
houses,  and  a  stone  edifice  appertains  only  to  the  magnificence 
of  kings.  Twelve  ships  from  Constantinople,  and  about  sixty 
barks,  laden  with  the  fruits  of  industry,  annually  cast  anchor 
on  the  coast;  and  the  list  of  Colchian  exports  is  much  in- 
creased, since  the  natives  had  only  slaves  and  hides  to  offer  in 
exchange  for  the  corn  and  salt  which  they  purchased  from 
the  subjects  of  Justinian.  Not  a  vestige  can  be  found  of  the 
art,  the  knowledge,  or  the  navigation  of  the  ancient  Colchians: 
few  Greeks  desired  or  dared  to  pursue  the  footsteps  of  the 
Argonauts ;  and  even  the  marks  of  an  Egyptian  colony  are 
lost  on  a  nearer  approach.  The  rite  of  circumcision  is  prac- 
tised only  by  the  Mahometans  of  the  Euxine ;  and  the  curled 
hair  and  swarthy  complexion  of  Africa  no  longer  disfigure 
the  most  perfect  of  the  human  race.  It  is  in  the  adjacent 
climates  of  Georgia,  Mingrelia,  and  Circassia  that  nature  has 
placed,  at  least  to  our  eyes,  the  model  of  beauty,  in  the  shape 
of  the  limbs,  the  color  of  the  skin,  the  symmetry  of  the  feat- 
ures, and  the  expression  of  the  countenance.73  According  to 
the  destination  of  the  two  sexes,  the  men  seem  formed  for 


74  A  Greek  historian,  Timosthenes,  had  affirmed,  in  earn  ccc  nationes  dissimili- 
bus  Unguis  descendere ;  and  the  modest  Pliny  is  content  to  add,  et  postea  a  nostris 
cxxx  interpretibus  negotia  ibi  gesta  (vi.  5):  but  the  words  "nunc  deserta"  cover 
a  multitude  of  past  fictions. 

13  Buffon  (Hist.  Natur.  torn.  iii.  p.  433-437)  collects  the  unanimous  suffrage  of 
naturalists  and  travellers.  If,  in  the  time  of  Herodotus, they  were  in  truth  fiekdy- 
Xpoeg  and  ovkoTpixeQ  (and  he  had  observed  them  with  care),  this  precious  fact  ia 
an  example  of  the  influence  of  climate  on  a  foreign  colony. 


350  MANNERS  OF  THE  COLCHIANS.  [Ch.  XLIL 

action,  the  women  for  love ;  and  the  perpetual  supply  of  fe- 
males from  Mount  Caucasus  has  purified  the  blood  and  im- 
proved the  breed  of  the  southern  nations  of  Asia.  The  prop- 
er district  of  Mingrelia,  a  portion  only  of  the  ancient  Colchis, 
has  long  sustained  an  exportation  of  twelve  thousand  slaves. 
The  number  of  prisoners  or  criminals  would  be  inadequate  to 
the  annual  demand ;  but  the  common  people  are  in  a  state  of 
servitude  to  their  lords ;  the  exercise  of  fraud  or  rapine  is  un< 
punished  in  a  lawless  community ;  and  the  market  is  contin- 
ually replenished  by  the  abuse  of  civil  and  paternal  authority. 
Such  a  trade,74  which  reduces  the  human  species  to  the  level 
of  cattle,  may  tend  to  encourage  marriage  and  population, 
since  the  multitude  of  children  enriches  their  sordid  and  in- 
human parent.  But  this  source  of  impure  wealth  must  in- 
evitably poison  the  national  manners,  obliterate  the  sense  of 
honor  and  virtue,  and  almost  extinguish  the  instincts  of  nat- 
ure: the  Christians  of  Georgia  and  Mingrelia  are  the  most 
dissolute  of  mankind ;  and  their  children,  who,  in  a  tender 
age,  are  sold  into  foreign  slavery,  have  already  learned  to  imi- 
tate the  rapine  of  the  father  and  the  prostitution  of  the  moth- 
er. Yet,  amidst  the  rudest  ignorance,  the  untaught  natives 
discover  a  singular  dexterity  both  of  mind  and  hand ;  and  al- 
though the  want  of  union  and  discipline  exposes  them  to  their 
more  powerful  neighbors,  a  bold  and  intrepid  spirit  has  an- 
imated the  Colchians  of  every  age.  In  the  host  of  Xerxes 
they  served  on  foot ;  and  their  arms  were  a  dagger  or  a  jave- 
lin, a  wooden  casque,  and  a  buckler  of  raw  hides.  But  in 
their  own  country  the  use  of  cavalry  has  more  generally  pre- 
vailed :  the  meanest  of  the  peasants  disdain  to  walk ;  the 
martial  nobles  are  possessed,  perhaps,  of  two  hundred  horses ; 
and  above  five  thousand  are  numbered  in  the  train  of  the 
Prince  of  Mingrelia.  The  Colchian  government  has  been  al- 
ways a  pure  and  hereditary  kingdom ;  and  the  authority  of 

74  The  Mingrelian  ambassador  arrived  at  Constantinople  with  two  hundred  per- 
sons ;  but  he  ate  (sold)  them  day  by  day,  till  his  retinue  was  diminished  to  a  sec- 
retary and  two  valets  (Tavernier,  torn.  i.  p.  365).  To  purchase  his  mistress,  a 
Mingrelian  gentleman  sold  twelve  priests  and  his  wife  to  the  Turks  (Ghardin, 
torn.  i.  p.  66). 


A.D.  500.]  REVOLUTIONS  OF  COLCHIS.  351 

the  sovereign  is  only  restrained  by  the  turbulence  of  his  sub- 
jects. Whenever  they  were  obedient,  he  could  lead  a  numer- 
ous army  into  the  field ;  but  some  faith  is  requisite  to  believe 
that  the  single  tribe  of  the  Suanians  was  composed  of  two 
hundred  thousand  soldiers,  or  that  the  population  of  Min- 
grelia  now  amounts  to  four  millions  of  inhabitants.76 

It  was  the  boast  of  the  Colchians  that  their  ancestors  had 
checked  the  victories  of  Sesostris ;  and  the  defeat  of  the 
devolutions  Egyptian  is  less  incredible  than  his  successful 
of  cokhis;  progress  as  far  as  the  foot  of  Mount  Caucasus. 
They  sunk  without  any  memorable  effort  under  the  arms  of 
Cyrus,  followed  in  distant  wars  the  standard  of  the  Great 
King,  and  presented  him  every  fifth  year  with  one  hundred 
under  the  boys  and  as  many  virgins,  the  fairest  produce  of 
ggf"  the  land.''6  Yet  he  accepted  this  gift  like  the  gold 
Christ,  500;  an(j  e|30ny  0f  India,  the  frankincense  of  the  Arabs, 
or  the  negroes  and  ivory  of  ^Ethiopia :  the  Colchians  were 
not  subject  to  the  dominion  of  a  satrap,  and  they  continued 
to  enjoy  the  name  as  well  as  substance  of  national  indepen- 
dence.77 After  the  fall  of  the  Persian  empire,  Mithridates, 
King  of  Pontus,  added  Colchis  to  the  wide  circle  of  his  do- 
minions on  the  Euxine ;  and  when  the  natives  presumed  to 
request  that  his  son  might  reign  over  them,  he  bound  the 
ambitious  youth  in  chains  of  gold,  and  delegated  a 

under  the  Eo-  .      *,  .        t  t  •         i-  •«*■•  i     •  i 

mans, before    servant  in  his  place.    In  pursuit  of  Mithridates,  the 

Christ  60 

Romans  advanced  to  the  banks  of  the  Phasis,  and 
their  galleys  ascended  the  river  till  they  reached  the  camp 


15  Strabo,  1.  xi.  p.  763  [p.  499,  edit.  Casaub.].  Lamberti,  Relation  de  la  Min- 
grelie.  Yet  we  must  avoid  the  contrary  extreme  of  Chardin,  who  allows  no  more 
than  20,000  inhabitants  to  supply  an  annual  exportation  of  12,000  slaves ;  an  ab- 
surdity unworthy  of  that  judicious  traveller. 

76  Herodot.  1.  iii.  c.  97.  See,  in  1.  vii.  c.  79,  their  arms  and  service  in  the  ex- 
pedition of  Xerxes  against  Greece. 

17  Xenophon,  who  had  encountered  the  Colchians  in  his  retreat  (Anabasis,  1.  iv. 
[c.  8]  p.  320,  343,  348,  edit.  Hutchinson  ;  and  Foster's  Dissertation,  p.  liii.-lriii., 
in  Spelman's  English  version,  vol.  ii.),  styles  them  avrovofioi.  Before  the  con- 
quest of  Mithridates  they  are  named  by  Appian  Wvoq  apeifiavkg  (de  Bell.  Mithri- 
datico,  c.  15,  torn.  i.  p.  661,  of  the  last  and  best  edition,  by  John  Schweighasuser, 
I    Lipsiss,  1785,  3  vols,  large  octavo). 


352  REVOLUTIONS  OF  COLCHIS.  [Ch.  XLIL 

of  Pompey  and  his  legions.78  But  the  senate,  and  afterwards 
the  emperors,  disdained  to  reduce  that  distant  and  useless  con- 
quest into  the  form  of  a  province.  The  family  of  a  Greek 
rhetorician  was  permitted  to  reign  in  Colchis  and  the  adja- 
cent kingdoms  from  the  time  of  Mark  Antony  to  that  of 
Nero  ;  and  after  the  race  of  Polemo79  was  extinct,  the  eastern 
Pontus,  which  preserved  his  name,  extended  no  farther  than 
the  neighborhood  of  Trebizond.  Beyond  these  limits  the 
fortifications  of  Hyssus,  of  Apsarus,  of  the  Phasis,  of  Dioscu- 
rias  or  Sebastopolis,  and  of  Pityus,  were  guarded  by  sufficient 
detachments  of  horse  and  foot ;  and  six  princes  of  Colchis  re- 
ceived their  diadems  from  the  lieutenants  of  Caesar.  One  of 
these  lieutenants,  the  eloquent  and  philosophic  Arrian,  sur- 
veyed and  nas  described  the  Euxine  coast  under 
Arrian,  the  reign  of  Hadrian.     The  garrison  which  he  re- 

viewed at  the  mouth  of  the  Phasis  consisted  of  four 
hundred  chosen  legionaries ;  the  brick  walls  and  towers,  the 
double  ditch,  and  the  military  engines  on  the  rampart,  ren- 
dered this  place  inaccessible  to  the  barbarians ;  but  the  new 
suburbs  which  had  been  built  by  the  merchants  and  veterans 
required,  in  the  opinion  of  Arrian,  some  external  defence.80 
As  the  strength  of  the  empire  was  gradually  impaired,  the 
Romans  stationed  on  the  Phasis  were  either  withdrawn  or  ex- 
pelled ;  and  the  tribe  of  the  Lazi,81  whose  posterity  speak  a 

78  The  conquest  of  Colchis  by  Mithridates  and  Pompey  is  marked  by  Appian 
(de  Bell.  Mithridat.  [1.  c]  and  Plutarch  (in  Vit.  Pomp.  [c.  30,  34]). 

79  We  may  trace  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  family  of  Polemo,  in  Strabo  (1.  xi.  p. 
755;  1.  xii.  p.  867  [p.  493  and  578,  edit.  Casaub.j),  Dion  Cassius  or  Xiphilin  (p. 
588,  593,  601,  719,  754,  915,  946,  edit.  Reimar  [1.  xlix.  c.  25,  33,  44 ;  1.  liii.  c.  25; 
1.  liv.  c.  24 ;  1.  lix.  c.  12 ;  1.  lx.  c.  8]),  Suetonius  (in  Neron.  c.  18,  in  Vespasian,  c. 
8),  Eutropius  (vii.  14  [9],  Josephus  (Antiq.  Judaic.  1.  xx.  c.  6,  p.  970,  edit.  Haver- 
camp),  and  Eusebius  (Chron.  with  Scaliger,  Animadvers.  p.  196). 

80  In  the  time  of  Procopius  there  were  no  Eoman  forts  on  the  Phasis.  Pityus 
and  Sebastopolis  were  evacuated  on  the  rumor  of  the  Persians  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  4)  ; 
but  the  latter  was  afterwards  restored  by  Justinian  (de  MdiL  1.  iii.  c.  7  [torn.  iii. 
p.  261,  edit.  Bonn]). 

81  In  the  time  of  Pliny,  Arrian,  and  Ptolemy,  the  Lazi  were  a  particular  tribe 
on  the  northern  skirts  of  Colchis  (Cellarius,  Geograph.  Antiq.  torn.  ii.  p.  222). 
In  the  age  of  Justinian  they  spread,  or  at  least  reigned,  over  the  whole  country. 
At  present  they  have  migrated  along  the  coast  towards  Trebizond,  and  compose  a 
»ude  seafaring  people,  with  a  peculiar  language  (Chardin,  p.  149;  Peyssonel,  p.  64). 


a.d.  522.]  THE  CONVEESION  OF  THE  LAZI.  353 

foreign  dialect  and  inhabit  the  sea- coast  of  Trebizond,  im- 
posed their  name  and  dominion  on  the  ancient  kingdom  of 
Colchis.  Their  independence  was  soon  invaded  by  a  formida- 
ble neighbor,  who  had  acquired  by  arms  and  treaties  the  sov- 
ereignty of  Iberia.  The  dependent  King  of  Lazica  received 
his  sceptre  at  the  hands  of  the  Persian  monarch,  and  the  suc- 
cessors of  Constantine  acquiesced  in  this  injurious  claim,  which 
was  proudly  urged  as  a  right  of  immemorial  prescription.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  their  influence  was  restored 
by  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  which  the  Min- 

Conversion  "  .  V 

oftheLazi.     grelians  still  proiess  with  becoming  zeal,  without 

A.D.522.  &  Til  •  1.1 

understanding  the  doctrines  or  observing  the  pre- 
cepts of  their  religion.  After  the  decease  of  his  father,  Za- 
thus  was  exalted  to  the  regal  dignity  by  the  favor  of  the 
Great  King ;  but  the  pious  youth  abhorred  the  ceremonies  of 
the  Magi,  and  sought  in  the  palace  of  Constantinople  an  or- 
thodox baptism,  a  noble  wife,  and  the  alliance  of  the  Emperor 
Justin.  The  King  of  Lazica  was  solemnly  invested  with  the 
diadem,  and  his  cloak  and  tunic  of  white  silk,  with  a  gold 
border,  displayed  in  rich  embroidery  the  figure  of  his  new 
patron,  who  soothed  the  jealousy  of  the  Persian  court,  and 
excused  the  revolt  of  Colchis,  by  the  venerable  names  of 
hospitality  and  religion.  The  common  interest  of  both  em- 
pires imposed  on  the  Colchians  the  duty  of  guarding  the 
passes  of  Mount  Caucasus,  where  a  wall  of  sixty  miles  is  now 
defended  by  the  monthly  service  of  the  musketeers  of  Min- 
grelia.82 

But  this  honorable  connection  was  soon  corrupted  by  the 
avarice  and  ambition  of  the  Eomans.  Degraded  from  the 
rank  of  allies,  the  Lazi  were  incessantly  reminded  by  words 
and  actions  of  their  dependent  state.  At  the  distance  of  a 
day's  journey  beyond  the  Apsarus  they  beheld  the  rising  for- 

82  John  Malala,  Chron.  torn.  ii.  p.  134-137  [edit.  Oxon. ;  p.  412-414,  edit. 
Bonn]  ;  Theophanes,  p.  144.  [torn.  i.  p.  259,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Hist.  Miscell.  1.  xv.  p. 
1  103.  The  fact  is  authentic,  but  the  date  seems  too  recent.  In  speaking  of  their 
I  Persian  alliance,  the  Lazi  contemporaries  of  Justinian  employ  the  most  obsolete 
I  words — tv  ypc'tfi/xaai  nvij/xua,  irpoyovoi,  etc.  Could  they  belong  to  a  connection 
\    which  had  not  been  dissolved  above  twenty  years  ? 

IV.— 23 


354  EEYOLT  AND  REPENTANCE  [Ch.  XLIL 

tress  of  Petra,83  whicli  commanded  the  maritime  country  to 
the  south  of  Phasis.    Instead  of  being  protected  by 

Revolt  and  ..   1  .  °  x        .  J 

repentance      the  valor,  Colchis  was  insulted  by  the  licentiousness, 
chians.  of  foreign  mercenaries;  the  benefits  of  commerce 

a.d.  542-549. 

were  converted  into  base  and  vexatious  monopo- 
ly ;  and  Gubazes,  the  native  prince,  was  reduced  to  a  pageant 
of  royalty  by  the  superior  influence  of  the  officers  of  Justin- 
ian. Disappointed  in  their  expectations  of  Christian  virtue, 
the  indignant  Lazi  reposed  some  confidence  in  the  justice  of 
an  unbeliever.  After  a  private  assurance  that  their  ambassa- 
dors should  not  be  delivered  to  the  Romans,  they  publicly  so- 
licited the  friendship  and  aid  of  Chosroes.  The  sagacious 
monarch  instantly  discerned  the  use  and  importance  of  Col- 
chis, and  meditated  a  plan  of  conquest  which  was  renewed  at 
the  end  of  a  thousand  years  by  Shah  Abbas,  the  wisest  and 
most  powerful  of  his  successors.84  His  ambition  was  fired  by 
the  hope  of  launching  a  Persian  navy  from  the  Phasis,  of 
commanding  the  trade  and  navigation  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  of 
desolating  the  coast  of  Pontus  and  Bithynia,  of  distressing, 
perhaps  of  attacking,  Constantinople,  and  of  persuading  the 
barbarians  of  Europe  to  second  his  arms  and  counsels  against 
the  common  enemy  of  mankind.  Under  the  pretence  of  a 
Scythian  war  he  silently  led  his  troops  to  the  frontiers  of  Ibe- 
ria; the  Colchian  guides  were  prepared  to  conduct  them 
through  the  woods  and  along  the  precipices  of  Mount  Cauca- 
sus, and  a  narrow  path  was  laboriously  formed  into  a  safe  and 
spacious  highway  for  the  march  of  cavalry,  and  even  of  ele- 
phants. Gubazes  laid  his  person  and  diadem  at  the  feet  of 
the  King  of  Persia,  his  Colchians  imitated  the  submission  of 
their  prince ;  and  after  the  walls  of  Petra  had  been  shaken, 
the  Roman  garrison  prevented  by  a  capitulation  the  impend- 

83  The  sole  vestige  of  Petra  subsists  in  the  writings  of  Procopius  and  Agathias. 
Most  of  the  towns  and  castles  of  Lazica  may  be  found  by  comparing  their  names 
and  position  with  the  map  of  Mingrelia,  in  Lamberti. 

84  See  the  amusing  letters  of  Pietro  della  Valle,  the  Roman  traveller  (Viaggi, 
torn.  ii.  207,  209,  213,  215,  266,  286,  300 ;  torn.  iii.  p.  5i,  127).  In  the  years 
1618, 1619,  and  1620,  he  conversed  with  Shah  Abbas,  and  strongly  encouraged  a 
design  which  might  have  united  Persia  and  Europe  against  their  common  enemy 
the  Turk. 


A.D.  549-551.]  OF  THE  COLCHIANS.  355 

ing  fury  of  the  last  assault.  But  the  Lazi  soon  discovered 
that  their  impatience  had  urged  them  to  choose  an  evil  more 
intolerable  than  the  calamities  which  they  strove  to  escape. 
The  monopoly  of  salt  and  corn  was  effectually  removed  by 
the  loss  of  those  valuable  commodities.  The  authority  of  a 
Roman  legislator  was  succeeded  by  the  pride  of  an  Orient- 
al despot,  who  beheld  with  equal  disdain  the  slaves  whom 
he  had  exalted,  and  the  kings  whom  he  had  humbled  before 
the  footstool  of  his  throne.  The  adoration  of  lire  was  in- 
troduced into  Colchis  by  the  zeal  of  the  Magi,  their  intol- 
erant spirit  provoked  the  fervor  of  a  Christian  people,  and 
the  prejudice  of  nature  or  education  was  wounded  by  the  im- 
pious practice  of  exposing  the  dead  bodies  of  their  parents 
on  the  summit  of  a  lofty  tower  to  the  crows  and  vultures  of 
the  air.85  Conscious  of  the  increasing  hatred  which  retarded 
the  execution  of  his  great  designs,  the  just  Nushirvan  had 
secretly  given  orders  to  assassinate  the  king  of  the  Lazi,  to 
transplant  the  people  into  some  distant  land,  and  to  fix  a 
faithful  and  warlike  colony  on  the  banks  of  the  Phasis.  The 
watchful  jealousy  of  the  Colchians  foresaw  and  averted  the 
approaching  ruin.  Their  repentance  was  accepted  at  Con- 
stantinople by  the  prudence,  rather  than  the  clemency,  of 
Justinian ;  and  he  commanded  Dagisteus,  with  seven  thou- 
sand Romans  and  one  thousand  of  the  Zani,a  to  expel  the 
Persians  from  the  coast  of  the  Euxine. 

The  siege  of  Petra,  which  the  Roman  general,  with  the 
aid  of  the  Lazi,  immediately  undertook,  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable actions  of  the  age.  The  city  was  seated  on  a  craggy 
rock,  which  hung  over  the  sea,  and  communicated  by  a  steep 


85  See  Herodotus  (1.  i.  c.  140,  p.  69),  who  speaks  with  diffidence,  Larcher  (torn. 
i.  p.  399-401 ;  Notes  sur  Herodote),  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  1 1  [torn.  i.  p.  56, 
edit,  Bonn]),  and  Agathias  (1.  ii.  p.  61,  62  [edit.  Par.  ;  p.  113  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]). 
This  practice,  agreeable  to  the  Zendavesta  (Hyde,  de  Relig.  Pers.  c.  34,  p.  414- 
421),  demonstrates  that  the  burial  of  the  Persian  kings  [Xenophon,  Cyropaed.  1. 
fiii.  [c.  7]  p.  658),  ri  yap  tovtov  fiaKapLorepov  tov  ry  yrj  fiixOijvai,  is  a  Greek  fio 
tion,  and  that  their  tombs  could  be  no  more  than  cenotaphs. 


a  These  seem  the  same  people  called  Suanians,  p.  351. — M. 


356  SIEGE  OF  PETRA.  [Ch.XLIL 

and  narrow  path  with  the  land.      Since  the  approach  waa 
difficult,  the  attack  might  be  deemed  impossible; 
pet?!.0  the  Persian  conqueror  had  strengthened  the  for- 

tifications of  Justinian,  and  the  places  least  inac- 
cessible were  covered  by  additional  bulwarks.  In  this  impor- 
tant fortress  the  vigilance  of  Chosroes  had  deposited  a  maga- 
zine of  offensive  and  defensive  arms  sufficient  for  five  times 
the  number,  not  only  of  the  garrison,  but  of  the  besiegers 
themselves.  The  stock  of  flour  and  salt  provisions  was  ade- 
quate to  the  consumption  of  five  years ;  the  want  of  wine 
was  supplied  by  vinegar,  and  grain  from  whence  a  strong 
liquor  was  extracted;  and  a  triple  aqueduct  eluded  the  dili- 
gence and  even  the  suspicions  of  the  enemy.  Bat  the  firmest 
defence  of  Petra  was  placed  in  the  valor  of  fifteen  hundred 
Persians,  who  resisted  the  assaults  of  the  Romans,  whilst  in 
a  softer  vein  of  earth  a  mine  was  secretly  perforated.  The 
wall,  supported  by  slender  and  temporary  props,  hung  totter- 
ing in  the  air;  but  Dagisteus  delayed  the  attack  till  he  had 
secured  a  specific  recompense,  and  the  town  was  relieved  be- 
fore the  return  of  his  messenger  from  Constantinople.  The 
Persian  garrison  was  reduced  to  four  hundred  men,  of  whom 
no  more  than  fifty  were  exempt  from  sickness  or  wounds; 
yet  such  had  been  their  inflexible  perseverance,  that  they 
concealed  their  losses  from  the  enemy  by  enduring  without  a 
murmur  the  sight  and  putrefying  stench  of  the  dead  bodies 
of  their  eleven  hundred  companions.  After  their  deliverance 
the  breaches  were  hastily  stopped  with  sand-bags,  the  mine 
was  replenished  with  earth,  a  new  wall  was  erected  on  a 
frame  of  substantial  timber,  and  a  fresh  garrison  of  three 
thousand  men  was  stationed  at  Petra  to  sustain  the  labors 
of  a  second  siege.  The  operations,  both  of  the  attack  and  de- 
fence, were  conducted  with  skilful  obstinacy  ;  and  each  party 
derived  useful  lessons  from  the  experience  of  their  past  faults. 
A  battering-ram  was  invented,  of  light  construction  and  pow- 
erful effect ;  it  was  transported  and  worked  by  the  hands 
of  forty  soldiers;  and  as  the  stones  were  loosened  by  its  re- 
peated strokes,  they  were  torn  with  long  iron  hooks  from  the 
wall.     From  those  walls  a  shower  of  darts  was  incessantly 


A.i>.  549-556.]  THE  COLCHIAN  WAR.  357 

poured  on  the  heads  of  the  assailants,  but  thej  were  most 
dangerously  annoyed  by  a  fiery  composition  of  sulphur  and 
bitumen,  which  in  Colchis  might  with  some  propriety  be 
named  the  oil  of  Medea.  Of  six  thousand  Romans  who 
mounted  the  scaling-ladders,  their  general  Bessas  was  the 
first,  a  gallant  veteran  of  seventy  years  of  age :  the  courage 
of  their  leader,  his  fall,  and  extreme  danger,  animated  the 
irresistible  effort  of  his  troops,  and  their  prevailing  numbers 
oppressed  the  strength,  without  subduing  the  spirit,  of  the 
Persian  garrison.  The  fate  of  these  valiant  men  deserves  to 
be  more  distinctly  noticed.  Seven  hundred  had  perished  in 
the  siege,  two  thousand  three  hundred  survived  to  defend 
the  breach.  One  thousand  and  seventy  were  destroyed  with 
fire  and  sword  in  the  last  assault ;  and  if  seven  hundred  and 
thirty  were  made  prisoners,  only  eighteen  among  them  were 
found  without  the  marks  of  honorable  wounds.  The  remain- 
ing five  hundred  escaped  into  the  citadel,  which  they  main- 
tained without  any  hopes  of  relief,  rejecting  the  fairest  terms 
of  capitulation  and  service  till  they  were  lost  in  the  flames. 
They  died  in  obedience  to  the  commands  of  their  prince,  and 
such  examples  of  loyalty  and  valor  might  excite  their  coun- 
trymen to  deeds  of  equal  despair  and  more  prosperous  event. 
The  instant  demolition  of  the  works  of  Petra  confessed  the 
astonishment  and  apprehension  of  the  conqueror. 

A  Spartan  would  have  praised  and  pitied  the  virtue  of 
these  heroic  slaves;  but  the  tedious  warfare  and  alternate 

success  of  the  Roman  and  Persian  arms  cannot  de- 
or  Lazic  war.  tain  the  attention  of  posterity  at  the  foot  of  Mount 

Caucasus.  The  advantages  obtained  by  the  troops 
of  Justinian  were  more  frequent  and  splendid;  but  the 
forces  of  the  Great  King  were  continually  supplied  till  they 
amounted  to  eight  elephants  and  seventy  thousand  men,  in- 
cluding twelve  thousand  Scythian  allies  and  above  three  thou- 
sand Dilemites,  who  descended  by  their  free  choice  from  the 
hills  of  Hyrcania,  and  were  equally  formidable  in  close  or  in 
distant  combat.  The  siege  of  Archseopolis,  a  name  imposed 
or  corrupted  by  the  Greeks,  was  raised  with  some  loss  and 
precipitation,  but  the  Persians  occupied  the  passes  of  Iberia. 


358  THE  COLCHIAN  WAR.  [Ch.  XLII. 

Colciiis  was  enslaved  by  their  forts  and  garrisons,  they  de- 
voured the  scanty  sustenance  of  the  people,  and  the  prince  of 
the  Lazi  fled  into  the  mountains.  In  the  Eoman  camp  faith 
and  discipline  were  unknown,  and  the  independent  leaders, 
who  were  invested  with  equal  power,  disputed  with  each 
other  the  pre-eminence  of  vice  and  corruption.  The  Persians 
followed  without  a  murmur  the  commands  of  a  single  chief, 
who  implicitly  obeyed  the  instructions  of  their  supreme  lord. 
Their  general  was  distinguished  among  the  heroes  of  the  East 
by  his  wisdom  in  council  and  his  valor  in  the  field.  The  ad- 
vanced age  of  Mermeroes,  and  the  lameness  of  both  his  feet, 
could  not  diminish  the  activity  of  his  mind  or  even  of  his 
body  ;  and,  whilst  he  was  carried  in  a  litter  in  the  front  of 
battle,  he  inspired  terror  to  the  enemy,  and  a  just  confidence 
to  the  troops,  who  under  his  banners  were  always  successful. 
After  his  death  the  command  devolved  to  Nacoragan,  a  proud 
satrap  who,  in  a  conference  with  the  imperial  chiefs,  had  pre- 
sumed to  declare  that  he  disposed  of  victory  as  absolutely  as 
of  the  ring  on  his  finger.  Such  presumption  was  the  natu- 
ral cause  and  forerunner  of  a  shameful  defeat.  The  Romans 
had  been  gradually  repulsed  to  the  edge  of  the  sea-shore;  and 
their  last  camp,  on  the  ruins  of  the  Grecian  colony  of  Phasis, 
was  defended  on  all  sides  by  strong  intrenchments,  the  river, 
the  Euxine,  and  a  fleet  of  galleys.  Despair  united  their  coun- 
sels and  invigorated  their  arms ;  they  withstood  the  assault 
of  the  Persians,  and  the  flight  of  Nacoragan  preceded  or  fol- 
lowed the  slaughter  of  ten  thousand  of  his  bravest  soldiers. 
He  escaped  from  the  Romans  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  an  un- 
forgiving master,  who  severely  chastised  the  error  of  his  own 
choice :  the  unfortunate  general  was  flayed  alive,  and  his  skin, 
stuffed  into  the  human  form,  was  exposed  on  a  mountain — a 
dreadful  warning  to  those  who  might  hereafter  be  intrusted 
with  the  fame  and  fortune  of  Persia.86  Yet  the  prudence  of 
Chosroes  insensibly  relinquished  the  prosecution  of  the  Col- 

86  The  punishment  of  flaying  alive  could  not  be  introduced  into  Persia  by  Sapor 
(Brisson,  de  Regn.  Pers.  1.  ii.  p.  578),  nor  could  it  be  copied  from  the  foolish  tale 
of  Marsyas,  the  Phrygian  piper,  most  foolishly  quoted  as  a  precedent  by  Agathias 
(1.  iv.  p.  132, 133). 


a.d.  549-55C]  THE  COLCIIIAN  WAR.  359 

chian  war,  in  the  just  persuasion  that  it  is  impossible  to  re- 
duce, or  at  least  to  hold,  a  distant  country  against  the  wishes 
and  efforts  of  its  inhabitants.  The  fidelity  of  Gubazes  sus- 
tained the  most  rigorous  trials.  He  patiently  endured  the 
hardships  of  a  savage  life,  and  rejected  with  disdain  the  spe- 
cious temptations  of  the  Persian  court.a  The  king  of  the 
Lazi  had  been  educated  in  the  Christian  religion  ;  his  mother 
was  the  daughter  of  a  senator;  during  his  youth  he  had 
served  ten  years  a  silentiary  of  the  Byzantine  palace,87  and 
the  arrears  of  an  unpaid  salary  were  a  motive  of  attachment 
as  well  as  of  complaint.  But  the  long  continuance  of  his 
sufferings  extorted  from  him  a  naked  representation  of  the 
truth,  and  truth  was  an  unpardonable  libel  on  the  lieutenants 
of  Justinian,  who,  amidst  the  delays  of  a  ruinous  war,  had 
spared  his  enemies  and  trampled  on  his  allies.  Their  mali- 
cious information  persuaded  the  emperor  that  his  faithless 
vassal  already  meditated  a  second  defection :  an  order  was 
surprised  to  send  him  prisoner  to  Constantinople ;  a  treacher- 
ous clause  was  inserted  that  he  might  be  lawfully  killed  in 
case  of  resistance ;  and  Gubazes,  without  arms  or  suspicion  of 
danger,  was  stabbed  in  the  security  of  a  friendly  interview. 
In  the  first  moments  of  rage  and  despair,  the  Colchians  would 
have  sacrificed  their  country  and  religion  to  the  gratification 
of  revenge.  But  the  authority  and  eloquence  of  the  wiser 
few  obtained  a  salutary  pause :  the  victory  of  the  Phasis  re- 
stored the  terror  of  the  Roman  arms,  and  the  emperor  was 
solicitous  to  absolve  his  own  name  from  the  imputation  of  so 
foul  a  murder.  A  judge  of  senatorial  rank  was  commissioned 
to  inquire  into  the  conduct  and  death  of  the  king  of  the  Lazi. 
He  ascended  a  stately  tribunal,  encompassed  by  the  ministers 
of  justice  and  punishment :  in  the  presence  of  both  nations 
this  extraordinary  cause  was  pleaded  according  to  the  forms 

81  In  the  palace  of  Constantinople  there  were  thirty  silentiaries,  who  are  styled 
hastati  ante  fores  cubiculi,  ri/c  [_a/jKpi  rbv  fiaaiXia]  ffiyric  iiriaraTai,  an  honorable 
title  which  conferred  the  rank,  without  imposing  the  duties,  of  a  senator  (Cod. 
Theodos.  1.  vi.  tit.  23 ;  Gothofred.  Comment,  torn.  ii.  p.  129). 


11  According  to  Agathias,  the  death  of  Gubazes  preceded  the  defeat  of  Nacora* 
gau.     The  trial  took  place  after  the  battle. — M. 


360  NEGOTIATIONS  AND  TREATIES  [Ch.  XLIIi 

of  civil  jurisprudence,  and  some  satisfaction  was  granted  to 
an  injured  people  by  the  sentence  and  execution  of  the  mean- 
er criminals.88 

In  peace  the  King  of  Persia  continually  sought  the  pre- 
tences of  a  rupture,  but  no  sooner  had  he  taken  up  arms  than 
Negotiations  ne  expressed  his  desire  of  a  safe  and  honorable 
totmra  jm-  treaty.  During  the  fiercest  hostilities  the  two 
chosroes.3  monarchs  entertained  a  deceitful  negotiation :  and 
a.d.  540-561.  gucj1  wag  f.jie  SUperiority  of  Chosroes,  that,  whilst 
he  treated  the  Roman  ministers  with  insolence  and  contempt, 
he  obtained  the  most  unprecedented  honors  for  his  own  am- 
bassadors at  the  imperial  court.  The  successor  of  Cyrus  as- 
sumed the  majesty  of  the  Eastern  sun,  and  graciously  per- 
mitted his  younger  brother  Justinian  to  reign  over  the  West 
with  the  pale  and  reflected  splendor  of  the  moon.  This  gi- 
gantic style  was  supported  by  the  pomp  and  eloquence  of 
Isdigune,  one  of  the  royal  chamberlains.  His  wife  and 
daughters,  with  a  train  of  eunuchs  and  camels,  attended  the 
march  of  the  ambassador ;  two  satraps  with  golden  diadems 
were  numbered  among  his  followers ;  he  was  guarded  by  five 
hundred  horse,  the  most  valiant  of  the  Persians,  and  the  Ro- 
man governor  of  Dara  wisely  refused  to  admit  more  than 
twenty  of  this  martial  and  hostile  caravan.  When  Isdigune 
had  saluted  the  emperor  and  delivered  his  presents,  he  passed 
ten  months  at  Constantinople  without  discussing  any  serious 
affairs.  Instead  of  being  confined  to  his  palace,  and  receiving 
food  and  water  from  the  hands  of  his  keepers,  the  Persian 
ambassador,  without  spies  or  guards,  was  allowed  to  visit  the 
capital,  and  the  freedom  of  conversation  and  trade  enjoyed 
by  his  domestics  offended  the  prejudices  of  an  age  which  rig- 
orously practised  the  law  of  nations  without  confidence  or 

88  On  these  judicial  orations  Agathias  (1.  iii.  p.  81-89  ;  1.  iv.  p.  108-119  [p.  155- 
170,  206-230,  edit.  Bonn])  lavishes  eighteen  or  twenty  pages  of  false  and  florid 
rhetoric.  His  ignorance  or  carelessness  overlooks  the  strongest  argument  against 
the  King  of  Lazica — his  former  revolt.* 


a  The  Orations  in  the  third  book  of  Agathias  are  not  judicial,  nor  delivered  be- 
fore the  Roman  tribunal :  it  is  a  deliberative  debate  among  the  Colchians  on  the 
expediency  of  adhering  to  the  Roman,  or  embracing  the  Persian  alliance. — M. 


AJ).  540-561.]    BETWEEN  JUSTINIAN  AND  CHOSROES.  361 

courtesy.89  By  an  unexampled  indulgence,  his  interpreter,  a 
servant  below  the  notice  of  a  Roman  magistrate,  was  seated 
at  the  table  of  Justinian  by  the  side  of  his  master,  and  one 
thousand  pounds  of  gold  might  be  assigned  for  the  expense 
of  his  journey  and  entertainment.  Yet  the  repeated  labors 
of  Isdigune  could  procure  only  a  partial  and  imperfect  truce, 
which  was  always  purchased  with  the  treasures,  and  renewed 
at  the  solicitation,  of  the  Byzantine  court.  Many  years  of 
fruitless  desolation  elapsed  before  Justinian  and  Chosroes  were 
compelled  by  mutual  lassitude  to  consult  the  repose  of  their 
declining  age.  At  a  conference  held  on  the  frontier,  each 
party,  without  expecting  to  gain  credit,  displayed  the  power, 
the  justice,  and  the  pacific  intentions  of  their  respective  sov- 
ereigns ;  but  necessity  and  interest  dictated  the  treaty  of 
peace,  which  was  concluded  for  a  term  of  fifty  years,  diligent- 
ly composed  in  the  Greek  and  Persian  languages,  and  attest- 
ed by  the  seals  of  twelve  interpreters.  The  liberty  of  com- 
merce and  religion  was  fixed  and  defined,  the  allies  of  the  em- 
peror and  the  Great  King  were  included  in  the  same  bene- 
fits and  obligations,  and  the  most  scrupulous  precautions  were 
provided  to  prevent  or  determine  the  accidental  disputes  that 
might  arise  on  the  confines  of  two  hostile  nations.  After 
twenty  years  of  destructive  though  feeble  war,  the  limits  still 
remained  without  alteration,  and  Chosroes  was  persuaded  to 
renounce  his  dangerous  claim  to  the  possession  or  sovereignty 
of  Colchis  and  its  dependent  states.  Rich  in  the  accumulated 
treasures  of  the  East,  he  extorted  from  the  Romans  an  annual 
payment  of  thirty  thousand  pieces  of  gold  ;  and  the  smallness 
of  the  sum  revealed  the  disgrace  of  a  tribute  in  its  naked  de- 
formity. In  a  previous  debate,  the  chariot  of  Sesostris  and 
the  wheel  of  fortune  were  applied  by  one  of  the  ministers 
of  Justinian,  who  observed  that  the  reduction  of  Antioch  and 
some  Syrian  cities  had  elevated  beyond  measure  the  vain  and 

89  Procopius  represents  the  practice  of  the  Gothic  court  of  Ravenna  (Goth.  1.  i. 
c.  7  [torn.  ii.  p.  34,  edit.  Bonn]) ;  and  foreign  ambassadors  have  been  treated  with 
the  same  jealousy  and  rigor  in  Turkey  (Busbequius,  Epist.  iii.  p.  149,  242,  etc.), 
Russia  (Voyage  d'Olearius),  and  China  (Narrative  of  M.  de  Lange,  in  Bell's 
Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  189-311). 


362  CONQUESTS  OF  THE  ABYSSINIANS.  [Ch.  XLII 

ambitious  spirit  of  the  barbarian.  "  Tou  are  mistaken,"  re- 
plied the  modest  Persian ;  "  the  king  of  kings,  the  lord  of 
mankind,  looks  down  with  contempt  on  such  petty  acquisi- 
tions; and  of  the  ten  nations  vanquished  by  his  invincible 
arms,  he  esteems  the  Romans  as  the  least  formidable."90  Ac- 
cording to  the  Orientals,  the  empire  of  Nushirvan  extended 
from  Ferganah,  in  Transoxiana,  to  Yemen,  or  Arabia  Felix. 
He  subdued  the  rebels  of  Hyrcania,  reduced  the  provinces 
of  Cabul  and  Zablestan,  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  broke  the 
power  of  the  Euthalites,  terminated  by  an  honorable  treaty 
the  Turkish  war,  and  admitted  the  daughter  of  the  great  khan 
into  the  number  of  his  lawful  wives.  Victorious  and  respect- 
ed among  the  princes  of  Asia,  he  gave  audience,  in  his  pal- 
ace of  Madain  or  Ctesiphou,  to  the  ambassadors  of  the  world. 
Their  gifts  or  tributes,  arms,  rich  garments,  gems,  slaves,  or 
aromatics,  were  humbly  presented  at  the  foot  of  his  throne; 
and  he  condescended  to  accept  from  the  King  of  India  ten 
quintals  of  the  wood  of  aloes,  a  maid  seven  cubits  in  height, 
and  a  carpet  softer  than  silk,  the  skin,  as  it  was  reported,  of  an 
extraordinary  serpent.91 

Justinian  had  been  reproached  for  his  alliance  with  the 
^Ethiopians,  as  if  he  attempted  to  introduce  a  people  of  sav- 
conquesta  aSe  negroes  into  the  system  of  civilized  society. 
shiiaie18Abys"  But  the  friends  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  Axu- 
a.d.  522.  mites  or  Abyssinians,  may  be  always  distinguished 
from  the  original  natives  of  Africa.9*     The  hand  of  nature 

90  The  negotiations  and  treaties  between  Justinian  and  Chosroes  are  copiously 
explained  by  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  10,  13,  26,  27,  28  ;  Gothic.  1.  ii.  c.  11, 15; 
Agathias,  1.  iv.  p.  141,  142  [edit.  Par. ;  p.  274  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]),  and  Menander 
(in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  132-147  [p.  346  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]).  Consult  Barbeyrac, 
Hist,  des  Anciens  Traite's,  torn.  ii.  p.  154,  181-184,  193-200. 

91  D'Herbelot,  Biblioth.  Orient,  p.  680,  681,  294,  295. 

92  See  Buffon,  Hist.  Naturelle,  torn.  iii.  p.  449.  This  Arab  cast  of  features  and 
complexion,  which  has  continued  3400  years  (Ludolph.  Hist,  et  Comment.  iEthi- 
opic.  1.  i.  c.  4)  in  the  colony  of  Abyssinia,  will  justify  the  suspicion  that  race,  as 
well  as  climate,  must  have  contributed  to  form  the  negroes  of  the  adjacent  and 
similar  regions.*  

*  Mr.  Salt  (Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  458)  considers  them  to  be  distinct  from  the  Arabs 
''-"in  feature,  color,  habit,  and  manners." — M. 


a.d.  522.]  CONQUESTS  OF  THE  ABYSSINIANS.  363 

has  flattened  the  noses  of  the  negroes,  covered  their  heads 
with  shaggy  wool,  and  tinged  their  skin  with  inherent  and  in- 
delible blackness.  But  the  olive  complexion  of  the  Abyssin- 
ians,  their  hair,  shape,  and  features,  distinctly  mark  them  as 
a  colony  of  Arabs,  and  this  descent  is  confirmed  by  the  re- 
semblance of  language  and  manners,  the  report  of  an  ancient 
emigration,  and  the  narrow  interval  between  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea.  Christianity  had  raised  that  nation  above  the  level 
of  African  barbarism  ;93  their  intercourse  with  Egypt  and  the 
successors  of  Constantine8*  had  communicated  the  rudiments 
of  the  arts  and  sciences;  their  vessels  traded  to  the  isle  of 
Ceylon,95  and  seven  kingdoms  obeyed  the  Negus  or  supreme 
prince  of  Abyssinia.  The  independence  of  the  Homerites,a 
who  reigned  in  the  rich  and  happy  Arabia,  was  first  violated 
by  an  ^Ethiopian  conqueror:  he  drew  his  hereditary  claim 
from  the  Queen  of  Sheba,98  and  his  ambition  was  sanctified 
by  religious  zeal.  The  Jews,  powerful  and  active  in  exile, 
had  seduced  the  mind  of  Dunaan,  prince  of  the  Homerites. 
They  urged  him  to  retaliate  the  persecution  inflicted  by  the 

93  The  Portuguese  missionaries,  Alvarez  (Eamusio,  torn.  i.  fol.  204,  rect.  274, 
vers.),  Bermudez  (Purchas's  Pilgrims,  vol.  ii.  1.  v.  ch.  7,  p.  1149-1188),  Lobo  (Re- 
lation, etc.,  par  M.  le  Grand,  with  fifteen  Dissertations,  Paris,  1728),  and  Tellez 
(Relations  de  Thevenot,  part  iv.),  could  only  relate  of  modern  Abyssinia  what 
they  had  seen  or  invented.  The  erudition  of  Ludolphus  (Hist.  iEthiopica.  Fran- 
cofurt.  1681 ;  Commentarius,  1691  ;  Appendix,  1694),  in  twenty-five  languages, 
could  add  little  concerning  its  ancient  history.  Yet  the  fame  of  Caled,  or  Ellis- 
thsRus,  the  conqueror  of  Yemen,  is  celebrated  in  national  songs  and  legends. 

94  The  negotiations  of  Justinian  with  the  Axumites,  or  .^Ethiopians,  are  record- 
ed by  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  19,  20)  and  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  163-165,  193- 
196  [p.  433,  434-457,  459,  edit.  Bonn]).  The  historian  of  Antioch  quotes  the 
original  narrative  of  the  ambassador  Nonnosus,  of  which  Photius  (Biblioth.  Cod. 
iii.)  has  preserved  a  curious  extract. 

95  The  trade  of  the  Axumites  to  the  coast  of  India  and  Africa  and  the  Isle  of 
Ceylon  is  curiously  represented  by  Cosmas  Indicopleustes  (Topograph.  Christian. 
1.  ii.  p.  132,  138, 139, 140;  1.  xi.  p.  338,  339). 

96  Ludolph.  Hist,  et  Comment.  iEthiop.  1.  ii.  c.  3. 


*  It  appears  by  the  important  inscription  discovered  by  Mr.  Salt  at  Axoum,  and 
from  a  law  of  Constantius  (16th  January,  356,  inserted  in  the  Theodosian  Code, 
I.  12,  c.  12),  that  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  of  our  era,  the  princes  of  the 
Axumites  joined  to  their  titles  that  of  king  of  the  Homerites.  The  conquests 
which  they  made  over  the  Arabs  in  the  sixth  century  were  only  a  restoration  of 
the  ancient  order  of  things.     St.  Martin,  vol.  viii.  p.  46. — M. 


364  ALLIANCE  OF  THE  ABYSSINIANS  [Ch.XLIL 

imperial  laws  on  their  unfortunate  brethren ;  some  Roman 
merchants  were  injuriously  treated,  and  several  Christians  of 
Negra97  were  honored  with  the  crown  of  martyrdom.98  The 
churches  of  Arabia  implored  the  protection  of  the  Abyssin- 
ian monarch.  The  Negus  passed  the  Red  Sea  with  a  fleet 
and  army,  deprived  the  Jewish  proselyte  of  his  kingdom  and 
life,  and  extinguished  a  race  of  princes  who  had  ruled  above 
two  thousand  years  the  sequestered  region  of  myrrh  and 
frankincense.  The  conqueror  immediately  announced  the 
victory  of  the  Gospel,  requested  an  orthodox  patriarch,  and  so 
warmly  professed  his  friendship  to  the  Roman  empire,  that 
Justinian  was  flattered  by  the  hope  of  diverting  the  silk-trade 
through  the  channel  of  Abyssinia,  and  of  exciting  the  forces 
of  Arabia  against  the  Persian  king.  Nonnosus,  descended 
from  a  family  of  ambassadors,  was  named  by  the  emperor  to 
execute  this  important  commission.  He  wisely  declined  the 
shorter  but  more  dangerous  road  through  the  sandy  deserts 
Their  am-  °f  Nubia,  ascended  the  Nile,  embarked  on  the  Red 
justiniau.  Sea,  and  safely  landed  at  the  African  port  of  Adu- 
A.D.533.  j|g>  prom  Adulis  to  the  royal  city  of  Axume  is 
no  more  than  fifty  leagues  in  a  direct  line,  but  the  winding 
passes  of  the  mountains  detained  the  ambassador  fifteen  days, 
and  as  he  traversed  the  forests  he  saw,  and  vaguely  computed, 
about  five  thousand  wild  elephants.  The  capital,  according 
to  his  report,  was  large  and  populous ;  and  the  village  of 
Axume  is  still  conspicuous  by  the  regal  coronations,  by  the 
ruins  of  a  Christian  temple,  and  by  sixteen  or  seventeen  ob- 

97  The  city  of  Negra,  or  Nag'ran,  in  Yemen,  is  surrounded  with  palm-trees,  and 
stands  in  the  high-road  between  Saana,  the  capital,  and  Mecca ;  from  the  former 
ten,  from  the  latter  twenty  days' journey  of  a  caravan  of  camels  (Abulfeda,  De- 
script.  Arabia?,  p.  52). 

98  The  martyrdom  of  St.  Arethas,  prince  of  Negra,  and  his  three  hundred  and 
forty  companions,*  is  embellished  in  the  legends  of  Metaphrastes  and  Nicephorus 
Callistus,  copied  by  Baronius  (a.d.  522,  No.  22-66 ;  a.d.  523,  No.  16-29),  and  re- 
futed, with  obscure  diligence,  by  Basnage  (Hist,  des  Juifs,  torn.  xii.  1.  viii.  ch.  ii. 
p.  333-348),  who  investigates  the  state  of  the  Jews  in  Arabia  and  ^Ethiopia. 


*  According  to  Johannsen  (Hist.  Yemanae,  Prajf.  p.  89),  Dunaan  (Dsu  Nowas) 
massacred  20,000  Christians,  and  threw  them  into  a  pit,  where  they  were  burned. 
They  are  called  in  the  Koran  the  companions  of  the  pit  (socii  foveas). — M. 


A.D.533.]  WITH  JUSTINIAN.  365 

elisks  inscribed  with  Grecian  characters."  But  the  Negub* 
gave  audience  in  the  open  field,  seated  on  a  lofty  chariot, 
which  was  drawn  by  four  elephants  superbly  caparisoned,  and 
surrounded  by  his  nobles  and  musicians.  He  was  clad  in  a 
linen  garment  and  cap,  holding  in  his  hand  two  javelins  and 
a  light  shield ;  and,  although  his  nakedness  wras  imperfectly 
covered,  he  displayed  the  barbaric  pomp  of  gold  chains,  col- 
lars, and  bracelets,  richly  adorned  with  pearls  and  precious 
stones.  The  ambassador  of  Justinian  knelt :  the  Negus  raised 
him  from  the  ground,  embraced  Nonnosus,  kissed  the  seal, 
perused  the  letter,  accepted  the  Roman  alliance,  and,  bran- 
dishing his  weapons,  denounced  implacable  war  against  the 
worshippers  of  fire.  But  the  proposal  of  the  silk-trade  was 
eluded ;  and  notwithstanding  the  assurances,  and  perhaps  the 
wishes,  of  the  Abyssinians,  these  hostile  menaces  evaporated 
without  effect.  The  Homerites  were  unwilling  to  abandon 
their  aromatic  groves,  to  explore  a  sandy  desert,  and  to  en- 
counter, after  all  their  fatigues,  a  formidable  nation  from 
whom  they  had  never  received  any  personal  injuries.  In- 
stead of  enlarging  his  conquests,  the  King  of  ^Ethiopia  was 
incapable  of  defending  his  possessions.  Abrahah,b  the  slave 
of  a  Eoman  merchant  of  Adulis,  assumed  the  sceptre  of  the 
Homerites ;  the  troops  of  Africa  were  seduced  by  the  luxury 
of  the  climate ;  and  Justinian  solicited  the  friendship  of  the 

99  Alvarez  (in  Ramusio,  torn.  i.  fol.  219,  vers.  221,  vers.)  saw  the  flourishing 
state  of  Axume  in  the  year  1520 — "  Luogo  molto  buono  e  grande."  It  was  ruined 
in  the  same  century  by  the  Turkish  invasion.  No  more  than  one  hundred  houses 
remain  ;  but  the  memory  of  its  past  greatness  is  preserved  by  the  regal  coronation 
(Ludolph.  Hist,  et  Comment.  1.  ii.  c.  ll).c 


a  The  Negus  is  differently  called  Elesbaan,  Elesboas,  Ellisthseus,  probably  the 
same  name,  or  rather  appellation.     See  St.  Martin,  vol.  viii.  p.  49. — M. 

b  According  to  the  Arabian  authorities  (Johannsen,  Hist.  Yemanae,  p.  94,  Bonn, 
1828),  Abrahah  was  an  Abyssinian,  the  rival  of  Ariathus,  the  brother  of  the  Abys- 
sinian king :  he  surprised  and  slew  Ariathus,  and  by  his  craft  appeased  the  re- 
sentment of  Nadjash,  the  Abyssinian  king.  Abrahah  was  a  Christian  ;  he  built  a 
magnificent  church  at  Sana,  and  dissuaded  his  subjects  from  their  accustomed  pil- 
grimages to  Mecca.  The  church  was  denied,  it  was  supposed,  by  the  Koreishites, 
and  Abrahah  took  up  arms  to  revenge  himself  on  the  Temple  at  Mecca.  He  was 
repelled  by  miracle :  his  elephant  would  not  advance,  but  knelt  down  before  the 
sacred  place:  Abrahah  fled,  discomfited  and  mortally  wounded,  to  Sana. — M. 

c  Lord  Valentia's  and  Mr.  Salt's  Travels  give  a  high  notion  of  the  ruins  of 
Axum. — M. 


366  ALLIANCE  WITH  THE  ABYSSINIANS.  [Ch.  XLII. 

usurper,  who  honored  with  a  slight  tribute  the  supremacy  of 
his  prince.  After  a  long  series  of  prosperity  the  power  of 
Abrahah  was  overthrown  before  the  gates  of  Mecca,  his  chil- 
dren were  despoiled  by  the  Persian  conqueror,  and  the  ^Ethio- 
pians were  finally  expelled  from  the  continent  of  Asia.  This 
narrative  of  obscure  and  remote  events  is  not  foreign  to  the 
decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  empire.  If  a  Christian  power 
had  been  maintained  in  Arabia,  Mahomet  must  have  been 
crushed  in  his  cradle,  and  Abyssinia  would  have  prevented  a 
revolution  which  has  changed  the  civil  and  religious  state  of 
the  world.100  a 


100  The  revolutions  of  Yemen  in  the  sixth  century  must  he  collected  from  Pro- 
copius  (Persic.  1.  i.  c.  19,  20),  Theophanes  Byzant.  (apud  Phot.  cod.  lxiv.  p.  80  [p. 
26,  edit.  Bekk.]),  St.  Theophanes  (in  Chronograph,  p.  144, 145, 188, 189,  206,  207 
[torn.  i.  p.  259,  260,  377,  378,  edit.  Bonn],  who  is  full  of  strange  blunders),  Po- 
cock  (Specimen  Hist.  Arab.  p.  62,  65),  D'Herbelot  (Bibliot.  Orientale,  p.  12,  477), 
and  Sale's  Preliminary  Discourse  and  Koran  (c.  105).  The  revolt  of  Abrahah  is 
mentioned  by  Procopius ;  and  his  fall,  though  clouded  with  miracles,  is  an  histor- 
ical fact.b 

a  A  period  of  sixty-seven  years  is  assigned  by  most  of  the  Arabian  authorities 
to  the  Abyssinian  kingdom  in  Homeritis. — M. 

b  To  the  authors  who  have  illustrated  the  obscure  history  of  the  Jewish  and 
Abyssinian  kingdoms  in  Homeritis  may  be  added  Schultens,  Hist.  Joctanidarum  ; 
Walch,  Historia  rerum  in  Homerite  gestarum,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Gottin- 
gen  Transactions ;  Salt's  Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  446,  etc. ;  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  vol.  i. 
Acad,  des  Inscrip. ;  Jost,  Geschichte  der  Israeliter;  Johannsen,  Hist.  Yemanae; 
St.  Martin's  Notes  to  Le  Beau,  torn.  vii.  p.  42. — M. 


A.D.  6*46-546. 1  TROUBLES  OF  AFRICA.  361 


CHAPTER  XLIH. 

Rebellions  of  Africa. — Restoration  of  the  Gothic  Kingdom  by  Totila. — Loss  and 
Recovery  of  Rome. — Final  Conquest  of  Italy  by  Narses. — Extinction  of  the 
Ostrogoths. — Defeat  of  the  Franks  and  Alemanni. — Last  Victory,  Disgrace, 
and  Death  of  Belisarius. — Death  and  Character  of  Justinian. — Comets,  Earth- 
quakes, and  Plague. 

The  review  of  the  nations  from  the  Danube  to  the  Nile 
has  exposed,  on  every  side,  the  weakness  of  the  Romans ;  and 
our  wonder  is  reasonably  excited  that  they  should  presume  to 
enlarge  an  empire  whose  ancient  limits  they  were  incapable 
of  defending.  But  the  wars,  the  conquests,  and  the  triumphs 
of  Justinian  are  the  feeble  and  pernicious  efforts  of  old  age, 
which  exhaust  the  remains  of  strength  and  accelerate  the  de- 
cay of  the  powers  of  life.  He  exulted  in  the  glorious  act  of 
restoring  Africa  and  Italy  to  the  republic  ;  but  the  calamities 
which  followed  the  departure  of  Belisarius  betrayed  the  im- 
potence of  the  conqueror,  and  accomplished  the  ruin  of  those 
unfortunate  countries. 

From  his  new  acquisitions  Justinian  expected  that  his 
avarice,  as  well  as  pride,  should  be  richly  gratified.  A  rapa- 
cious minister  of  the  finances  closely  pursued  the 

The  troubles  .        ,  iit 

of  Africa.        footsteps  of  Belisarius ;  and,  as  the  old  registers 
of  tribute  had  been  burned  by  the  Yandals,  he  in- 
dulged his  fancy  in  a  liberal  calculation  and  arbitrary  assess- 
ment of  the  wealth  of  Africa.1     The  increase  of  taxes,  which 

1  For  the  troubles  of  Africa  I  neither  have  nor  desire  another  guide  than  Pro- 
copius,  whose  eye  contemplated  the  image,  and  whose  ear  collected  the  reports, 
of  the  memorable  events  of  his  own  times.  In  the  second  book  of  the  Vandalic 
"War  he  relates  the  revolt  of  Stoza(c.  14-24),  the  return  of  Belisarius  (c.  15),  the 
victory  of  Germanns  (c.  16, 17,  18),  the  second  administration  of  Solomon  (c.  19, 
20,  21),  the  government  of  Sergius  (c.  22,  23),  of  Areobindus  (c.  24),  the  tyranny 
and  death  of  Gontharis  (c.  25,  25,  27,  28) ;  nor  can  I  discern  any  symptoms  of 
flattery  or  malevolence  in  his  various  portraits. 


368  TROUBLES  OF  AFRICA.  iCH.XLID. 

were  drawn  away  by  a  distant  sovereign,  and  a  general  re« 
sumption  of  the  patrimony  or  crown-lands,  soon  dispelled  the 
intoxication  of  the  public  joy :  but  the  emperor  was  insensi- 
ble to  the  modest  complaints  of  the  people  till  he  was  awa- 
kened and  alarmed  by  the  clamors  of  military  discontent. 
Many  of  the  Roman  soldiers  had  married  the  widows  and 
daughters  of  the  Vandals.  As  their  own,  by  the  double  right 
of  conquest  and  inheritance,  they  claimed  the  estates  which 
Genseric  had  assigned  to  his  victorious  troops.  They  heard 
with  disdain  the  cold  and  selfish  representations  of  their  offi- 
cers, that  the  liberality  of  Justinian  had  raised  them  from  a 
savage  or  servile  condition ;  that  they  were  already  enriched 
by  the  spoils  of  Africa,  the  treasure,  the  slaves,  and  the  mov- 
ables of  the  vanquished  barbarians ;  and  that  the  ancient  and 
lawful  patrimony  of  the  emperors  would  be  applied  only  to 
the  support  of  that  government  on  which  their  own  safety 
and  reward  must  ultimately  depend.  The  mutiny  was  secret- 
ly inflamed  by  a  thousand  soldiers,  for  the  most  part  Heruli, 
who  had  imbibed  the  doctrines,  and  were  instigated  by  the 
clergy,  of  the  Arian  sect ;  and  the  cause  of  perjury  and  rebel- 
lion was  sanctified  by  the  dispensing  powers  of  fanaticism. 
The  Arians  deplored  the  ruin  of  their  Church,  triumphant 
above  a  century  in  Africa;  and  they  were  justly  provoked 
by  the  laws  of  the  conqueror  which  interdicted  the  baptism 
of  their  children  and  the  exercise  of  all  religious  worship. 
Of  the  Vandals  chosen  by  Belisarius,  the  far  greater  part,  in 
the  honors  of  the  Eastern  service,  forgot  their  country  and  re- 
ligion. But  a  generous  band  of  four  hundred  obliged  the 
mariners,  when  they  were  in  sight  of  the  Isle  of  Lesbos,  to  al- 
ter their  course :  they  touched  on  Peloponnesus,  ran  ashore 
on  a  desert  coast  of  Africa,  and  boldly  erected  on  Mount  Au- 
rasius  the  standard  of  independence  and  revolt.  While  the 
troops  of  the  province  disclaimed  the  commands  of  their  su- 
periors, a  conspiracy  was  formed  at  Carthage  against  the  life 
of  Solomon,  who  filled  with  honor  the  place  of  Belisarius ; 
and  the  Arians  had  piously  resolved  to  sacrifice  the  tyrant  at 
the  foot  of  the  altar  during  the  awful  mysteries  of  the  festi- 
val of  Easter.     Fear  or  remorse  restrained  the  daggers  of  the 


A.D.53&-545.]  TROUBLES  OF  AFRICA.  369 

assassins,  but  the  patience  of  Solomon  emboldened  their  dis- 
content, and  at  the  end  of  ten  days  a  furious  sedition  was 
kindled  in  the  circus,  which  desolated  Africa  above  ten  years. 
The  pillage  of  the  city,  and  the  indiscriminate  slaughter  of 
its  inhabitants,  were  suspended  only  by  darkness,  sleep,  and 
intoxication.  The  governor,  with  seven  companions,  among 
whom  was  the  historian  Procopius,  escaped  to  Sicily.  Two 
thirds  of  the  army  were  involved  in  the  guilt  of  treason ;  and 
eight  thousand  insurgents,  assembling  in  the  field  of  Bulla, 
elected  Stoza  for  their  chief,  a  private  soldier  who  possessed 
in  a  superior  degree  the  virtues  of  a  rebel.  Under  the  mask 
©f  freedom,  his  eloquence  could  lead,  or  at  least  impel,  the 
passions  of  his  equals.  He  raised  himself  to  a  level  with  Bel- 
isarius  and  the  nephew  of  the  emperor,  by  daring  to  encoun- 
ter them  in  the  field ;  and  the  victorious  generals  were  com- 
pelled to  acknowledge  that  Stoza  deserved  a  purer  cause  and 
a  more  legitimate  command.  Vanquished  in  battle,  he  dex- 
terously employed  the  arts  of  negotiation ;  a  Roman  army 
was  seduced  from  their  allegiance,  and  the  chiefs  who  had 
trusted  to  his  faithless  promise  were  murdered  by  his  order 
in  a  church  of  Kumidia.  "When  every  resource,  either  of 
force  or  perfidy,  was  exhausted,  Stoza,  with  some  desperate 
Vandals,  retired  to  the  wilds  of  Mauritania,  obtained  the 
daughter  of  a  barbarian  prince,  and  eluded  the  pursuit  of  his 
enemies  by  the  report  of  his  death.  The  personal  weight  of 
Belisarius,  the  rank,  the  spirit,  and  the  temper  of  Germanus, 
the  emperor's  nephew,  and  the  vigor  and  success  of  the  sec- 
ond administration  of  the  eunuch  Solomon,  restored  the  mod- 
esty of  the  camp,  and  maintained  for  awhile  the  tranquillity 
of  Africa.  But  the  vices  of  the  Byzantine  court  were  felt  in 
that  distant  province ;  the  troops  complained  that  they  were 
neither  paid  nor  relieved ;  and  as  soon  as  the  public  disorders 
were  sufficiently  mature,  Stoza  was  again  alive,  in  arms,  and 
at  the  gates  of  Carthage.  He  fell  in  a  single  combat,  but  he 
smiled  in  the  agonies  of  death  when  he  was  informed  that 
his  own  javelin  had  reached  the  heart  of  his  antagonists 


*  Corippus  gives  a  different  account  of  the  death  of  Stoza :  he  was  transfixed 

IV.— 24 


370  TEOUBLES  OF  AFRICA.  [Ch.  XLIIL 

The  example  of  Stoza,  and  the  assurance  that  a  fortunate  sol- 
dier had  been  the  first  king,  encouraged  the  ambition  of  Gon- 
tharis,  and  he  promised,  by  a  private  treaty,  to  divide  Africa 
with  the  Moors,  if,  with  their  dangerous  aid,  he  should  as- 
cend the  throne  of  Carthage.  The  feeble  Areobindus,  un- 
skilled in  the  affairs  of  peace  and  war,  was  raised  by  his  mar- 
riage with  the  niece  of  Justinian  to  the  office  of  exarch.  He 
was  suddenly  oppressed  by  a  sedition  of  the  guards,  and  his 
abject  supplications,  which  provoked  the  contempt,  could  not 
move  the  pity,  of  the  inexorable  tyrant.  After  a  reign  of 
thirty  days,  Gontharis  himself  was  stabbed  at  a  banquet  by 
the  hand  of  Artaban  ;a  and  it  is  singular  enough  that  an  Ar- 
menian prince  of  the  royal  family  of  Arsaces  should  re-estab- 
lish at  Carthage  the  authority  of  the  Roman  empire.  In  the 
conspiracy  which  unsheathed  the  dagger  of  Brutus  against 
the  life  of  Caesar,  every  circumstance  is  curious  and  impor- 
tant to  the  eyes  of  posterity ;  but  the  guilt  or  merit  of  these 
loyal  or  rebellious  assassins  could  interest  only  the  contem- 
poraries of  Procopius,  who,  by  their  hopes  and  fears,  their 
friendship  or  resentment,  were  personally  engaged  in  the 
revolutions  of  Africa.2 

2  Yet  I  must  not  refuse  him  the  merit  of  painting,  in  lively  colors,  the  murder 
of  Gontharis.  One  of  the  assassins  uttered  a  sentiment  not  unworthy  of  a  Ro- 
man patriot:  "If  I  fail,"  said  Artasires,  "in  the  first  stroke,  kill  me  on  the  spot, 
lest  the  rack  should  extort  a  discovery  of  my  accomplices. "  [Vand.  ii.  28,  torn, 
i.  p.  529,  edit.  Bonn.] 

by  an  arrow  from  the  hand  of  John  (not  the  hero  of  his  poem),  who  broke  des* 
perately  through  the  victorious  troops  of  the  enemy.  Stoza  repented,  says  the 
poet,  of  his  treasonous  rebellion,  and  anticipated — another  Catiline — eternal  tor- 
ments as  bis  punishment. 

Reddam,  improba,  pcenas 
Quas  merni.     Fnriis  socius  Catilina  crnentis 
Exagitatus  adest.     Video  jam  Tartara  fundo, 
Flammarumque  globos  et  dira  incendia  volvi. 

Johannidos,  book  iv.  line  211. 
All  the  other  authorities  confirm  Gibbon's  account  of  the  death  of  John  by  the 
hand  of  Stoza.     This  poem  of  Corippus,  unknown  to  Gibbon,  was  first  published 
by  Mazzuchelli  during  the  present  century,  and  is  reprinted  in  the  new  edition  of 
the  Byzantine  writers. — M. 

a  This  murder  was  prompted  to  the  Armenian  (according  to  Corippus)  by  the 
good  Athanasius  (then  Prefect  of  Africa). 

Hnne  placidus  can&  gravitate  coegit 
Immitem  nnictare  virum. — Corippus,  vol.  iv.  ver.  237.— M. 


A.D.  543-558.]     REBELLION  OF  THE  MOORS.  371 

That  country  was  rapidly  sinking  into  the  state  of  barba- 
rism from  whence  it  had  been  raised  by  the  Phoenician  colo- 
„  ,  „.      „    nies  and  Roman  laws ;  and  every  step  of  intestine 

Rebellion  of  '  J  f 

theMoors.      discord  was  marked  by  some  deplorable  victory  of 

a.d.  543-658.  .     .,.        ,  .  „,         •», 

savage  man  over  civilized  society.  The  Moors,* 
though  ignorant  of  justice,  were  impatient  of  oppression : 
their  vagrant  life  and  boundless  wilderness  disappointed  the 
arms  and  eluded  the  chains  of  a  conqueror;  and  experience 
had  shown  that  neither  oaths  nor  obligations  could  secure 
the  fidelity  of  their  attachment.  The  victory  of  Mount  Au- 
ras had  awed  them  into  momentary  submission ;  but  if  they 
respected  the  character  of  Solomon,  they  hated  and  despised 
the  pride  and  luxury  of  his  two  nephews,  Cyrus  and  Sergius, 
on  whom  their  uncle  had  imprudently  bestowec  the  provin- 
cial governments  of  Tripoli  and  Pentapolis.  A  Moorish 
tribe  encamped  under  the  walls  of  Leptis,  to  renew  their  al- 
liance and  receive  from  the  governor  the  customary  gifts. 
Fourscore  of  their  deputies  were  introduced  as  friends  into 
the  city ;  but,  on  the  dark  suspicion  of  a  conspiracy,  they 
were  massacred  at  the  table  of  Sergius,  and  the  clamor  of 
arms  and  revenge  was  re-echoed  through  the  valleys  of  Mount 
Atlas  from  both  the  Syrtes  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  A  per- 
sonal injury,  the  unjust  execution  or  murder  of  his  brother, 
rendered  Antalas  the  enemy  of  the  Romans.  The  defeat  of 
the  Vandals  had  formerly  signalized  his  valor ;  the  rudiments 
of  justice  and  prudence  were  still  more  conspicuous  in  a 
Moor ;  and,  while  he  laid  Adrumetum  in  ashes,  he  calmly 
admonished  the  emperor  that  the  peace  of  Africa  might  be 
secured  by  the  recall  of  Solomon  and  his  unworthy  nephews. 
The  exarch  led  forth  his  troops  from  Carthage ;  but,  at  the 
distance  of  six  days'  journey,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tebes- 
te,4  he  was  astonished  by  the  superior  numbers  and  fierce  as- 

8  The  Moorish  wars  are  occasionally  introduced  info  the  narrative  of  Procopius 
(Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  19-23,  25,  27,  28:  Gothic.  I.  iv.  c.  17);  and  Theophanes  adds 
some  prosperous  and  adverse  events  in  the  last  years  of  Justinian. 

4  Now  Tibesh,  in  the  kingdom  of  Algiers.  It  is  watered  by  a  river,  the  Suje- 
rass,  which  falls  into  the  Mejerda  (Bagradas).  Tibesh  is  still  remarkable  for  its 
walls  of  large  stones  (like  the  Coliseum  of  Rome),  a  fountain,  and  a  grove  of  wal- 


372  REBELLION  OF  THE  MOORS.  [Ch.  XLIIL 

pect  of  the  barbarians.  He  proposed  a  treaty,  solicited  a  rec- 
onciliation, and  offered  to  bind  himself  by  the  most  solemn 
oaths.  "By  what  oaths  can  he  bind  himself?"  interrupted 
the  indignant  Moors.  "Will  he  swear  by  the  gospels,  the 
divine  books  of  the  Christians?  It  was  on  those  boohs  that 
the  faith  of  his  nephew  Sergius  was  pledged  to  eighty  of  our 
innocent  and  unfortunate  brethren.  Before  we  trust  them  a 
second  time,  let  ns  try  their  efficacy  in  the  chastisement  of 
perjury  and  the  vindication  of  their  own  honor."  Their 
honor  was  vindicated  in  the  field  of  Tebeste  by  the  death  of 
Solomon  and  the  total  loss  of  his  army.a  The  arrival  of  fresh 
troops  and  more  skilful  commanders  soon  checked  the  inso- 
lence of  the  Moors ;  seventeen  of  their  princes  were  slain  in 
the  same  battle ;  and  the  doubtful  and  transient  submission 
of  their  tribes  was  celebrated  with  lavish  applause  by  the 
people  of  Constantinople.  Successive  inroads  had  reduced 
the  province  of  Africa  to  one  third  of  the  measure  of  Italy; 
yet  the  Roman  emperors  continued  to  reign  above  a  century 
over  Carthage  and  the  fruitful  coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 
But  the  victories  and  the  losses  of  Justinian  were  alike  per- 
nicious to  mankind ;  and  such  was  the  desolation  of  Africa, 
that  in  many  parts  a  stranger  might  wander  whole  days  with- 
out meeting  the  face  either  of  a  friend  or  an  enemy.  The 
nation  of  the  Yandals  had  disappeared :  they  once  amounted 
to  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  warriors,  without  including 
the  children,  the  women,  or  the  slaves.  Their  numbers  were 
infinitely  surpassed  by  the  number  of  the  Moorish  families 
extirpated  in  a  relentless  war;  and  the  same  destruction  was 
retaliated  on  the  Romans  and  their  allies,  who  perished  by 
the  climate,  their  mutual  quarrels,  and  the  rage  of  the  barba- 
rians. When  Procopius  first  landed,  he  admired  the  popu- 
lousness  of  the  cities  and  country,  strenuously  exercised  in 

nut-trees :  the  country  is  fruitful,  and  the  neighboring  Bereberes  are  warlike.  It 
appears  from  an  inscription  that,  under  the  reign  of  Hadrian,  the  road  from  Car- 
thage to  Tebeste  was  constructed  by  the  third  legion  (Marmol,  Description  de 
l'Afrique,  torn.  ii.  p.  442,  443  ;  Shaw's  Travels,  p.  64,  65,  66). 


a  Corippus  (Johannidos,  lib.  iii.  417-441)  describes  the  defeat  and  death  of 
(Solomon.— M. 


A.D.540.]  REVOLT  OF  THE  GOTHS.  373 

the  labors  of  commerce  and  agriculture.  In  less  than  twenty 
years  that  busy  scene  was  converted  into  a  silent  solitude,* 
the  wealthy  citizens  escaped  to  Sicily  and  Constantinople; 
and  the  secret  historian  has  confidently  affirmed  that  five 
millions  of  Africans  were  consumed  by  the  wars  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Emperor  Justinian.6 

The  jealousy  of  the  Byzantine  court  had  not  permitted 
Belisarius  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  Italy ;  and  his  abrupt 
„     „  .       departure  revived  the  courage  of  the  Goths,6  who 

Revolt  of  r  .         .     to  ' 

the  Goths.  respected  his  genius,  his  virtue,  and  even  the  laud- 
able motive  which  had  urged  the  servant  of  Jus- 
tinian to  deceive  and  reject  them.  They  had  lost  their  king 
(an  inconsiderable  loss),  their  capital,  their  treasures,  the  prov- 
inces from  Sicily  to  the  Alps,  and  the  military  force  of  two 
hundred  thousand  barbarians,  magnificently  equipped  with 
horses  and  arms.  Yet  all  was  not  lost  as  long  as  Pavia  was 
defended  by  one  thousand  Goths,  inspired  by  a  sense  of  hon- 
or, the  love  of  freedom,  and  the  memory  of  their  past  great- 
ness. The  supreme  command  was  unanimously  offered  to 
the  brave  Uraias ;  and  it  was  in  his  eyes  alone  that  the  dis- 
grace of  his  uncle  Yitiges  could  appear  as  a  reason  of  exclu- 
sion. His  voice  inclined  the  election  in  favor  of  Hildibald, 
whose  personal  merit  was  recommended  by  the  vain  hope 
that  his  kinsman  Theudes,  the  Spanish  monarch,  would  sup- 
port the  common  interest  of  the  Gothic  nation.  The  success 
of  his  arms  in  Liguria  and  Yenetia  seemed  to  justify  their 
choice;  but  he  soon  declared  to  the  world  that  he  was  inca- 
pable of  forgiving  or  commanding  his  benefactor.  The  con- 
sort of  Hildibald  was  deeply  wounded  by  the  beauty,  the  rich- 
es, and  the  pride  of  the  wife  of  Uraias ;  and  the  death  of  that 


*  Procopius,  Anecdot.  c.  18  [torn.  iii.  p.  107,  edit.  Bonn].  The  series  of  tha 
African  history  attests  this  melancholy  truth. 

6  In  the  second  (c.  30)  and  third  books  (c.  1-40),  Procopius  continues  the  his- 
tory of  the  Gothic  war  from  the  fifth  to  the  fifteenth  year  of  Justinian.  As  tha 
events  are  less  interesting  than  in  the  former  period,  he  allots  only  half  the  space 
to  double  the  time.  Jornandes,  and  the  Chronicle  of  Marcellinus,  afford  some 
collateral  hints.  Sigonius,  Pagi,  Muratori,  Mascou,  and  De  Buat  are  useful,  and 
have  been  used. 


374  VICTOKIES  OF  TOTILA.  tCH.  XLIU 

virtuous  patriot  excited  the  indignation  of  a  free  people.  A 
bold  assassin  executed  their  sentence  by  striking  off  the  head 
of  Hildibald  in  the  midst  of  a  banquet ;  the  Rugians,  a  for- 
eign tribe,  assumed  the  privilege  of  election  ;  and  Totila,a  the 
nephew  of  the  late  king,  was  tempted  by  revenge  to  deliver 
himself  and  the  garrison  of  Trevigo  into  the  hands  of  the  Ro- 
mans. But  the  gallant  and  accomplished  youth  was  easily 
persuaded  to  prefer  the  Gothic  throne  before  the  service  of 
Justinian ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  palace  of  Pavia  had  been  puri- 
fied from  the  Rugian  usurper,  he  reviewed  the  national  force 
of  five  thousand  soldiers,  and  generously  undertook  the  resto- 
ration of  the  kingdom  of  Italy. 

The  successors  of  Belisarius,  eleven  generals  of  equal  rank, 
neglected  to  crush  the  feeble  and  disunited  Goths,  till  they 
victories  of  were  roused  to  action  by  the  progress  of  Totila  and 
of  itl?i'ykins  the  reproaches  of  Justinian.  The  gates  of  Yerona 
a.d.  541-544.  were  secretly  opened  to  Artabazus,  at  the  head  of 
one  hundred  Persians  in  the  service  of  the  empire.  The 
Goths  fled  from  the  city.  At  the  distance  of  sixty  furlongs 
the  Roman  generals  halted  to  regulate  the  division  of  the 
spoil.  "While  they  disputed,  the  enemy  discovered  the  real 
number  of  the  victors :  the  Persians  were  instantly  overpow- 
ered, and  it  was  by  leaping  from  the  wall  that  Artabazus  pre- 
served a  life  which  he  lost  in  a  few  days  by  the  lance  of  a 
barbarian  who  had  defied  him  to  single  combat.  Twenty 
thousand  Romans  encountered  the  forces  of  Totila  near  Fa- 
enza,  and  on  the  hills  of  Mugello,  of  the  Florentine  territory. 
The  ardor  of  freedmen  who  fought  to  regain  their  country 
was  opposed  to  the  languid  temper  of  mercenary  troops,  who 
were  even  destitute  of  the  merits  of  strong  and  well-disci- 
plined servitude.  On  the  first  attack  they  abandoned  their 
ensigns,  threw  down  their  arms,  and  dispersed  on  all  sides 
with  an  active  speed  which  abated  the  loss,  whilst  it  aggra- 
vated thg  shame,  of  their  defeat.  The  king  of  the  Goths, 
who  blushed  for  the  baseness  of  his  enemies,  pursued  with 
rapid  steps  the  path  of  honor  and  victory.     Totila  passed  the 

a  His  real  name,  as  appears  by  medals,  was  Badvila.  See  Eckhel,  vol.  viii.  p. 
214.— S. 


a.d.  541-544.]  VICTOKIES  OF  TOTILA.  375 

Po,a  traversed  the  Apennine,  suspended  the  important  con- 
quest of  Ravenna,  Florence,  and  Home,  and  marched  through 
the  heart  of  Italy  to  form  the  siege,  or  rather  the  blockade, 
of  Naples.  The  Roman  chiefs,  imprisoned  in  their  respective 
cities  and  accusing  each  other  of  the  common  disgrace,  did 
not  presume  to  disturb  his  enterprise.  But  the  emperor, 
alarmed  by  the  distress  and  danger  of  his  Italian  conquests, 
despatched  to  the  relief  of  Naples  a  fleet  of  galleys  and  a 
body  of  Thracian  and  Armenian  soldiers.  They  landed  in 
Sicily,  which  yielded  its  copious  stores  of  provisions ;  but  the 
delays  of  the  new  commander,  an  unwarlike  magistrate,  pro- 
tracted the  sufferings  of  the  besieged  ;  and  the  succors  which 
he  dropped  with  a  timid  and  tardy  hand  were  successively  in- 
tercepted by  the  armed  vessels  stationed  by  Totila  in  the  Bay 
of  Naples.  The  principal  officer  of  the  Romans  was  dragged, 
with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  to  the  foot  of  the  wall,  from 
whence,  with  a  trembling  voice,  he  exhorted  the  citizens  to 
implore,  like  himself,  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror.  They  re- 
quested a  truce,  with  a  promise  of  surrendering  the  city  if  no 
effectual  relief  should  appear  at  the  end  of  thirty  days.  In- 
stead of  one  month,  the  audacious  barbarian  granted  them 
three,  in  the  just  confidence  that  famine  would  anticipate  the 
term  of  their  capitulation.  After  the  reduction  of  Naples 
and  Cumse,  the  provinces  of  Lucania,  Apulia,  and  Calabria 
submitted  to  the  king  of  the  Goths.  Totila  led  his  army  to 
the  gates  of  Rome,  pitched  his  camp  at  Tibur  or  Tivoli,  with- 
in twenty  miles  of  the  capital,  and  calmly  exhorted  the  senate 
and  people  to  compare  the  tyranny  of  the  Greeks  with  the 
blessings  of  the  Gothic  reign. 

The  rapid  success  of  Totila  may  be  partly  ascribed  to  the 
revolution  which  three  years'  experience  had  produced  in  the 
sentiments  of  the  Italians.  At  the  command,  or  at  least  in  the 
name,  of  a  Catholic  emperor,  the  pope,7  their  spiritual  father, 

7  Sylverius,  Bishop  of  Home,  was  first  transported  to  Patara,  in  Lycia,  and  at 
length  starved  (sub  eorura  custodia  inedia  confectns)  in  the  Isle  of  Palmaria, 


*  This  is  not  quite  correct :  he  had  crossed  the  Po  before  the  battle  of  Faeaza 
-M. 


376  CONTRAST  OF  VICE  AND  VIETUE.  [Ch.  XLIII 

had  been  torn  from  the  Eoman  Church,  and  either  starved 
,     or  murdered  on  a  desolate  island.8     The  virtues 

Contrast  of  . 

vice  and  of  Jielisarms  were  replaced  by  the  various  or  uni- 
form vices  of  eleven  chiefs  at  Rome,  Ravenna,  Flor- 
ence, Perugia,  Spoleto,  etc.,  who  abused  their  authority  for  the 
indulgence  of  lust  or  avarice.  The  improvement  of  the  rev- 
enue was  committed  to  Alexander,  a  subtle  scribe,  long  prac- 
tised in  the  fraud  and  oppression  of  the  Byzantine  schools, 
and  whose  name  of  Psallictionf  the  scissars,9  was  drawn 
from  the  dexterous  artifice  with  which  he  reduced  the  size, 
without  defacing  the  figure,  of  the  gold  coin.  Instead  of 
expecting  the  restoration  of  peace  and  industry,  he  imposed 
a  heavy  assessment  on  the  fortunes  of  the  Italians.  Yet  his 
present  or  future  demands  were  less  odious  than  a  prosecu- 
tion of  arbitrary  rigor  against  the  persons  and  property  of  all 
those  who,  under  the  Gothic  kings,  had  been  concerned  in 
the  receipt  and  expenditure  of  the  public  money.  The  sub- 
jects of  Justinian  who  escaped  these  partial  vexations  were 
oppressed  by  the  irregular  maintenance  of  the  soldiers,  whom 
Alexander  defrauded  and  despised,  and  their  hasty  sallies  in 
quest  of  wealth  or  subsistence  provoked  the  inhabitants  of 
the  country  to  await  or  implore  their  deliverance  from  the 
virtues  of  a  barbarian.  Totila10  was  chaste  and  temperate, 
and  none  were  deceived,  either  friends  or  enemies,  who  de- 
pended on  his  faith  or  his  clemency.      To  the  husbandmen 

a.d.  538,  June  20  (Liberat.  in  Breviar.  c.  22 ;  Anastasius,  in  Sylverio;  Baronius, 
jl.d.  540,  No.  2,  3  ;  Pagi,  in  Vit.  Pont.  torn.  i.  p.  285,  286).  Procopius  (Anecdot. 
c.  1)  accuses  only  the  empress  and  Antonina. 

8  Palir.aria,  a  small  island,  opposite  to  Terracina  and  the  coast  of  the  Volsci 
(Cluver.  Ital.  Antiq.  1.  iii.  c.  7,  p.  1014). 

9  As  the  Logothete  Alexander,  and  most  of  his  civil  and  military  colleagues, 
were  either  disgraced  or  despised,  the  ink  of  the  Anecdotes  (c.  4,  5, 18)  is  scarce- 
ly  blacker  than  that  of  the  Gothic  History  (1.  iii.  c.  1,  3,  4,  9,  20,  21,  etc.). 

10  Procopius  (1.  iii.  c.  2,  8,  etc.)  does  ample  and  willing  justice  to  the  merit  of 
Totila.  The  Roman  historians,  from  Sallust  and  Tacitus,  were  happy  to  forget 
the  vices  of  their  countrymen  in  the  contemplation  of  barbaric  virtue. 


■  The  form  Psalliction  is  incorrect.  He  is  correctly  called  Psalidium  (ipa\idiovt 
a  diminutive  of  ipaXig)  in  Procopius  (Bell.  Goth.  iii.  c.  1,  p.  284,  edit.  Bonn ;  Hist. 
Arc.  c.  26,  p.  U7),— S. 


a.d.  541-544.]       CONTEAST  OF  VICE  AND  VIRTUE.  377 

of  Italy  the  Gothic  king  issued  a  welcome  proclamation,  en- 
joining them  to  pursue  their  important  labors,  and  to  rest 
assured  that,  on  the  payment  of  the  ordinary  taxes,  they 
should  be  defended  by  his  valor  and  discipline  from  the  in- 
juries of  war.  The  strong  towns  he  successively  attacked, 
and,  as  soon  as  they  had  yielded  to  his  arms,  he  demolished 
the  fortifications,  to  save  the  people  from  the  calamities  of  a 
future  siege,  to  deprive  the  Romans  of  the  arts  of  defence,  and 
to  decide  the  tedious  quarrel  of  the  two  nations  by  an  equal 
and  honorable  conflict  in  the  field  of  battle.  The  Roman 
captives  and  deserters  were  tempted  to  enlist  in  the  service  of 
a  liberal  and  courteous  adversary,  the  slaves  were  attracted  by 
the  firm  and  faithful  promise  that  they  should  never  be  de- 
livered to  their  masters ;  and  from  the  thousand  warriors  of 
Pavia  a  new  people,  under  the  same  appellation  of  Goths, 
was  insensibly  formed  in  the  camp  of  Totila.  He  sincerely 
accomplished  the  articles  of  capitulation,  without  seeking  or 
accepting  any  sinister  advantage  from  ambiguous  expressions 
or  unforeseen  events :  the  garrison  of  Naples  had  stipulated 
that  they  should  be  transported  by  sea ;  the  obstinacy  of  the 
winds  prevented  their  voyage,  but  they  were  generously  sup- 
plied with  horses,  provisions,  and  a  safe-conduct  to  the  gates 
of  Rome.  The  wives  of  the  senators  who  had  been  surprised 
in  the  villas  of  Campania  were  restored  without  a  ransom  to 
their  husbands ;  the  violation  of  female  chastity  was  inexora- 
bly chastised  with  death ;  and  in  the  salutary  regulation  of 
the  diet  of  the  famished  Neapolitans,  the  conqueror  assumed 
the  office  of  a  humane  and  attentive  physician.  The  virtues 
of  Totila  are  equally  laudable,  whether  they  proceeded  from 
true  policy,  religious  principle,  or  the  instinct  of  humanity : 
he  often  harangued  his  troops  ;  and  it  was  his  constant  theme 
that  national  vice  and  rain  are  inseparably  connected;  that 
victory  is  the  fruit  of  moral  as  well  as  military  virtue  ;  and 
that  the  prince,  and  even  the  people,  are  responsible  for  the 
crimes  which  they  neglect  to  punish. 

The  return  of  Belisarius  to  save  the  country  which  he  had 
subdued  was  pressed  with  equal  vehemence  by  his  friends  and 
enemies,  and  the  Gothic  war  was  imposed  as  a  trust  or  an  exile 


378  SECOND  COMMAND  OF  {.Cu.XLIU 

on  the  veteran  commander.  A  hero  on  the  banks  of  the  Eu< 
second  com-  phrates,  a  slave  in  the  palace  of  Constantinople,  he 
saifiMin  ftaiy"  accepted  with  reluctance  the  painful  task  of  sup- 
a.d.  544-548.  porting  his  own  reputation  and  retrieving  the  faults 
of  his  successors.  The  sea  was  open  to  the  Romans ;  the  ships 
and  soldiers  were  assembled  at  Salona,  near  the  palace  of  Dio- 
cletian ;  he  refreshed  and  reviewed  his  troops  at  Pola,  in  Istria, 
coasted  round  the  head  of  the  Adriatic,  entered  the  port  of 
Ravenna,  and  despatched  orders  rather  than  supplies  to  the 
subordinate  cities.  His  first  public  oration  was  addressed  to 
the  Goths  and  Romans,  in  the  name  of  the  emperor,  who  had 
suspended  for  awhile  the  conquest  of  Persia  and  listened  to 
the  prayers  of  his  Italian  subjects.  He  gently  touched  on 
the  causes  and  the  authors  of  the  recent  disasters,  striving  to 
remove  the  fear  of  punishment  for  the  past,  and  the  hope  of 
impunity  for  the  future,  and  laboring  with  more  zeal  than 
success  to  unite  all  the  members  of  his  government  in  a  firm 
league  of  affection  and  obedience.  Justinian,  his  gracious 
master,  was  inclined  to  pardon  and  reward,  and  it  was  their 
interest,  as  well  as  duty,  to  reclaim  their  deluded  brethren, 
who  had  been  seduced  by  the  arts  of  the  usurper.  'Not  a 
man  was  tempted  to  desert  the  standard  of  the  Gothic  king. 
Belisarius  soon  discovered  that  he  was  sent  to  remain  the  idle 
and  impotent  spectator  of  the  glory  of  a  young  barbarian,  and 
his  own  epistle  exhibits  a  genuine  and  lively  picture  of  the 
distress  of  a  noble  mind.  "  Most  excellent  prince,  we  are  ar- 
rived in  Italy,  destitute  of  all  the  necessary  implements  of 
war — men,  horses,  arms,  and  money.  In  our  late  circuit 
through  the  villages  of  Thrace  and  Illyricum,  we  have  col- 
lected with  extreme  difficulty  about  four  thousand  recruits, 
naked  and  unskilled  in  the  use  of  weapons  and  the  exercises 
of  the  camp.  The  soldiers  already  stationed  in  the  province 
are  discontented,  fearful,  and  dismayed ;  at  the  sound  of  an 
enemy  they  dismiss  their  horses,  and  cast  their  arms  on  the 
ground.  No  taxes  can  be  raised,  since  Italy  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  barbarians :  the  failure  of  payment  has  deprived  us  ot 
the  right  of  command,  or  even  of  admonition.  Be  assured, 
dread  sir,  that  the  greater  part  of  your  troops  have  already 


A.D.546.]  BELISARIUS  IN  ITALY.  379 

deserted  to  the  Goths.  If  the  war  could  be  achieved  by  the 
presence  of  Belisarius  alone,  your  wishes  are  satisfied  ;  Beli- 
sarius  is  in  the  midst  of  Italy.  But  if  you  desire  to  conquer, 
far  other  preparations  are  requisite :  without  a  military  force 
the  title  of  general  is  an  empty  name.  It  would  be  expe- 
dient to  restore  to  my  service  my  own  veterans  and  domestic 
guards.  Before  I  can  take  the  field  I  must  receive  an  ade- 
quate supply  of  light  and  heavy  armed  troops,  and  it  is  only 
with  ready  money  that  you  can  procure  the  indispensable  aid 
of  a  powerful  body  of  the  cavalry  of  the  Huns."11  An  offi- 
cer in  whom  Belisarius  confided  was  sent  from  Ravenna  to 
hasten  and  conduct  the  succors,  but  the  message  was  neglect- 
ed, and  the  messenger  was  detained  at  Constantinople  by  an 
advantageous  marriage.  After  his  patience  had  been  ex- 
hausted by  delay  and  disappointment,  the  Roman  general  re- 
passed the  Adriatic,  and  expected  at  Dyrrachium  the  arrival 
of  the  troops,  which  were  slowly  assembled  among  the  sub- 
jects and  allies  of  the  empire.  His  powers  were  still  inade- 
quate to  the  deliverance  of  Rome,  which  was  closely  besieged 
by  the  Gothic  king.  The  Appian  Way,  a  march  of  forty 
days,  was  covered  by  the  barbarians ;  and  as  the  prudence  of 
Belisarius  declined  a  battle,  he  preferred  the  safe  and  speedy 
navigation  of  five  days  from  the  coast  of  Epirus  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Tiber. 

After  reducing,  by  force  or  treaty,  the  towns  of  inferior 

note  in  the  midland  provinces  of  Italy,  Totila  proceeded,  not 

to  assault,  but  to  encompass  and  starve,  the  ancient 

Rome  be-  .  !_  f.  '  . 

siege,)  by        capital.     Rome  was   afflicted   by  the   avarice,  and 

the  Goths. 

a.d.546,  '  guarded  by  the  valor,  of  Bessas,  a  veteran  chief 
of  Gothic  extraction,  who  filled,  with  a  garrison  of 
three  thousand  soldiers,  the  spacious  circle  of  her  venerable 
walls.  From  the  distress  of  the  people  lie  extracted  a  profit- 
able trade,  and  secretly  rejoiced  in  the  continuance  of  the 
siege.  It  was  for  his  use  that  the  granaries  had  been  replen- 
ished ;  the  charity  of  Pope  Yigilius  had  purchased  and  em* 

11  Procopius,  1.  iii.  c.  12.  The  soul  of  a  hero  is  deeply  impressed  on  the  let- 
ter ;  nor  can  we  confound  such  genuine  and  original  acts  with  the  elaborate  and 
often  empty  speeches  of  the  Byzantine  historians. 


880  ROME  BESIEGED  BY  THE  GOTHS.  [Ch.  XLIII. 

barked  an  ample  supply  of  Sicilian  corn,  but  the  vessels  which 
escaped  the  barbarians  were  seized  bj  a  rapacious  governor, 
who  imparted  a  scanty  sustenance  to  the  soldiers,  and  sold 
the  remainder  to  the  wealthy  Romans.  The  medimnus,  or 
fifth  part  of  the  quarter  of  wheat,  was  exchanged  for  seven 
pieces  of  gold ;  fifty  pieces  were  given  for  an  ox,  a  rare  and 
accidental  prize ;  the  progress  of  famine  enhanced  this  ex- 
orbitant value,  and  the  mercenaries  were  tempted  to  deprive 
themselves  of  the  allowance  which  was  scarcely  sufficient  for 
the  support  of  life.  A  tasteless  and  unwholesome  mixture, 
in  which  the  bran  thrice  exceeded  the  quantity  of  flour,  ap- 
peased the  hunger  of  the  poor ;  they  were  gradually  reduced 
to  feed  on  dead  horses,  dogs,  cats,  and  mice,  and  eagerly  to 
snatch  the  grass  and  even  the  nettles  which  grew  among  the 
ruins  of  the  city.  A  crowd  of  spectres,  pale  and  emaciated, 
their  bodies  oppressed  with  disease  and  their  minds  with  de- 
spair, surrounded  the  palace  of  the  governor,  urged,  with  un- 
availing truth,  that  it  was  the  duty  of  a  master  to  maintain 
his  slaves,  and  humbly  requested  that  he  would  provide  for 
their  subsistence,  permit  their  flight,  or  command  their  im- 
mediate execution.  Bessas  replied,  with  unfeeling  tranquil- 
lity, that  it  was  impossible  to  feed,  unsafe  to  dismiss,  and  un- 
lawful to  kill,  the  subjects  of  the  emperor.  Yet  the  example 
of  a  private  citizen  might  have  shown  his  countrymen  that  a 
tyrant  cannot  withhold  the  privilege  of  death.  Pierced  by 
the  cries  of  five  children,  who  vainly  called  on  their  father 
for  bread,  he  ordered  them  to  follow  his  steps,  advanced  with 
calm  and  silent  despair  to  one  of  the  bridges  of  the  Tiber,  and, 
covering  his  face,  threw  himself  headlong  into  the  stream, 
in  the  presence  of  his  family  and  the  Roman  people.  To  the 
rich  and  pusillanimous,  Bessas12  sold  the  permission  of  depart- 
ure; but  the  greatest  part  of  the  fugitives  expired  on  the 


12  The  avarice  of  Bessas  is  not  dissembled  by  Procopius  (1.  iii.  c.  17,  20).  He 
expiated  the  loss  of  Rome  by  the  glorious  conquest  of  Petrsea  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  1 2)  ; 
but  the  same  vices  followed  him  from  the  Tiber  to  the  Phasis  (c.  13) ;  and  the 
historian  is  equally  true  to  the  merits  and  defects  of  his  character.  The  chastise- 
ment which  the  author  of  the  romance  of  Belisaire  has  inflicted  on  the  oppressor 
of  Rome  is  more  agreeable  to  justice  than  to  history. 


A.D.546.]  ATTEMPT  OF  BELISAEIUS.  381 

public  highways,  or  were  intercepted  by  the  flying  parties  of 
barbarians.  In  the  mean  while  the  artful  governor  soothed 
the  discontent,  and  revived  the  hopes,  of  the  Eomans,  by  the 
vague  reports  of  the  fleets  and  armies  which  were  hastening 
to  their  relief  from  the  extremities  of  the  East.  They  de- 
rived more  rational  comfort  from  the  assurance  that  Belisa- 
rius  had  landed  at  the  port;  and,  without  numbering  his 
forces,  they  firmly  relied  on  the  humanity,  the  courage,  and 
the  skill  of  their  great  deliverer. 

The  foresight  of  Totila  had  raised  obstacles  worthy  of  such 
an  antagonist.  Ninety  furlongs  below  the  city,  in  the  narrow- 
Attempt  of  est  Part  °f  tne  river,  he  joined  the  two  banks  by 
Beiisanus.  8tr0ng  and  solid  timbers  in  the  form  of  a  bridge, 
on  which  he  erected  two  lofty  towers,  manned  by  the  bravest 
of  his  Goths,  and  profusely  stored  with  missile  weapons  and 
engines  of  offence.  The  approach  of  the  bridge  and  towers 
was  covered  by  a  strong  and  massy  chain  of  iron,  and  the 
chain,  at  either  end,  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Tiber,  was 
defended  by  a  numerous  and  chosen  detachment  of  archers. 
But  the  enterprise  of  forcing  these  barriers  and  relieving  the 
capital  displays  a  shining  example  of  the  boldness  and  con- 
duct of  Belisarius.  His  cavalry  advanced  from  the  port  along 
the  public  road  to  awe  the  motions  and  distract  the  attention 
of  the  enemy.  His  infantry  and  provisions  were  distributed 
in  two  hundred  large  boats,  and  each  boat  was  shielded  by  a 
high  rampart  of  thick  planks,  pierced  with  many  small  holes 
for  the  discharge  of  missile  weapons.  In  the  front,  two  large 
vessels  were  linked  together  to  sustain  a  floating  castle,  which 
commanded  the  towers  of  the  bridge,  and  contained  a  maga- 
zine of  fire,  sulphur,  and  bitumen.  The  whole  fleet,  which 
the  general  led  in  person,  was  laboriously  moved  against  the 
current  of  the  river.  The  chain  yielded  to  their  weight,  and 
the  enemies  who  guarded  the  banks  were  either  slain  or  scat- 
tered. As  soon  as  they  touched  the  principal  barrier,  the  fire- 
ship  was  instantly  grappled  to  the  bridge  ;  one  of  the  towers, 
with  two  hundred  Goths,  was  consumed  by  the  flames,  the  as- 
sailants shouted  victory,  and  Rome  was  saved,  if  the  wisdom 
of  Belisarius  had  not  been  defeated  by  the  misconduct  of  his 


382  EOME  TAKEN  BY  THE  GOTHS.  [Ch.  XLIII. 

officers.  He  had  previously  sent  orders  to  Bessas  to  second 
his  operations  by  a  timely  sally  from  the  town,  and  he  had 
fixed  his  lieutenant,  Isaac,  by  a  peremptory  command,  to  the 
station  of  the  port.  But  avarice  rendered  Bessas  immovable, 
while  the  youthful  ardor  of  Isaac  delivered  him  into  the  hands 
of  a  superior  enemy.  The  exaggerated  rumor  of  his  defeat 
was  hastily  carried  to  the  oars  of  Belisarius :  he  paused,  be- 
trayed in  that  single  moment  of  his  life  some  emotions  of  sur- 
prise and  perplexity,  and  reluctantly  sounded  a  retreat  to  save 
his  wife  Antonina,  his  treasures,  and  the  only  harbor  which 
he  possessed  on  the  Tuscan  coast.  The  vexation  of  his  mind 
produced  an  ardent  and  almost  mortal  fever,  and  Rome  was 
left  without  protection  to  the  mercy  or  indignation  of  Totila. 
The  continuance  of  hostilities  had  embittered  the  national 
hatred;  the  Arian  clergy  was  ignominiously  driven  from 
Eome;  Pelagius,  the  archdeacon,  returned  without  success 
from  an  embassy  to  the  Gothic  camp ;  and  a  Sicilian  bishop, 
the  envoy  or  nuncio  of  the  pope,  was  deprived  of  both  his 
hands  for  daring  to  utter  falsehoods  in  the  service  of  the 
Church  and  State. 

Famine  had  relaxed  the  strength  and  discipline  of  the  gar- 
rison of  Borne.  They  could  derive  no  effectual  service  from 
Rome  taken  a  dying  people ;  and  the  inhuman  avarice  of  the 
A^e^?01118'  merchant  at  length  absorbed  the  vigilance  of  the 
Dec.  n.  governor.  Four  Isaurian  sentinels,  while  their 
companions  slept  and  their  officers  were  absent,  descended 
by  a  rope  from  the  wall,  and  secretly  proposed  to  the  Gothic 
king  to  introduce  his  troops  into  the  city.  The  offer  was  en- 
tertained with  coldness  and  suspicion ;  they  returned  in  safe- 
ty ;  they  twice  repeated  their  visit :  the  place  was  twice  ex- 
amined ;  the  conspiracy  was  known  and  disregarded ;  and  no 
sooner  had  Totila  consented  to  the  attempt,  than  they  unbar- 
red the  Asinarian  Gate  and  gave  admittance  to  the  Goths. 
Till  the  dawn  of  day  they  baited  in  order  of  battle,  apprehen- 
sive of  treachery  or  ambush ;  but  the  troops  of  Bessas,  with 
their  leader,  had  already  escaped ;  and  when  the  king  was 
pressed  to  disturb  their  retreat,  he  prudently  replied  that  no 
sight  could  be  more  grateful  than  that  of  a  flying  enemy.    The 


A.D.54G.]        ROME  TAKEN  BY  THE  GOTHS.  383 

Patricians  who  were  still  possessed  of  horses,  Deems,  Basilius, 
etc.,  accompanied  the  governor ;  their  brethren,  among  whom 
Olybrius,  Orestes,  and  Maximus  are  named  by  the  historian, 
took  refuge  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter :  but  the  assertion  that 
only  five  hundred  persons  remained  in  the  capital  inspires 
some  doubt  of  the  fidelity  either  of  his  narrative  or  of  his 
text.  As  soon  as  daylight  had  displayed  the  entire  victory 
of  the  Goths,  their  monarch  devoutly  visited  the  tomb  of  the 
prince  of  the  apostles  ;  but  while  he  prayed  at  the  altar,  twen- 
ty-live soldiers  and  sixty  citizens  were  put  to  the  sword  in  the 
vestibule  of  the  temple.  The  archdeacon  Pelagius13  stood  be- 
fore him,  with  the  gospels  in  his  hand.  "  O  Lord,  be  merciful 
to  your  servant."  "  Pelagius,"  said  Totila,  with  an  insulting 
smile, "  your  pride  now  condescends  to  become  a  suppliant." 
"  I  am  a  suppliant,"  replied  the  prudent  archdeacon ;  "  God 
has  now  made  us  your  subjects,  and,  as  your  subjects,  we  are 
entitled  to  your  clemency."  At  his  humble  prayer  the  lives 
of  the  Romans  were  spared,  and  the  chastity  of  the  maids  and 
matrons  was  preserved  inviolate  from  the  passions  of  the 
hungry  soldiers.  But  they  were  rewarded  by  the  freedom  of 
pillage,  after  the  most  precious  spoils  had  been  reserved  for 
the  royal  treasury.  The  houses  of  the  senators  were  plenti- 
fully stored  with  gold  and  silver;  and  the  avarice  of  Bessas 
had  labored  with  so  much  guilt  and  shame  for  the  benefit  of 
the  conqueror.  In  this  revolution  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
Roman  consuls  tasted  the  misery  which  they  had  spurned  or 
relieved,  wandered  in  tattered  garments  through  the  streets 
of  the  city,  and  begged  their  bread,  perhaps  without  success, 
before  the  gates  of  their  hereditary  mansions.  The  riches  of 
RustiGiana,  the  daughter  of  Symmachus  and  widow  of  Boe- 
thius,  had  been  generously  devoted  to  alleviate  the  calamities 
of  famine.     But  the  barbarians  were  exasperated  by  the  re- 


13  During  the  long  exile,  and  after  the  death  of  Vigilius,  the  Roman  Church 
was  governed,  at  first  by  the  archdeacon,  and  at  length  (a.  d.  555)  by  the  Pope 
Pelagius,  who  was  not  thought  guiltless  of  the  sufferings  of  his  predecessor.  See 
the  original  Lives  of  the  popes  under  the  name  of  Anastasius  (Muratori,  Script. 
Rer.  Italicarum,  torn.  iii.  pt.  i.  p.  130, 131),  who  relates  several  curious  incidents  of 
the  sieges  of  Rome  and  the  wars  of  Italy. 


384:  ROME  TAKEN  BY  THE  GOTHS.  [Ch.XLILL 

port  that  she  had  prompted  the  people  to  overthrow  the  stat- 
ues of  the  great  Theodoric;  and  the  life  of  that  venerable 
matron  would  have  been  sacrificed  to  his  memory,  if  Totila 
had  not  respected  her  birth,  her  virtues,  and  even  the  pious 
motive  of  her  revenge.  The  next  day  he  pronounced  two 
orations,  to  congratulate  and  admonish  his  victorious  Goths, 
and  to  reproach  the  senate,  as  the  vilest  of  slaves,  with  their 
perjury,  folly,  and  ingratitude ;  sternly  declaring  that  their  es- 
tates and  honors  were  justly  forfeited  to  the  companions  of 
his  arms.  Yet  he  consented  to  forgive  their  revolt ;  and  the 
senators  repaid  his  clemency  by  despatching  circular  letters 
to  their  tenants  and  vassals  in  the  provinces  of  Italy,  strictly 
to  enjoin  them  to  desert  the  standard  of  the  Greeks,  to  culti- 
vate their  lands  in  peace,  and  to  learn  from  their  masters  the 
duty  of  obedience  to  a  Gothic  sovereign.  Against  the  city 
which  had  so  long  delayed  the  course  of  his  victories  he  ap- 
peared inexorable :  one  third  of  the  walls,  in  different  parts, 
were  demolished  by  his  command ;  fire  and  engines  prepared 
to  consume  or  subvert  the  most  stately  works  of  antiquity; 
and  the  world  was  astonished  by  the  fatal  decree  that  Kome 
should  be  changed  into  a  pasture  for  cattle.  The  firm  and 
temperate  remonstrance  of  Belisarius  suspended  the  execu- 
tion ;  he  warned  the  barbarian  not  to  sully  his  fame  by  the 
destruction  of  those  monuments  which  were  the  glory  of  the 
dead  and  the  delight  of  the  living;  and  Totila  was  per- 
suaded, by  the  advice  of  an  enemy,  to  preserve  Rome  as  the 
ornament  of  his  kingdom,  or  the  fairest  pledge  of  peace  and 
reconciliation.  When  he  had  signified  to  the  ambassadors  of 
Belisarius  his  intention  of  sparing  the  city,  he  stationed  an 
army  at  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  furlongs,  to 
observe  the  motions  of  the  Roman  general.  With  the  re- 
mainder of  his  forces  he  marched  into  Lucania  and  Apulia, 
and  occupied,  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Garganus,"  one  of  the 


14  Mount  Garganus,  now  Monte  St.  Angelo,  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  runs 
three  hundred  stadia  into  the  Adriatic  Sea  (Strab.l.  vi.p.  436  [p.  284,  edit.  Casaub.]), 
and  in  the  darker  ages  was  illustrated  by  the  apparition,  miracles,  and  Church  of 
St.  Michael  the  Archangel.     Horace,  a  native  of  Apulia  or  Lucania,  had  seen  the 


A.D.547.]  ROME  RECOVERED  BY  BELISARIUS.  385 

camps  of  Hannibal.19  The  senators  were  dragged  in  his  train, 
and  afterwards  confined  in  the  fortresses  of  Campania;  the 
citizens,  with  their  wives  and  children,  were  dispersed  in  ex- 
ile ;  and  during  forty  days  Rome  was  abandoned  to  desolate 
and  dreary  solitude.16 

The  loss  of  Rome  was  speedily  retrieved  by  an  action  to 
which,  according  to  the  event,  the  public  opinion  would  ap- 
Recovered  by  P^J  tne  naines  of  rashness  or  heroism.  After  the 
SKE""  departure  of  Totila,  the  Roman  general  sallied 
February.  from  the  port  at  the  head  of  a  thousand  horse,  cut 
in  pieces  the  enemy  who  opposed  his  progress,  and  visited 
with  pity  and  reverence  the  vacant  space  of  the  eternal  city. 
Resolved  to  maintain  a  station  so  conspicuous  in  the  eyes  of 
mankind,  he  summoned  the  greatest  part  of  his  troops  to  the 
standard  which  he  erected  on  the  Capitol:  the  old  inhabi- 
tants were  recalled  by  the  love  of  their  country  and  the  hope3 
of  food ;  and  the  keys  of  Rome  were  sent  a  second  time  to 
the  Emperor  Justinian.  The  walls,  as  far  as  they  had  been 
demolished  by  the  Goths,  were  repaired  with  rude  and  dis- 
similar materials ;  the  ditch  was  restored ;  iron  spikes"  were 
profusely  scattered  in  the  highways  to  annoy  the  feet  of  the 
horses;  and  as  new  gates  could  not  suddenly  be  procured,  the 
entrance  was  guarded  by  a  Spartan  rampart  of  his  bravest 
soldiers.  At  the  expiration  of  twenty-five  days  Totila  return- 
ed by  hasty  marches  from  Apulia  to  avenge  the  injury  and 
disgrace.    Belisarius  expected  his  approach.    The  Goths  were 

elms  nnd  oaks  of  Garganus  laboring  and  bellowing  with  the  north  wind  that  blew 
on  that  lofty  coast  (Carm.  ii.  9  ;  Epist.  ii.  i.  202). 

15  I  cannot  ascertain  this  particular  camp  of  Hannibal :  but  the  Punic  quarters 
tvei-e  long  and  often  in  the  neighborhood  of  Arpi  (T.  Liv.  xxii.  9, 12  ;  xxiv.  3,  etc.). 

16  Totila  *  *  *  Romam  ingreditur  *  *  *  ac  evertit  muros,  domos  aliquantas  igni 
comburens,  ac  omnes  Romanorum  res  in  prsedam  accepit,  hos  ipsos  Romanos  in 
Campaniam  captivos  abdnxit.  Post  qnam  devastationem,  xl  aut  amplius  dies, 
Roma  fnit  ita  desolata,  ut  nemo  ibi  hominum,  nisi  (nullce  ?)  bestiaa  morarentur 
(Marcellin.  in  Chron.  p.  54). 

11  The  tribuli  are  small  engines  with  four  spikes,  one  fixed  in  the  ground,  the 
three  others  erect  or  adverse  (Procopius,  Gothic.  1.  iii.  c.  24  [torn.  ii.  p.  379,  edit. 
Bonn]  ;  Just.  Lipsius,  Poliorcetoiv,  1.  v.  c.  3).  The  metaphor  was  borrowed  from 
the  tribuli  {land-caltrops),  an  herb  with  a  prickly  fruit,  common  in  Italy  (Martin, 
ad  Virgil.  Georgic.  i.  153.,  vol.  ii.  p,  33). 

IY.-25 


386  ROME  RECOVERED  BY  BELISAEIUS.         [Ch.  XLIIL 

thrice  repulsed  in  three  general  assaults ;  they  lost  the  flower 
of  their  troops  ;  the  royal  standard  had  almost  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  and  the  fame  of  Totila  sunk,  as  it  had 
risen,  with  the  fortune  of  his  arms.  Whatever  skill  and  cour- 
age could  achieve  had  been  performed  by  the  Roman  gener- 
al :  it  remained  only  that  Justinian  should  terminate,  by  a 
strong  and  seasonable  effort,  the  war  which  he  had  ambitious- 
ly undertaken.  The  indolence,  perhaps  the  impotence,  of  a 
prince  who  despised  his  enemies  and  envied  his  servants,  pro- 
tracted the  calamities  of  Italy.  After  a  long  silence,  Belisa- 
rius  was  commanded  to  leave  a  sufficient  garrison  at  Home, 
and  to  transport  himself  into  the  province  of  Lucania,  whose 
inhabitants,  inflamed  by  Catholic  zeal,  had  cast  away  the  yoke 
of  their  Arian  conquerors.  In  this  ignoble  warfare,  the  hero, 
invincible  against  the  power  of  the  barbarians,  was  basely 
vanquished  by  the  delaj^,  the  disobedience,  and  the  cowardice 
of  his  own  officers.  He  reposed  in  his  winter-quarters  of 
Crotona,  in  the  full  assurance  that  the  two  passes  of  the  Lu- 
canian  hills  were  guarded  by  his  cavalry.  They  were  betray- 
ed by  treachery  or  weakness;  and  the  rapid  march  of  the 
Goths  scarcely  allowed  time  for  the  escape  of  Belisarius  to 
the  coast  of  Sicily.  At  length  a  fleet  and  army  were  assem- 
bled for  the  relief  of  Ruscianum,  or  Rossano,18  a  fortress  sixty 
furlongs  from  the  ruins  of  Sybaris,  where  the  nobles  of  Lu- 
cania had  taken  refuge.  In  the  first  attempt  the  Roman 
forces  were  dissipated  by  a  storm.  In  the  second,  they  ap- 
proached the  shore ;  but  they  saw  the  hills  covered  with  arch- 
ers, the  landing-place  defended  by  a  line  of  spears,  and  the 
king  of  the  Goths  impatient  for  battle.  The  conqueror  of 
Italy  retired  with  a  sigh,  and  continued  to  languish,  inglori- 
ous and  inactive,  till  Antonina,  who  had  been  sent  to  Con- 
stantinople to  solicit  succors,  obtained,  after  the  death  of  the 
empress,  the  permission  of  his  return. 

The  five  last  campaigns  of  Belisarius  might  abate  the  envy 

18  Ruscia,  the  navale  T'nuriorum,  was  transferred  to  the  distance  of  sixty  stadia 
to  Rnscianum,  Rossano,  an  archbishopric  without  suffragans.  The  republic  of 
Sybaris  is  now  the  estate  of  the  Duke  of  Corigliane  (Riedesel,  Travels  into  Magna 
Grascia  and  Sicily,  p.  1G6-171). 


A.D.548.]  FINAL  RECALL  OF  BELISARIUS.  387 

of  his  competitors,  whose  eyes  had  been  dazzled  and  wound- 
Fiuai  recall  e&  Dv  the  blaze  of  his  former  glory.  Instead  of 
of Bdtauitu.  delivering  Italy  from  the  Goths,  he  had  wandered 
September,  jjj^g  a  fugitive  along  the  coast,  without  daring  to 
march  into  the  country,  or  to  accept  the  bold  and  repeated 
challenge  of  Totila.  Yet  in  the  judgment  of  the  few  who 
could  discriminate  counsels  from  events,  and  compare  the  in- 
struments with  the  execution,  he  appeared  a  more  consum- 
mate master  of  the  art  of  war  than  in  the  season  of  his  pros- 
perity, when  he  presented  two  captive  kings  before  the  throne 
of  Justinian.  The  valor  of  Belisarius  was  not  chilled  by  age : 
his  prudence  was  matured  by  experience;  but  the  moral  virt- 
ues of  humanity  and  justice  seem  to  have  yielded  to  the  hard 
necessity  of  the  times.  The  parsimony  or  poverty  of  the 
emperor  compelled  him  to  deviate  from  the  rule  of  conduct 
which  had  deserved  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  Italians. 
The  war  was  maintained  by  the  oppression  of  Ravenna,  Sic- 
ily, and  all  the  faithful  subjects  of  the  empire ;  and  the  rig- 
orous prosecution  of  Herodian  provoked  that  injured  or 
guilty  officer  to  deliver  Spoleto  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 
The  avarice  of  Antonina,  which  had  been  sometimes  diverted 
by  love,  now  reigned  without  a  rival  in  her  breast.  Belisarius 
himself  had  always  understood  that  riches,  in  a  corrupt  age, 
are  the  support  and  ornament  of  personal  merit.  And  it  can- 
not be  presumed  that  he  should  stain  his  honor  for  the  pub- 
lic service,  without  applying  a  part  of  the  spoil  to  his  private 
emolument.  The  hero  had  escaped  the  sword  of  the  barbari- 
ans, but  the  dagger  of  conspiracy19  awaited  his  return.  In  the 
midst  of  wealth  and  honors,  Artaban,  who  had  chastised  the 
African  tyrant,  complained  of  the  ingratitude  of  courts.  He 
aspired  to  Prsejecta,  the  emperor's  niece,  who  wished  to  re- 
ward her  deliverer;  but  the  impediment  of  his  previous  mar- 
riage was  asserted  by  the  piety  of  Theodora.  The  pride  of 
royal  descent  was  irritated  by  flattery ;  and  the  service  in 
which  he  gloried  had  proved  him  capable  of  bold  and  sangui- 


19  This  conspiracy  is  related  by  Procopius  (Gothic.  1.  iii.  c.  31,  32)  with  such 
freedom  and  candor  that  the  liberty  of  the  Anecdotes  gives  him  nothing  to  add. 


388  FINAL  RECALL  OF  BELISARIUS.  £Ch.  XLIIL 

nary  deeds.  The  death  of  Justinian  was  resolved,  but  the 
conspirators  delayed  the  execution  till  they  could  surprise  Bel- 
isarius,  disarmed  and  naked,  in  the  palace  of  Constantinople. 
Not  a  hope  could  be  entertained  of  shaking  his  long-tried 
fidelity;  and  they  justly  dreaded  the  revenge,  or  rather  jus- 
tice, of  the  veteran  general,  who  might  speedily  assemble  an 
army  in  Thrace  to  punish  the  assassins,  and  perhaps  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  their  crime.  Delay  afforded  time  for  rash  com- 
munications and  honest  confessions:  Artaban  and  his  accom- 
plices were  condemned  by  the  senate,  but  the  extreme  clem- 
ency of  Justinian  detained  them  in  the  gentle  confinement  of 
the  palace  till  he  pardoned  their  flagitious  attempt  against  his 
throne  and  life.  If  the  emperor  forgave  his  enemies,  he  must 
cordially  embrace  a  friend  whose  victories  were  alone  remem- 
bered, and  who  was  endeared  to  his  prince  by  the  recent  cir- 
cumstance of  their  common  danger.  Belisarius  reposed  from 
his  toils,  in  the  high  station  of  general  of  the  East  and  count 
of  the  domestics ;  and  the  older  consuls  and  patricians  re- 
spectfully yielded  the  precedency  of  rank  to  the  peerless  mer- 
it of  the  first  of  the  Romans.20  The  first  of  the  Romans  still 
submitted  to  be  the  slave  of  his  wife;  but  the  servitude  of 
habit  and  affection  became  less  disgraceful  when  the  death  of 
Theodora  had  removed  the  baser  influence  of  fear.  Joannina, 
their  daughter,  and  the  sole  heiress  of  their  fortunes,  was  be- 
trothed to  Anastasius,  the  grandson,  or  rather  the  nephew,  of 
the  empress,"  whose  kind  interposition  forwarded  the  con- 
summation of  their  youthful  loves.     But  the  power  of  Theo- 

20  The  honors  of  Belisarius  are  gladly  commemorated  by  his  secretary  (Procop. 
Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  35 ;  1.  iv.  c.  21).  The  title  of  Srpanjyoc  is  ill  translated,  at  least  in 
this  instance,  by  "prjefectus  prsetorio;"  and  to  a  military  character,  " magister 
militum  "  is  more  proper  and  applicable  (Ducange,  Gloss.  Gra?c.  p.  1458,  1459). 

21  Alemannus  (ad  Hist.  Arcanam,  p.  68  [torn.  iii.  p.  418,  edit.  Bonn]),  Ducange 
(Familise  Byzant.  p.  98),  and  Heineccius  (Hist.  Juris  Civilis,  p.  434),  all  three  rep- 
resent Anastasius  as  the  son  of  the  daughter  of  Theodora ;  and  their  opinion  firm- 
ly reposes  on  the  unambiguous  testimony  of  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  4,  5 — Svya- 
Tpid<{t  twice  repeated).  And  yet  I  will  remark  :  1.  That  in  the  year  547  Theodora 
could  scarcely  have  a  grandson  of  the  age  of  puberty ;  2.  That  we  are  totally  ig- 
norant of  this  daughter  and  her  husband ;  and,  3.  That  Theodora  concealed  her 
bastards,  and  that  her  grandson  by  Justinian  would  have  been  heir-apparent  of 
the  empire. 


a.d.  549.]  ROME  AGAIK  TAKEN  BY  THE  GOTHS.  389 

dora  expired,  the  parents  of  Joarmina  returned,  and  her  hon- 
or, perhaps  her  happiness,  were  sacrificed  to  the  revenge  of  an 
unfeeling  mother,  who  dissolved  the  imperfect  nuptials  before 
they  had  been  ratified  by  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church.38 

Before  the  departure  of  Belisarius,  Perusia  was  besieged, 
and  few  cities  were  impregnable  to  the  Gothic  arms.  Ra- 
Eome  again  venna,  Ancona,  and  Crotona  still  resisted  the  bar- 
theGotfL  barians ;  and  when  Totila  asked  in  marriage  one  of 
a.b. 649.  tne  daughters  of  France,  he  was  stung  by  the  just 
reproach  that  the  King  of  Italy  was  unworthy  of  his  title  till 
it  was  acknowledged  by  the  Roman  people.  Three  thousand 
of  the  bravest  soldiers  had  been  left  to  defend  the  capital. 
On  the  suspicion  of  a  monopoly,  they  massacred  the  governor, 
and  announced  to  Justinian,  by  a  deputation  of  the  clergy, 
that,  unless  their  offence  was  pardoned  and  their  arrears  were 
satisfied,  they  should  instantly  accept  the  tempting  offers  of 
Totila.  But  the  officer  who  succeeded  to  the  command  (his 
name  was  Diogenes)  deserved  their  esteem  and  confidence; 
and  the  Goths,  instead  of  finding  an  easy  conquest,  encoun- 
tered a  vigorous  resistance  from  the  soldiers  and  people,  who 
patiently  endured  the  loss  of  the  port  and  of  all  maritime 
supplies.  The  siege  of  Borne  would  perhaps  have  been  raised, 
if  the  liberality  of  Totila  to  the  Isaurians  had  not  encouraged 
some  of  their  venal  countrymen  to  copy  the  example  of  trea- 
son. In  a  dark  night,  while  the  Gothic  trumpets  sounded  on 
another  side,  they  silently  opened  the  gate  of  St.  Paul :  the 
barbarians  rushed  into  the  city ;  and  the  flying  garrison  was 
intercepted  before  they  could  reach  the  harbor  of  Centum- 
cellse.  A  soldier  trained  in  the  school  of  Belisarius,  Paul  of 
Cilicia,  retired  with  four  hundred  men  to  the  mole  of  Ha- 
drian. They  repelled  the  Goths ;  but  they  felt  the  approach 
of  famine ;  and  their  aversion  to  the  taste  of  horse-flesh  con- 
firmed their  resolution  to  risk  the  event  of  a  desperate  and 

22  The  ajuapn'/juara,  or  sins,  of  the  hero  in  Italy  and  after  his  return,  are  mani- 
fested a-rrapaicaXvTrTujg,  and  most  probably  swelled,  by  the  author  of  the  Anecdotes 
(c.  4,  5).  The  designs  of  Antomna  were  favored  by  the  fluctuating  jurisprudence 
of  Justinian.  On  the  law  of  marriage  and  divorce,  that  emperor  was  "  trocho  ver- 
satilior  "  (Heineccius,  Element.  Juris  Civil,  ad  Ordinem  Pandect,  pt.  iv.  No.  233)k 


390  ROME  AGAIN  TAKEN  BY  THE  GOTHS.       [Ch.  XLIIL 

decisive  sally.  But  their  spirit  insensibly  stooped  to  the  of- 
fers of  capitulation :  they  retrieved  their  arrears  of  pay,  and 
preserved  their  arms  and  horses,  by  enlisting  in  the  service 
of  Totila;  their  chiefs,  who  pleaded  a  laudable  attachment 
to  their  wives  and  children  in  the  East,  were  dismissed  with 
honor ;  and  above  four  hundred  enemies,  who  had  taken  ref- 
uge in  the  sanctuaries,  were  saved  by  the  clemency  of  the 
victor.  He  no  longer  entertained  a  wish  of  destroying  the 
edifices  of  Rome,23  which  he  now  respected  as  the  seat  of 
the  Gothic  kingdom  :  the  senate  and  people  were  restored  to 
their  country ;  the  means  of  subsistence  were  liberally  pro- 
vided ;  and  Totila,  in  the  robe  of  peace,  exhibited  the  eques- 
trian games  of  the  circus.  "Whilst  he  amused  the  eyes  of  the 
multitude,  four  hundred  vessels  were  prepared  for  the  em- 
barkation of  his  troops.  The  cities  of  Rhegium  and  Taren- 
tum  were  reduced ;  he  passed  into  Sicily,  the  object  of  his 
implacable  resentment;  and  the  island  was  stripped  of  its 
gold  and  silver,  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  of  an  infinite 
number  of  horses,  sheep,  and  oxen.  Sardinia  and  Corsica 
obeyed  the  fortune  of  Italy ;  and  the  sea-coast  of  Greece  was 
visited  by  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  galleys.24  The  Goths  were 
landed  in  Corcyra  and  the  ancient  continent  of  Epirus ;  they 
advanced  as  far  as  Nicopolis,  the  trophy  of  Augustus,  and 
Dodona,25  once  famous  by  the  oracle  of  Jove.     In  every  step 

23  The  Romans  were  still  attached  to  the  monuments  of  their  ancestors ;  and 
according  to  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  22  [torn.  ii.  p.  573,  edit.  Bonn]),  the  galley 
of  JEneas,  of  a  single  rank  of  oars,  25  feet  in  breadth,  120  in  length,  was  preserved 
entire  in  the  navalia,  near  Monte  Testaceo,  at  the  foot  of  the  Aventine  (Nardini, 
Roma,  Antica,  1.  vii.  c.  9,  p.  466 ;  Donatus,  Roma  Antiqua,  1.  iv.  c.  13,  p.  334). 
But  all  antiquity  is  ignorant  of  this  relic. 

24  In  these  seas  Procopius  searched  without  success  for  the  Isle  of  Calypso.  He 
was  shown,  at  Phseacia  or  Corcyra,  the  petrified  ship  of  Ulysses  (Odyss.  xiii.  163) ; 
but  he  found  it  a  recent  fabric  of  many  stones,  dedicated  by  a  merchant  to  Jupi- 
ter Cassius  (1.  iv.  c.  22  [torn.  ii.  p.  575,  edit.  Bonn]).  Eustathius  had  supposed  it 
to  be  the  fanciful  likeness  of  a  rock. 

25  M.  D'Anville  (Memoires  de  l'Acad.  torn,  xxxii.  p.  513-528)  illustrates  the 
Gulf  of  Ambracia  ;  but  ha  cannot  ascertain  the  situation  of  Dodona.  A  countiy 
in  sight  of  Italy  is  less  known  than  the  wilds  of  America.* 


a  The  site  of  Podona  still  cannot  be  fixed  with  accuracy ;  but  Colonel  Leake 
has  shown  that  in  all  probability  the  fertils  valley  of  Ioannina  was  the  territory  of 


A.D.  54JW551.]    PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  GOTHIC  WAR.  391 

of  his  victories  the  wise  barbarian  repeated  to  Justinian  his 
desire  of  peace,  applauded  the  concord  of  their  predecessors, 
and  offered  to  employ  the  Gothic  arms  in  the  service  of  the 
empire. 

Justinian  was  deaf  to  the  voice  of  peace,  but  he  neglected 
the  prosecution  of  war ;  and  the  indolence  of  his  temper  dis- 
appointed, in  some  degree,  the  obstinacy  of  his  pas- 
of  Justiuiau  sions.  From  this  salutary  slumber  the  emperor  was 
Gothic  war.  awakened  by  the  Pope  Vigilius  and  the  Patrician 
Cethegus,  who  appeared  before  his  throne,  and  ad- 
jured him,  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  people,  to  resume  the 
conquest  and  deliverance  of  Italy.  In  the  choice  of  the  gen- 
erals, caprice,  as  well  as  judgment,  was  shown.  A  fleet  and 
army  sailed  for  the  relief  of  Sicily,  under  the  conduct  of  Li- 
berius ;  but  his  want  of  youth  and  experience11  were  after- 
wards discovered,  and  before  he  touched  the  shores  of  the 
island  he  was  overtaken  by  his  successor.  In  the  place  of 
Liberius  the  conspirator  Artaban  was  raised  from  a  prison 
to  military  honors,  in  the  pious  presumption  that  gratitude 
would  animate  his  valor  and  fortify  his  allegiance.  Belisa- 
rius  reposed  in  the  shade  of  his  laurels,  but  the  command  of 
the  principal  army  was  reserved  for  Germanus,26  the  emperor's 
nephew,  whose  rank  and  merit  had  been  long  depressed  by 
the  jealousy  of  the  court.     Theodora  had  injured  him  in  the 

26  See  the  acts  of  Germanus  in  the  public  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  16, 17,  18;  Goth.  1. 
iii.  c.  31,  32)  and  private  history  (Anecdot.  c.  5),  and  those  of  his  son  Justin,  in 
Agathias  (1.  iv.  p.  130, 131  [p.  250  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]).  Notwithstanding  an  ambig- 
uous expression  of  Jornandes,  "fratri  suo,"  Alemannus  has  proved  that  he  was 
the  son  of  the  emperor's  brother. 


Dodona,  and  that  the  extensive  ruins  upon  the  hill  of  Kastritza,  at  the  southern 
end  of  the  lake  of  Ioannina,  are  those  of  the  ancient  city.  See  Leake,  Northern 
Greece,  vol.  iv.  p.  168  seq. — S. 

a  This  is  the  reading  in  the  4to  edition,  but  it  has  been  altered  by  most  mod- 
ern editors  (among  others  by  Dean  Milman)  into  "  his  youth  and  want  of  expe- 
rience," ou  the  supposition  that  Gibbon  could  never  have  intended  such  a  phrase 
as  "his  want  of  jouth  and  experience."  Lord  Mahon  in  consequence  (Life  of 
Belisarivis,  p.  391)  ss^f.cses  Gibbon  has  made  a  mistake,  since  Procopius  (Bell. 
Goth.  iii.  c.  39)  speaks  of  Liberius  as  extremely  old  QaxaToyspojv).  But  I  have 
little  doubt  that  the  expression  in  the  4to  was  the  one  intended  by  Gibbon,  as  it 
is  quite  in  accordance  with  his  enigmatical  stvle — the  intention  being  to  sneer  at 
the  inconsistency  of  the  proceeding. — S. 


392  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  GOTHIC  WAR.     [Ch.  XLIIL 

rights  of  a  private  citizen,  the  marriage  of  his  children,  and 
the  testament  of  his  brother ;  and  although  his  conduct  was 
pure  and  blameless,  Justinian  was  displeased  that  he  should 
be  thought  worthy  of  the  confidence  of  the  malcontents.  The 
life  of  Germanus  was  a  lesson  of  implicit  obedience :  he  no- 
bly refused  to  prostitute  his  name  and  character  in  the  fac- 
tions of  the  circus ;  the  gravity  of  his  manners  was  tempered 
by  innocent  cheerfulness;  and  his  riches  were  lent  without 
interest  to  indigent  or  deserving  friends.  His  valor  had  for- 
merly triumphed  over  the  Sclavonians  of  the  Danube  and 
the  rebels  of  Africa:  the  first  report  of  his  promotion  re- 
vived the  hopes  of  the  Italians ;  and  he  was  privately  assured 
that  a  crowd  of  Eoman  deserters  would  abandon,  on  his  ap- 
proach, the  standard  of  Totila.  His  second  marriage  with 
Malasontha,  the  granddaughter  of  Theodoric,  endeared  Ger- 
manus to  the  Goths  themselves ;  and  they  marched  with  re- 
luctance against  the  father  of  a  royal  infant,  the  last  offspring 
of  the  line  of  Amali."  A  splendid  allowance  was  assigned 
by  the  emperor :  the  general  contributed  his  private  fortune ; 
his  two  sons  were  popular  and  active ;  and  he  surpassed,  in 
the  promptitude  and  success  of  his  levies,  the  expectation  of 
mankind.  He  was  permitted  to  select  some  squadrons  of 
Thracian  cavalry:  the  veterans,  as  well  as  the  youth  of  Con- 
stantinople and  Europe,  engaged  their  voluntary  service  ;  and 
as  far  as  the  heart  of  Germany,  his  fame  and  liberality  at- 
tracted the  aid  of  the  barbarians.a  The  Romans  advanced 
to  Sardica;  an  army  of  Sclavonians  fled  before  their  march  ; 
but  within  two  days  of  their  final  departure  the  designs  of 
Germanus  were  terminated  by  his  malady  and  death.  Yet 
the  impulse  which  he  had  given  to  the  Italian  war  still  con- 
tinued to  act  with  energy  and  effect.  The  maritime  towns, 
Ancona,  Crotona,  Centumcellae,  resisted  the  assaults  of  To- 
tila.    Sicily  was  reduced  by  the  zeal  of  Artaban,  and  the 


2'  Conjuncta  Aniciorum  gens  cum  Amala  stirpe  spem  adhuc  utriusque  generis 
promittit  (Jomandes,  c.  60,  p.  703).  He  wrote  at  Ravenna  before  the  death  of 
Totila. 

•  See  note  31,  p.  394.  — M. 


A.D.  552.]         CHAKACTER  OF  THE  EUNUCH  NARSES.  393 

Gothic  navy  was  defeated  near  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic.  The 
two  fleets  were  almost  equal,  forty-seven  to  fifty  galleys :  the 
victory  was  decided  by  the  knowledge  and  dexterity  of  the 
Greeks;  but  the  ships  were  so  closely  grappled,  that  only 
twelve  of  the  Goths  escaped  from  this  unfortunate  conflict. 
They  affected  to  depreciate  an  element  in  which  they  were 
unskilled  ;  but  their  own  experience  confirmed  the  truth  of  a 
maxim,  that  the  master  of  the  sea  will  always  acquire  the 
dominion  of  the  land.28 

After  the  loss  of  Germanus,  the  nations  were  provoked  to 
smile  by  the  strange  intelligence  that  the  command  of  the 
character  Roman  armies  was  given  to  a  eunuch.  But  the 
auitufof"  eunuch  Narses29  is  ranked  among  the  few  who 
Naise"uch  have  rescued  that  unhappy  name  from  the  con- 
a.d.552.  tempt  and  hatred  of  mankind.  A  feeble,  diminu- 
tive body  concealed  the  soul  of  a  statesman  and  a  warrior. 
His  youth  had  been  employed  in  the  management  of  the 
loom  and  distaff,  in  the  cares  of  the  household,  and  the  ser- 
vice of  female  luxury  ;  but  while  his  hands  were  busy,  he  se- 
cretly exercised  the  faculties  of  a  vigorous  and  discerning 
mind.  A  stranger  to  the  schools  and  the  camp,  he  studied  in 
the  palace  to  dissemble,  to  flatter,  and  to  persuade ;  and  as 
soon  as  he  approached  the  person  of  the  emperor,  Justinian 
listened  with  surprise  and  pleasure  to  the  manly  counsels  of 
his  chamberlain  and  private  treasurer,80     The  talents  of  Nar- 

28  The  third  book  of  Procopius  is  terminated  by  the  death  of  Germanus  (Add. 
1.  iv.  c.  23,  24,  25,  26). 

29  Procopius  relates  the  whole  series  of  this  second  Gothic  war  and  the  victory 
of  Narses  (1.  iv.  c.  21,  26-35).  A  splendid  scene!  Among  the  six  subjects  of 
epic  poetry  which  Tasso  revolved  in  his  mind,  he  hesitated  between  the  conquests 
of  Italy  by  Belisarius  and  by  Narses  (Hayley's  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  70). 

30  The  country  of  Nai-ses  is  unknown,  since  he  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  Persarmenian.a  Procopius  styles  him  (Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  13  [torn.  ii.  p.  199,  edit. 
Bonn])  (3atn\iKu>v  YjOTj/xarwv  ra[iiag;  Paul  Warnefrid  (I.  ii.  c.  3,  p.  776),  Chartu- 
larius  :  Marcellinus  adds  the  name  of  Cubicularius.     In  an  inscription  on  the  Sa- 


*  Lord  Mahon  (p.  245)  has  shown  that  there  were  two  Persavmenians  of  the 
name  of  Narses,  of  whom  the  one  deserted  to  the  Romans,  and  the  other  received 
that  deserter.  The  latter,  who  is  called  the  imperial  treasurer  (o  flaaiXewc  rtt/i<«c), 
is  undoubtedly  the  same  as  the  eunuch.  This  appears  clearly  from  a  passage  in 
Procopius,  Bell.  Pers.  1.  i.  c.  15,  p.  79,  edit.  Bonn. — S. 


394:  EXPEDITION  OF  NAESES.  [Ch.  XLIII 

ses  were  tried  and  improved  in  frequent  embassies :  he  led  an 
army  into  Italy,  acquired  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  war 
and  the  country,  and  presumed  to  strive  with  the  genius  of 
Belisarius.  Twelve  years  after  his  return  the  eunuch  was 
chosen  to  achieve  the  conquest  which  had  been  left  imperfect 
by  the  first  of  the  Roman  generals.  Instead  of  being  daz- 
zled by  vanity  or  emulation,  he  seriously  declared  that,  unless 
he  were  armed  with  an  adequate  force,  he  would  never  con- 
sent to  risk  his  own  glory  and  that  of  his  sovereign.  Justin- 
ian granted  to  the  favorite  what  he  might  have  denied  to  the 
hero :  the  Gothic  war  was  rekindled  from  its  ashes,  and  the 
preparations  were  not  unworthy  of  the  ancient  majesty  of  the 
empire.  The  key  of  the  public  treasure  was  put  into  his 
hand  to  collect  magazines,  to  levy  soldiers,  to  purchase  arms 
and  horses,  to  discharge  the  arrears  of  pay,  and  to  tempt  the 
fidelity  of  the  fugitives  and  deserters.  The  troops  of  Ger- 
man us  were  still  in  arms ;  they  halted  at  Salona  in  the  expec- 
tation of  a  new  leader,  and  legions  of  subjects  and  allies  were 
created  by  the  well-known  liberality  of  the  eunuch  Narses. 
The  kiug  of  the  Lombards31  satisfied  or  surpassed  the  obliga- 
tions of  a  treaty,  by  lending  two  thousand  two  hundred  of  his 
bravest  warriors,3,  who  were  followed  by  three  thousand  of 
their  martial  attendants.     Three  thousand  Heruli  fought  on 


larian  bridge  he  is  entitled  Ex-consul,  Ex-praepositus,  Cubiculi  Patricius  (Mas- 
cou,  Hist,  of  the  Germans,  1.  xiii.  ch.  25).  The  law  of  Theodosius  against  eunuchs 
was  obsolete  or  abolished  (Annotation  xx.),  but  the  foolish  prophecy  of  the  Ro- 
mans subsisted  in  full  vigor  (Procop.  1.  iv.  c.  21  [torn.  ii.  p.  571,  edit.  Bonn]). 

31  Paul  Warnefrid,  the  Lombard,  records  with  complacency  the  succor,  service, 
and  honorable  dimissions  of  his  countrymen — Romanse  reipublicse  adversum  iemu- 
los  adjutores  fuerunt  (1.  ii.c.  i.  p.  774,  edit.  Grot.).  I  am  surprised  that  Alboin, 
their  martial  king,  did  not  lead  his  subjects  in  person.6 


a  Gibbon  has  blindly  followed  the  translation  of  Maltretus:  Bis  mille  ducen- 
tos — while  the  original  Greek  says  expressly  irevraKomovc  rt  Kai  Sia\CKiovQ,  2500 
(Goth.  lib.  iv.  c.  26).  In  like  manner  he  draws  volunteers  from  Germany,  on  the 
authority  of  Cousin,  who  in  one  place  has  mistaken  Germanus  for  Germ  an  ia. 
Yet  only  a  few  pages  further  (note  39)  we  find  Gibbon  loudly  condemning  the 
French  and  Latin  readers  of  Procopius.  Lord  Mahon,  p.  392.  The  first  of  these 
errors  remains  uncorrected  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Byzantines. — M. 

b  The  Lombards  were  still  at  war  with  the  Gepida;."  See  Procop.  Goth.  lib.  iy. 
p.  25.— M, 


A..D.  552.]  EXPEDITION  OF  NARSES.  395 

horseback  under  Pliilemuth,  their  native  chief;  and  the  noble 
Aratus,  who  adopted  the  manners  and  discipline  of  Rome, 
conducted  a  band  of  veterans  of  the  same  nation.  Dagis- 
theus  was  released  from  prison  to  command  the  Huns ;  and 
Kobad,  the  grandson  and  nephew  of  the  Great  King,  was  con- 
spicuous by  the  regal  tiara  at  the  head  of  his  faithful  Per- 
sians, who  had  devoted  themselves  to  the  fortunes  of  their 
prince.32  Absolute  in  the  exercise  of  his  authority,  more  ab- 
solute in  the  affection  of  his  troops,  Narses  led  a  numerous 
and  gallant  army  from  Philippopolis  to  Salona,  from  whence 
he  coasted  the  eastern  side  of  the  Adriatic  as  far  as  the  con- 
fines of  Italy.  His  progress  was  checked.  The  East  could 
not  supply  vessels  capable  of  transporting  such  multitudes  of 
men  and  horses.  The  Franks,  who  in  the  general  confusion 
had  usurped  the  greater  part  of  the  Venetian  province,  re- 
fused a  free  passage  to  the  friends  of  the  Lombards.  The 
station  of  Yerona  was  occupied  by  Teias  with  the  flower  of 
the  Gothic  forces ;  and  that  skilful  commander  had  over- 
spread the  adjacent  country  with  the  fall  of  woods  and  the 
inundation  of  waters.33  In  this  perplexity  an  officer  of  expe- 
rience proposed  a  measure,  secure  by  the  appearance  of  rash- 
ness, that  the  Roman  army  should  cautiously  advance  along 
the  sea-shore,  while  the  fleet  preceded  their  march,  and  suc- 
cessively cast  a  bridge  of  boats  over  the  mouths  of  the  rivers — • 
the  Timavus,the  Brenta,  the  Adige,and  the  Po — that  fall  into 
the  Adriatic  to  the  north  of  Ravenna.  Nine  days  he  reposed 
in  the  city,  collected  the  fragments  of  the  Italian  army,  and 
inarched  towards  Rimini  to  meet  the  defiance  of  an  insulting 
enemy. 

The  prudence  of  Narses  impelled  him  to  speedy  and  de- 

32  He  was,  if  not  an  impostor,  the  son  of  the  blind  Zames,  saved  by  compassion 
and  educated  in  the  Byzantine  court  by  the  various  motives  of  policy,  pride,  and 
generosity  (Procop.  Persic.  1.  i.  c.  23  [torn.  i.  p.  115,  edit.  Bonn]). 

33  In  the  time  of  Augustus  and  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  whole  waste  from 
Aquileia  to  Ravenna  was  covered  with  woods,  lakes,  and  morasses.  Man  has 
subdued  nature,  and  the  land  has  been  cultivated,  since  the  waters  are  confined 
and  embanked.  See  the  learned  researches  of  Muratori  (Antiquitat.  Italian  Medii 
iEvi,  torn.  i.  dissert,  xxi.  p.  253,  254),  from  Vitruvius,  Strabo,  Herodian,  old  char* 
ters,  and  local  knowledge. 


396  DEFEAT  AND  DEATH  OF  TOTILA.  [Ch.  XL1II. 

cisive  action.     His  powers  were  the  last  effort  of  the  State ; 
the  cost  of  each  day  accumulated  the  enormous  ac- 

Defeat  and  »  .  .      . 

death  of        count,  and  the  nations,  untrained  to  discipline  or 

Totila.  ^ 

A.n.553,  fatigue,  might  be  rashly  provoked  to  turn  their 
arms  against  each  other,  or  against  their  benefactor. 
The  same  considerations  might  have  tempered  the  ardor  of 
Totila.  But  he  was  conscious  that  the  clergy  and  people  of 
Italy  aspired  to  a  second  revolution  :  he  felt  or  suspected  the 
rapid  progress  of  treason,  and  he  resolved  to  risk  the  Gothic 
kingdom  on  the  chance  of  a  day,  in  which  the  valiant  would 
be  animated  by  instant  danger,  and  the  disaffected  might  be 
awed  by  mutual  ignorance.  In  his  march  from  Ravenna  the 
Roman  general  chastised  the  garrison  of  Rimini,  traversed  in 
a  direct  line  the  hills  of  Urbino,  and  re-entered  the  Flaminian 
Way,  nine  miles  beyond  the  perforated  rock,  an  obstacle  of 
art  and  nature  which  might  have  stopped  or  retarded  his 
progress.34  The  Goths  were  assembled  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Rome,  they  advanced  without  delay  to  seek  a  superior  ene- 
my, and  the  two  armies  approached  each  other  at  the  distance 
of  one  hundred  furlongs,  between  Tagina85  and  the  sepulchres 
of  the  Gauls.36     The  haughty  message  of  Narses  was  an  offer 

34  The  Flaminian  Way,  as  it  is  corrected  from  the  Itineraries,  and  the  best 
modern  maps,  by  D'Anville  (Analyse  de  l'ltalie,  p.  147-162),  may  be  thus  stated: 
Rome  to  Narni,  51  Roman  miles ;  Terni,  57 ;  Spoleto,  75  ;  Foligno,  88 ;  Nocera, 
103;  Cagli,  142;  Intercisa,  157;  Fossombrone,  160;  Fano,  176;  Pesaro,  184; 
Rimini,  208— about  189  English  miles.  He  takes  no  notice  of  the  death  of  To- 
tila, but  Wesseling  (Itinerar.  p.  614)  exchanges,  for  the  field  of  Taginas,  the  un- 
known appellation  of  Ptanias,  eight  miles  from  Nocera. 

35  Taginse,  or  rather  Tadinse,  is  mentioned  by  Pliny  [iii.  19] ;  but  the  bishop- 
ric of  that  obscure  town,  a  mile  from  Gualdo,  in  the  plain,  was  united,  in  the  year 
1007,  with  that  of  Nocera.  The  signs  of  antiquity  are  preserved  in  the  local  ap- 
pellations, Fossato,  the  camp;  Capraia,  Caprea ;  JBastia,  Busta  Gallorum.  Sea 
Cluverius  (Italia  Antiqua,  1.  ii.  c.  6,  p.  615,  616,  617),  Lucas  Holstenius  (Annotat. 
ad  Cluver.  p.  85,  86),  Guazzesi  (Dissertat.  p.  177-217,  a  professed  inquiry),  and 
the  maps  of  the  ecclesiastical  state  and  the  march  of  Ancona,  by  Le  Maire  and 
Magini. 

36  The  battle  was  fought  in  the  year  of  Rome  458 ;  and  the  consul  Decius,  by 
devoting  his  own  life,  assured  the  triumph  of  his  country  and  his  colleague  Fabius 
T.  Liv.  x.  28,  29).  Procopius  ascribes  to  Camillas  the  victory  of  the  Busta  Gal- 
lorum [torn.  ii.  p.  610,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  and  his  error  is  branded  by  Cluverius  with  the 
national  reproach  of  "  Grsecorum  nugamenta." 


a.d.552.]      DEFEAT  AND  DEATH  OF  TOTILA.         397 

not  of  peace,  but  of  pardon.  The  answer  of  the  Gothic  king 
declared  his  resolution  to  die  or  conquer.  "  What  day,"  said 
the  messenger,  "  will  you  fix  for  the  combat?"  "  The  eighth 
day,"  replied  Totila ;  but  early  the  next  morning  he  attempt- 
ed to  surprise  a  foe  suspicious  of  deceit  and  prepared  for  bat- 
tle. Ten  thousand  Heruli  and  Lombards,  of  approved  valor 
and  doubtful  faith,  were  placed  in  the  centre.  Each  of  the 
wings  was  composed  of  eight  thousand  Romans ;  the  right 
was  guarded  by  the  cavalry  of  the  Huns,  the  left  was  covered 
by  fifteen  hundred  chosen  horse,  destined,  according  to  the 
emergencies  of  action,  to  sustain  the  retreat  of  their  friends, 
or  to  encompass  the  flank  of  the  enemy.  From  his  proper 
station  at  the  head  of  the  right  wing,  the  eunuch  rode  along 
the  line,  expressing  by  his  voice  and  countenance  the  assur- 
ance of  victory,  exciting  the  soldiers  of  the  emperor  to  pun- 
ish the  guilt  and  madness  of  a  band  of  robbers,  and  exposing 
to  their  view  gold  chains,  collars,  and  bracelets,  the  rewards 
of  military  virtue.  From  the  event  of  a  single  combat  they 
drew  an  omen  of  success;  and  they  beheld  with  pleasure  the 
courage  of  fifty  archers,  who  maintained  a  small  eminence 
against  three  successive  attacks  of  the  Gothic  cavalry.  At 
the  distance  only  of  two  bow-shots  the  armies  spent  the  morn- 
ing in  dreadful  suspense,  and  the  Romans  tasted  some  neces- 
sary food,  without  unloosening  the  cuirass  from  their  breast  or 
the  bridle  from  their  horses.  Karses  awaited  the  charge ;  and 
it  was  delayed  by  Totila  till  he  had  received  his  last  succors  of 
two  thousand  Goths.  While  he  consumed  the  hours  in  fruit- 
less treaty,  the  king  exhibited  in  a  narrow  space  the  strength 
and  agility  of  a  warrior.  His  armor  was  enchased  with  gold ; 
his  purple  banner  floated  with  the  wind :  he  cast  his  lance 
into  the  air,  caught  it  with  the  right  hand,  shifted  it  to  the 
left,  threw  himself  backward,  recovered  his  seat,  and  managed 
a  fiery  steed  in  all  the  paces  and  evolutions  of  the  equestrian 
school.  As  soon  as  the  succors  had  arrived,  he  retired  to  his 
tent,  assumed  the  dress  and  arms  of  a  private  soldier,  and 
gave  the  signal  of  battle.  The  first  line  of  cavalry  advanced 
with  more  courage  than  discretion,  and  left  behind  them  the 
infantry  of  the  second  line.      They  were  soon  engaged  be- 


898  CONQUEST  OF  SOME  BY  NARSES.  [Ch.  XLIII 

tween  the  horns  of  a  crescent,  into  which  the  adverse  wings 
had  been  insensibly  curved,  and  were  saluted  from  either  side 
by  the  volleys  of  four  thousand  archers.  Their  ardor,  and 
even  their  distress,  drove  them  forwards  to  a  close  and  une- 
qual conflict,  in  which  they  could  only  use  their  lances  against 
an  enemy  equally  skilled  in  all  the  instruments  of  war.  A 
generous  emulation  inspired  the  Komans  and  their  barbarian 
allies ;  and  JSTarses,  who  calmly  viewed  and  directed  their  ef- 
forts, doubted  to  whom  he  should  adjudge  the  prize  of  supe- 
rior bravery.  The  Gothic  cavalry  was  astonished  and  disor- 
dered, pressed  and  broken ;  and  the  line  of  infantry,  instead 
of  presenting  their  spears  or  opening  their  intervals,  were 
trampled  under  the  feet  of  the  flying  horse.  Six  thousand 
of  the  Goths  were  slaughtered  without  mercy  in  the  field  of 
Tagina.  Their  prince,  with  five  attendants,  was  overtaken 
by  Asbad,  of  the  race  of  the  Gepidse :  "  Spare  the  King  of 
Italy  !"a  cried  a  loyal  voice,  and  Asbad  struck  his  lance  through 
the  body  of  Totila.  The  blow  was  instantly  revenged  by  the 
faithful  Goths :  they  transported  their  dying  monarch  seven 
miles  beyond  the  scene  of  his  disgrace,  and  his  last  moments 
were  not  embittered  by  the  presence  of  an  enemy.  Compas- 
sion afforded  him  the  shelter  of  an  obscure  tomb;  but  the 
Romans  were  not  satisfied  of  their  victory  till  they  beheld 
the  corpse  of  the  Gothic  king.  His  hat,  enriched  with  gems, 
and  his  bloody  robe,  were  presented  to  Justinian  by  the  mes- 
sengers of  triumph.37 

As  soon  as  Karses  had  paid  his  devotions  to  the  Author 

of  victory  and  the  blessed  Virgin,  his  peculiar  patroness,38 

he  praised,  rewarded,  and  dismissed  the  Lombards. 

Conquest  of  -it  1       i    i 

Komeby        The  villages  had  been  reduced  to  ashes  by  these 

valiant  savages :  they  ravished  matrons  and  virgins 

on  the  altar ;  their  retreat  was  diligently  watched  by  a  strong 

37  Theophanes,  Chron.  p.  193  [torn.  i.  p.  354,  edit.  Bonn].     Hist.  Miscell.  1.  xvi. 
p.  108. 

38  Evagrius,  1.  iv.  c.  24.     The  inspiration  of  the  Virgin  revealed  to  Narses  the 
day,  and  the  word,  of  battle  (Paul  Diacon.  1.  ii.  c.  3,  p.  77(J). 


a  "  Dog,  wilt  thou  strike  thy  lord  ?"  was  the  more  characteristic  exclamation  of 
the  Gothic  youth.     Frocop.  lib.  iv.  c.  32.— M. 


A.D.552.]  CONQUEST  OF  EOME  BY  NAKSES.  399 

detachment  of  regular  forces,  who  prevented  a  repetition  of 
the  like  disorders.  The  victorious  eunuch  pursued  his  march 
through  Tuscany,  accepted  the  submission  of  the  Goths,  heard 
the  acclamations  and  often  the  complaints  of  the  Italians,  and 
encompassed  the  walls  of  Rome  with  the  remainder  of  his 
formidable  host.  Round  the  wide  circumference  Narses  as- 
signed to  himself  and  to  each  of  his  lieutenants  a  real  or  a 
feigned  attack,  while  he  silently  marked  the  place  of  easy 
and  unguarded  entrance.  Neither  the  fortifications  of  Ha- 
drian's mole  nor  of  the  port  could  long  delay  the  progress  of 
the  conqueror ;  and  Justinian  once  more  received  the  keys  of 
Rome,  which,  under  his  reign,  had  been  five  times  taken  and 
recovered.39  But  the  deliverance  of  Rome  was  the  last  ca- 
lamity of  the  Roman  people.  The  barbarian  allies  of  JSTarses 
too  frequently  confounded  the  privileges  of  peace  and  war. 
The  despair  of  the  flying  Goths  found  some  consolation  in 
sanguinary  revenge ;  and  three  hundred  youths  of  the  noblest 
families,  who  had  been  sent  as  hostages  beyond  the  Po,  were 
inhumanly  slain  by  the  successor  of  Totila.  The  fate  of  the 
senate  suggests  an  awful  lesson  of  the  vicissitude  of  human 
affairs.  Of  the  senators  whom  Totila  had  banished  from 
their  country,  some  were  rescued  by  an  officer  of  Belisarius 
and  transported  from  Campania  to  Sicily,  while  others  were 
too  guilty  to  confide  in  the  clemency  of  Justinian,  or  too  poor 
to  provide  horses  for  their  escape  to  the  sea-shore.  Their 
brethren  languished  five  years  in  a  state  of  indigence  and  ex- 
ile :  the  victory  of  Parses  revived  their  hopes ;  but  their  pre- 
mature return  to  the  metropolis  was  prevented  by  the  furious 
Goths,  and  all  the  fortresses  of  Campania  were  stained  with 
Patrician40  blood.     After  a  period  of  thirteen  centuries  the 

89  'Etti  tovtov  fiamXtvovTog  to  TthjiTrrov  ka\u).  [Procop.  Goth.  lib.  iv.  c.  33 ; 
torn.  ii.  p.  632,  edit.  Bonn.]  In  the  year  536  by  Belisarius,  in  5-16  by  Totila,  in 
547  by  Belisarius,  in  549  by  Totila,  and  in  552  by  Narses.  Maltretus  had  in- 
advertently translated  sextum ;  a  mistake  which  he  afterwards  retracts :  but  the 
mischief  was  done ;  and  Cousin,  with  a  train  of  French  and  Latin  readers,  has 
fallen  into  the  snare. 

40  Compare  two  passages  of  Procopius  (1.  iii.  c.  26 ;  1.  iv.  c.  34  [torn.  ii.  p.  389, 
633,  edit.  Bonn]),  which,  with  some  collateral  hints  from  Marcellinus  and  Jor« 
nandes,  illustrate  the  state  of  the  expiring  senate. 


400  DEFEAT  AND  DEATH  OF  TEIAS,  [Ch.  XLIH. 

institution  of  Romulus  expired ;  and  if  the  nobles  of  Rome 
still  assumed  the  title  of  senators,  few  subsequent  traces  can 
be  discovered  of  a  public  council  or  constitutional  order.  As- 
cend six  hundred  years,  and  contemplate  the  kings  of.  the 
earth  soliciting  an  audience,  as  the  slaves  or  freedmen  of  the 
Roman  senate  !41 

The  Gothic  war  was  jet  alive.     The  bravest  of  the  nation. 

retired  beyond  the  Po,  and  Teias  was  unanimously  chosen  to 

succeed   and  revenge   their  departed   hero.     The 

Defeat  and  ...  , .  &  ,  r  ,  , 

death  of  new  king  immediately  sent  ambassadors  to  nn- 
thStoing  °f  P^ore>  or  rather  to  purchase,  the  aid  of  the  Franks, 
a.i>.553>  and  nobly  lavished  for  the  public  safety  the  riches 
which  had  been  deposited  in  the  palace  of  Pavia. 
The  residue  of  the  royal  treasure  was  guarded  by  his  brother 
Aligern,  at  Cumae,  in  Campania ;  but  the  strong  castle  which 
Totila  had  fortified  was  closely  besieged  by  the  arms  of  Nar- 
ses.  From  the  Alps  to  the  foot  of  Mount  Yesuvius,  the 
Gothic  king,  by  rapid  and  secret  marches,  advanced  to  the 
relief  of  his  brother,  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the  Roman 
chiefs,  and  pitched  his  camp  on  the  banks  of  the  Sarnus  or 
Draco,42  which  flows  from  Nuceria  into  the  Bay  of  Naples. 
The  river  separated  the  two  armies;  sixty  days  were  con- 
sumed in  distant  and  fruitless  combats,  and  Teias  maintained 
this  important  post  till  he  was  deserted  by  his  fleet  and  the 
hope  of  subsistence.  With  reluctant  steps  he  ascended  the 
Lactarian  mount,  where  the  physicians  of  Rome  since  the 
time  of  Galen  had  sent  their  patients  for  the  benefit  of  the 
air  and  the  milk/3     But  the  Goths  soon  embraced  a  more 

41  See,  in  the  example  of  Prnsias,  as  it  is  delivered  in  the  fragments  of  Polybius 
(Excerpt.  Legat.  xcvii.  p.  927,  928),  a  curious  picture  of  a  royal  slave. 

42  The  Ap&Kwv  of  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  35)  is  evidently  the  Sarnus.  The 
text  is  accused  or  altered  by  the  rash  violence  of  Cluverius  (I.  iv.  c.  3,  p.  1156) : 
but  Camillo  Pellegrini  of  Naples  (Discorsi  sopra  la  Campania  Felice,  p.  330,  331) 
lias  proved  from  old  records  that  as  early  as  the  year  822  that  river  was  called 
the  Dracontio,  or  Draconcello. 

43  Galen  (de  Method.  Medendi,  1.  v.  apud  Cluver. ;  1.  iv.  c.  3,  p.  1 159,  1160) 
describes  the  lofty  site,  pure  air,  and  rich  milk  of  Mount  Lactarius,  whose  me- 
dicinal benefits  were  equally  known  and  sought  in  the  time  of  Symmachas  (1.  vi. 
Epist.  18  [17?]),  and  Cassiodorus  (Var.  xL  10).  Nothing  is  now  left  except  the 
name  of  the  town  of  Lettere, 


; 


§1 


a.d.553.]  THE  LAST  KING  OF  THE  GOTHS.  401 

generous  resolution  —  to  descend  the  hill,  to  dismiss  their 
horses,  and  to  die  in  arms  and  in  the  possession  of  freedom. 
The  king  marched  at  their  head,  bearing  in  his  right  hand  a 
lance,  and  an  ample  buckler  in  his  left :  with  the  one  he 
struck  dead  the  foremost  of  the  assailants,  with  the  other  he 
received  the  weapons  which  every  hand  was  ambitious  to  aim 
against  his  life.  After  a  combat  of  many  hours,  his  left  arm 
was  fatigued  by  the  weight  of  twelve  javelins  which  hung 
from  his  shield.  "Without  moving  from  his  ground  or  sus- 
pending his  blows,  the  hero  called  aloud  on  his  attendants  for 
a  fresh  buckler,  but  in  the  moment  while  his  side  was  uncov- 
ered, it  was  pierced  by  a  mortal  dart.  He  fell ;  and  his  head, 
exalted  on  a  spear,  proclaimed  to  the  nations  that  the  Goth- 
ic kingdom  was  no  more.  But  the  example  of  his  death 
served  only  to  animate  the  companions  who  had  sworn  to 
perish  with  their  leader.  They  fought  till  darkness  descend- 
ed on  the  earth.  They  reposed  on  their  arms.  The  combat 
was  renewed  with  the  return  of  light,  and  maintained  with 
unabated  vigor  till  the  evening  of  the  second  day.  The  re- 
pose of  a  second  night,  the  want  of  water,  and  the  loss  of 
their  bravest  champions,  determined  the  surviving  Goths  to 
accept  the  fair  capitulation  which  the  prudence  of  Narses 
was  inclined  to  propose.  They  embraced  the  alternative  of 
residing  in  Italy  as  the  subjects  and  soldiers  of  Justinian,  or 
departing  with  a  portion  of  their  private  wealth  in  search  of 
some  independent  country/4  Yet  the  oath  of  fidelity  or  exile 
was  alike  rejected  by  one  thousand  Goths,  who  broke  away 
before  the  treaty  was  signed,  and  boldly  effected  their  retreat 
to  the  walls  of  Pavia.  The  spirit  as  well  as  the  situation  of 
Aligern  prompted  him  to  imitate  rather  than  to  bewail  his 
brother :  a  strong  and  dexterous  archer,  he  transpierced  with 
a  single  arrow  the  armor  and  breast  of  his  antagonist,  and  his 
military  conduct  defended  Cumae"  above  a  year  against  the 

44  Bunt  (torn.  xi.  p.  2,  etc.)  conveys  to  his  favorite  Bavaria  this  remnant  of 
Goths,  who  by  others  are  buried  in  the  mountains  of  Uri,  or  restored  to  their  na- 
tive isle  of  Gothland  (Mascou,  Annot.  xxi.). 

45  I  leave  Scaliger  (Animadvers.  in  Euseb.  p.  f>9)  and  Salmasins  (Exereitat. 
Plinian.  p.  51,  52)  to  quarrel  about  the  origin  of  Cutuas,  the  oldest  of  the  Greek 

IT.— 26 


402  INVASION  OF  ITALY  [Ch.  XLIIL 

forces  of  the  Romans.  Their  industry  had  scooped  the  Sibyl's 
cave48  into  a  prodigious  mine ;  combustible  materials  were  in- 
troduced to  consume  the  temporary  props :  the  wall  and  the 
gate  of  Cumee  sunk  into  the  cavern,  but  the  ruins  formed  a 
deep  and  inaccessible  precipice.  On  the  fragment  of  a  rock 
Aligern  stood  alone  and  unshaken,  till  he  calmly  surveyed 
the  hopeless  condition  of  his  country,  and  judged  it  more 
honorable  to  be  the  friend  of  Narses  than  the  slave  of  the 
Franks.  After  the  death  of  Teias  the  Roman  general  sepa- 
rated his  troops  to  reduce  the  cities  of  Italy  ;  Lucca  sustained 
a  long  and  vigorous  siege,  and  such  was  the  humanity  or  the 
prudence  of  JSTarses,  that  the  repeated  perfidy  of  the  inhab- 
itants could  not  provoke  him  to  exact  the  forfeit  lives  of 
their  hostages.  These  hostages  were  dismissed  in  safety,  and 
their  grateful  zeal  at  length  subdued  the  obstinacy  of  their 
countrymen.47 

Before  Lucca  had  surrendered,  Italy  was  overwhelmed  by 
a  new  deluge  of  barbarians.  A  feeble  youth,  the  grandson 
invasion  of  °f  Clovis,  reigned  over  the  Austrasians  or  Oriental 
Fnlnk/anl  Franks.  The  guardians  of  Theodebald  entertained 
f.u!553,m'  witn  coldness  and  reluctance  the  magnificent  prom- 
August  -ses  0-£  ^G  Q.0thic  ambassadors.  But  the  spirit  of 
a  martial  people  outstripped  the  timid  counsels  of  the  court : 
two  brothers,  Lothaire  and  Buccelin ,48  the  dukes  of  the  Ale- 


colonies  in  Italy  (Strab.  1.  v.  p.  372  [p.  243,  edit.  Casaub.]  ;  Velleius  Paterculus, 
1.  i.  c.  4),  already  vacant  in  Juvenal's  time  (Satir.  iii.  [v.  2]),  and  now  in  ruins. 

46  Agathias  (1.  i.  p.  21  [c.  10,  p.  34,  edit.  Bonn])  sertles  the  Sibyl's  cave  under 
the  wall  of  Cumse :  he  agrees  with  Serving  (ad  1.  vi.  iEneid.)  ;  nor  can  I  perceive 
why  their  opinion  should  be  rejected  by  Heyne,  the  excellent  editor  of  Virgil 
(torn.  ii.  p.  650,  651).  "In  urbe  media  secrera  religioi"  Eut  Cuma?  was  not 
yet  built ;  and  the  lines  (1.  vi.  96,  97)  would  become  ridiculous  if  iEneas  were 
actually  in  a  Greek  city. 

41  There  is  some  difficulty  in  connecting  the  thirty-fifth  chapter  of  the  fourth 
book  of  the  Gothic  War  of  Procopius  with  the  first  book  of  the  history  of  Aga- 
thias. We  must  now  relinquish  a  statesman  and  soldier,  to  attend  the  footsteps 
of  a  poet  and  rhetorician  (1.  i.  p.  11 ;  1.  ii.  p.  51,  edit.  Louvre). 

43  Among  the  fabulous  exploits  of  Buccelin,  lie  discomfited  and  slew  Belisari- 
us,  subdued  Italy  and  Sicily,  etc.  See  in  the  Historians  of  France,  Gregory  of 
Tours  (torn.  ii.  1.  iii.  ch.  32,  p.  201),  and  Aimoin  (torn.  iii.  1.  iL  de  Gestis  Franco* 
rum,  c.  23,  p.  69. 


A.D.  553.]  BY  THE  FRANKS  AND  ALEMANNI.  403 

manni,  stood  forth  as  the  leaders  of  the  Italian  war,  and  sev- 
enty-five thousand  Germans  descended  in  the  autumn  from 
the  Rhaetian  Alps  into  the  plain  of  Milan.  The  vanguard  of 
the  Roman  army  was  stationed  near  the  Po  under  the  con- 
duct of  Fulcaris,  a  bold  Herulian,  who  rashly  conceived  that 
personal  bravery  was  the  sole  duty  and  merit  of  a  command- 
er. As  he  marched  without  order  or  precaution  along  the 
^Emilian  Way,  an  ambuscade  of  Franks  suddenly  rose  from 
the  amphitheatre  of  Parma ;  his  troops  were  surprised  and 
routed,  but  their  leader  refused  to  fly,  declaring  to  the  last 
moment  that  death  was  less  terrible  than  the  angry  counte- 
nance of  Karses.a  The  death  of  Fulcaris,  and  the  retreat  of 
the  surviving  chiefs,  decided  the  fluctuating  and  rebellious 
temper  of  the  Goths ;  they  flew  to  the  standard  of  their  de- 
liverers, and  admitted  them  into  the  cities  which  still  resist- 
ed the  arms  of  the  Roman  general.  The  conqueror  of  Italy 
opened  a  free  passage  to  the  irresistible  torrent  of  barbarians. 
They  passed  under  the  walls  of  Cesena,  and  answered  by 
threats  and  reproaches  the  advice  of  Aligern,b  that  the  Goth- 
ic treasures  could  no  longer  repay  the  labor  of  an  invasion. 
Two  thousand  Franks  were  destroyed  by  the  skill  and  valor 
of  Narses  himself,  who  sallied  from  Rimini  at  the  head  of 
three  hundred  horse  to  chastise  the  licentious  rapine  of  their 
march.  On  the  confines  of  Samnium  the  two  brothers  di- 
vided their  forces.  "With  the  right  wing  Buccelin  assumed 
the  spoil  of  Campania,  Lueania,  and  Bruttium  ;  with  the  left, 
Lothaire  accepted  the  plunder  of  Apulia  and  Calabria.  They 
followed  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Adriatic  as 
far  as  Rhegium  and  Otranto,  and  the  extreme  lands  of  Italy 
were  the  term  of  their  destructive  progress.  The  Franks, 
I  who  were  Christians  and  Catholics,  contented  themselves  with 
simple  pillage  and  occasional  murder.  But  the  churches  which 
their  piety  had  spared  were  stripped  by  the  sacrilegious  hands 
of  the  Alemanni,  who  sacrificed  horses'  heads  to  their  native 


a  *  *  *  jjjy  y\u>TTav  ~Napoov  fitfKponivrjv  fioi  rfjg  afiovXias.  Agathias  [p.  45, 
edit.  Bonn].— M. 

b  Aligern,  after  the  surrender  of  Cumse,  had  been  sent  to  Cesena  by  Narses. 
Agathias  [p.  58,  edit.  Bonn]. — M. 


4:04:  DEFEAT  OF  THE  FRANKS  AND  ALEMANNI    [Ch.  XLIIL 

deities  of  the  woods  and  rivers  ;*"  they  melted  or  profaned  the 
consecrated  vessels,  and  the  ruins  of  shrines  and  altars  were 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  faithful.  Buccelin  was  actuated 
by  ambition,  and  Lothaire  by  avarice.  The  former  aspired  to 
restore  the  Gothic  kingdom ;  the  latter,  after  a  promise  to  his 
brother  of  speedy  succors,  returned  by  the  same  road  to  de- 
posit his  treasure  beyond  the  Alps.  The  strength  of  their 
armies  was  already  wasted  by  the  change  of  climate  and  con- 
tagion of  disease ;  the  Germans  revelled  in  the  vintage  of  It- 
aly, and  their  own  intemperance  avenged  in  some  degree  the 
miseries  of  a  defenceless  people.* 

At  the  entrance  of  the  spring  the  imperial  troops  who  had 
guarded  the  cities  assembled,  to  the  number  of  eighteen  thou- 
sand men,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Home.     Their 

Defeat  of  the         .  •,,-,,  ,    . 

Franks  and     winter  hours  had  not  been  consumed  in  idleness. 

Alemanni  by  -iici  ictv-t 

Narses.  By  the  command  and  alter  the  example  or  JNarses, 

they  repeated  each  day  their  military  exercise  on 
foot  and  on  horseback,  accustomed  their  ear  to  obey  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet,  and  practised  the  steps  and  evolutions 
of  the  Pyrrhic  dance.  From  the  straits  of  Sicily,  Buccelin, 
with  thirty  thousand  Franks  and  Alemanni,  slowly  moved  to- 
wards Capua,  occupied  with  a  wooden  tower  the  bridge  of 
Casilinum,  covered  his  right  by  the  stream  of  the  Vulturnus, 
and  secured  the  rest  of  his  encampment  by  a  rampart  of 
sharp  stakes,  and  a  circle  of  wagons  whose  wheels  were  bur- 
ied in  the  earth.  He  impatiently  expected  the  return  of  Lo- 
thaire ;  ignorant,  alas !  that  his  brother  could  never  return, 
and  that  the  chief  and  his  army  had  been  swept  away  by  a 
strange  disease60  on  the  banks  of  the  lake  Benacus,  between 


49  Agathias  notices  their  superstition  in  a  philosophic  tone  (1.  i.  p.  18  [c.  2 
seq.,  edit.  Bonn]).  At  Zag,  in  Switzerland,  idolatry  still  prevailed  in  the  yei 
613:  St.  Columban  and  St.  Gall  were  the  apostles  of  that  rude  country;  and  th 
latter  founded  a  hermitage,  which  has  swelled  into  an  ecclesiastical  principalis 
and  a  populous  city,  the  seat  of  freedom  and  commerce. 

60  See  the  death  of  Lothaire  in  Agathias  (1.  ii.  p.  38  [p.  70,  edit.  Bonn])  and 


" 


a  A  body  of  Lothaire's  troops  was  defeated  near  Fano ;  some  were  driven  down 
precipices  into  the  sea,  others  fled  to  the  camp :  many  prisoners  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  their  escape ;  and  the  barbarians  lost  most  of  their  booty  in  their 
precipitate  retreat.     Agathias. — M. 


a.d.  554.]  BY  NARSES.  405 

Trent  and  Verona.  The  banners  of  ISTarses  soon  approached 
the  Vulturnus,  and  the  eyes  of  Italy  were  anxiously  fixed  on 
the  event  of  this  final  contest.  Perhaps  the  talents  of  the 
Roman  general  were  most  conspicuous  in  the  calm  operations 
which  precede  the  tumult  of  a  battle.  His  skilful  movements 
intercepted  the  subsistence  of  the  barbarian,  deprived  him 
of  the  advantage  of  the  bridge  and  river,  and  in  the  choice 
of  the  ground  and  moment  of  action  reduced  him  to  comply 
with  the  inclination  of  his  enemy.  On  the  morning  of  the 
important  day,  when  the  ranks  were  already  formed,  a  ser- 
vant, for  some  trivial  fault,  was  killed  by  his  master,  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Heruli.  The  justice  or  passion  of  Parses 
was  awakened:  he  summoned  the  offender  to  his  presence, 
and  without  listening  to  his  excuses  gave  the  signal  to  the 
minister  of  death.  If  the  cruel  master  had  not  infringed  the 
laws  of  his  nation,  this  arbitrary  execution  was  not  less  un- 
just than  it  appears  to  have  been  imprudent.  The  Heruli 
felt  the  indignity ;  they  halted :  but  the  Roman  general,  with- 
out soothing  their  rage  or  expecting  their  resolution,  called 
aloud,  as  the  trumpets  sounded,  that,  unless  they  hastened  to 
occupy  their  place,  they  would  lose  the  honor  of  the  victory. 
His  troops  were  disposed"  in  a  long  front ;  the  cavalry  on 
the  wings ;  in  the  centre  the  heavy-armed  foot ;  the  archers 
and  slingers  in  the  rear.  The  Germans  advanced  in  a  sharp- 
pointed  column  of  the  form  of  a  triangle  or  solid  wedge. 
They  pierced  the  feeble  centre  of  Karses,  who  received  them 
with  a  smile  into  the  fatal  snare,  and  directed  his  wings  of 
cavalry  insensibly  to  wheel  on  their  flanks  and  encompass 
their  rear.  The  host  of  the  Franks  and  Alemanni  consisted 
of  infantry :  a  sword  and  buckler  hung  by  their  side,  and 
they  used  as  their  weapons  of  offence  a  weighty  hatchet  and 
a  hooked  javelin,  which  were  only  formidable  in  close  combat 

Paul  Warnefrid,  surnamed  Diaconus  (1.  ii.  c.  2,  p.  775).  The  Greek  makes  him 
rave  and  tear  his  flesh.     He  had  plundered  churches. 

61  Pere  Daniel  (Hist,  de  la  Milice  Francoise,  torn.  i.  p.  17-21)  has  exhibited  a 
fanciful  representation  of  this  battle,  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the  Chevalier 
Folard,  the  once  famous  editor  of  Polybius,  who  fashioned  to  his  own  habits  and 
opinions  all  the  military  operations  of  antiquity. 


40G  DEFEAT  OF  THE  FEANKS  AND  ALEMANNI.    tCH.  XLI1L 

or  at  a  short  distance.  The  flower  of  the  Roman  archers,  on 
horseback  and  in  complete  armor,  skirmished  without  peril 
round  this  immovable  phalanx,  supplied  by  active  speed  the 
deficiency  of  number,  and  aimed  their  arrows  against  a  crowd 
of  barbarians  who,  instead  of  a  cuirass  and  helmet,  were  cov- 
ered by  a  loose  garment  of  fur  or  linen.  They  paused,  they 
trembled,  their  ranks  were  confounded,  and  in  the  decisive 
moment  the  Heruli,  preferring  glory  to  revenge,  charged  with 
rapid  violence  the  head  of  the  column.  Their  leader  Sind- 
bal,  and  Aligern,  the  Gothic  prince,  deserved  the  prize  of  su- 
perior valor ;  and  their  example  incited  the  victorious  troops 
to  achieve  with  swords  and  spears  the  destruction  of  the  en- 
emy. Buccelin  and  the  greatest  part  of  his  army  perished  on 
the  field  of  battle,  in  the  waters  of  the  Vulturnus,  or  by  the 
hands  of  the  enraged  peasants ;  but  it  may  seem  incredible 
that  a  victory,62  whicli  no  more  than  five  of  the  Alemanni  sur- 
vived, could  be  purchased  with  the  loss  of  fourscore  Romans. 
Seven  thousand  Goths,  the  relics  of  the  war,  defended  the 
fortress  of  Campsa  till  the  ensuing  spring;  and  every  mes- 
senger of  ISTarses  announced  the  reduction  of  the  Italian  cit- 
ies, whose  names  were  corrupted  by  the  ignorance  or  vanity 
of  the  Greeks.63  After  the  battle  of  Casilinum  Karses  en- 
tered the  capital ;  the  arms  and  treasures  of  the  Goths,  the 
Franks,  and  the  Alemanni  were  displayed ;  his  soldiers,  with 
garlands  in  their  hands,  chanted  the  praises  of  the  con- 
queror; an 
a  triumph. 

After  a  reign  of  sixty  years  the  throne  of  the  Gothic  kings 
was  filled  by  the  exarchs  of  Ravenna,  the  representatives  ir 
peace  and  war  of  the  emperor  of  the  Romans.     Their  juris 
diction  was  soon  reduced  to  the  limits  of  a  narrow  province 

62  Agathias  (1.  ii.  p.  47  [p.  87,  edit.  Bonn])  has  produced  a  Greek  epigram  of 
six  lines  on  this  victory  of  Narses,  which  is  favorably  compared  to  the  battles  of 
Marathon  and  Platsea.a  The  chief  difference  is,  indeed,  in  their  consequences- 
trivial  in  the  former  instance,  so  permanent  and  glorious  in  the  latter. 

63  The  Beroia  and  Brincas  of  Theophanes  or  his  transcriber  (p.  201  [torn.  i.  p. 
367,  edit.  Bonn])  must  be  read  or  understood  Verona  and  Brixia. 


Not  in  the  epigram,  but  in  the  previous  observations. — M. 


A.D.  554-568.]  SETTLEMENT  OF  ITALY.  407 

but  Narses  himself,  the  first  and  most  powerful  of  the  ex* 

archs,  administered  above  fifteen  years  the  entire 

of  itaiy.         kingdom  of  Italy.    Like  Belisarius,  he  had  deserved 

£..».  554-508.         .      °  i.  -l  it  !  ! 

the  honors  of  envy,  calumny,  and  disgrace :  but  the 
favorite  eunuch  still  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Justinian ;  or 
the  leader  of  a  victorious  army  awed  and  repressed  the  in- 
gratitude of  a  timid  court.  Yet  it  was  not  by  weak  and  mis- 
chievous indulgence  that  Narses  secured  the  attachment  of 
his  troops.  Forgetful  of  the  past  and  regardless  of  the  fut- 
ure, they  abused  the  present  hour  of  prosperity  and  peace. 
The  cities  of  Italy  resounded  with  the  noise  of  drinking  and 
dancing:  the  spoils  of  victory  were  wasted  in  sensual  pleas- 
ures; and  nothing  (says  Agathias)  remained  unless  to  ex- 
change their  shields  and  helmets  for  the  soft  lute  and  the  ca- 
pacious hogshead.54  In  a  manly  oration,  not  unworthy  of  a 
Roman  censor,  the  eunuch  reproved  these  disorderly  vices, 
which  sullied  their  fame  and  endangered  their  safety.  The 
6oldiers  blushed,  and  obeyed ;  discipline  was  confirmed ;  the 
fortifications  were  restored ;  a  duke  was  stationed  for  the  de- 
fence and  military  command  of  each  of  the  principal  cities  ;" 
and  the  eye  of  Narses  pervaded  the  ample  prospect  from  Ca- 
labria to  the  Alps.  The  remains  of  the  Gothic  nation  evacu- 
ated the  country  or  mingled  with  the  people :  the  Franks,  in- 
stead of  revenging  the  death  of  Buccelin,  abandoned,  without 
a  struggle,  their  Italian  conquests;  and  the  rebellious  Sindbal, 
chief  of  the  Heruli,  was  subdued,  taken,  and  hung  on  a  lofty 
gallows,  by  the  inflexible  justice  of  the  exarch.66     The  civil 


64  *E\i'nr£TO  yap,  olfiai,  avrdlg  virb  d€e\Tepiag  Tag  aairtSag  rw^ov  Kai  ra  icpav)] 
dfKpoptwg  o'lvov  i]  Kai  fiaptirov  airoS6a8ai  (Agathias,  1.  ii.  [c.  11]  p.  48  [p.  88,  edit. 
Bonn]).  In  the  first  scene  of  Richard  III.  our  English  poet  has  beautifully  en- 
larged on  this  idea,  for  which,  however,  he  was  not  indebted  to  the  Byzantine 
historian. 

55  Maffei  has  proved  (Verona  Illustrata,  pt.  i.  1.  x.  p.  257,  289),  against  the  com- 
mon opinion,  that  the  dukes  of  Italy  were  instituted  before  the  conquest  of  the 
Lombards,  by  Narses  himself.  In  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  (No.  23)  Justinian  re- 
strains the  judices  militares. 

B6  See  Paulus  Diaconus,  1.  iii.  c.  3,  p.  776.  Menander  (in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  133 
(p.  345,  edit.  Bonn])  mentions  some  risings  in  Italy  by  the  Franks,  and  Theopha- 
nes(p.  201  [torn.  i.  p.  367,  edit.  Bonn])  hints  at  some  Gothic  rebellions. 


408  SETTLEMENT  OF  ITALY.  [Ch-XLIIL 

state  of  Italy,  after  the  agitation  of  a  long  tempest,  was  fixed 
by  a  pragmatic  sanction,  which  the  emperor  promulgated  at 
the  request  of  the  pope.  Justinian  introduced  his  own  juris- 
prudence into  the  schools  and  tribunals  of  the  "West :  he  rati- 
fied the  acts  of  Theodoric  and  his  immediate  successors,  but 
every  deed  was  rescinded  and  abolished  which  force  had  ex- 
torted or  fear  had  subscribed  under  the  usurpation  of  Totila. 
A  moderate  theory  was  framed  to  reconcile  the  rights  of 
property  with  the  safety  of  prescription,  the  claims  of  the 
State  with  the  poverty  of  the  people,  and  the  pardon  of  of- 
fences with  the  interest  of  virtue  and  order  of  society.  Un- 
der the  exarchs  of  Ravenna,  Rome  was  degraded  to  the  sec- 
ond rank.  Yet  the  senators  were  gratified  by  the  permission 
of  visiting  their  estates  in  Italy,  and  of  approaching  with- 
out obstacle  the  throne  of  Constantinople :  the  regulation  of 
weights  and  measures  was  delegated  to  the  pope  and  senate ; 
and  the  salaries  of  lawyers  and  physicians,  of  orators  and 
grammarians,  were  destined  to  preserve  or  rekindle  the  light 
of  science  in  the  ancient  capital.  Justinian  might  dictate 
benevolent  edicts,"  and  Narses  might  second  his  wishes  by 
the  restoration  of  cities,  and  more  especially  of  churches.  But 
the  power  of  kings  is  most  effectual  to  destroy:  and  the 
twenty  years  of  the  Gothic  war  had  consummated  the  dis- 
tress and  depopulation  of  Italy.  As  early  as  the  fourth  cam« 
paign,  under  the  discipline  of  Belisarius  himself,  fifty  thou- 
sand laborers  died  of  hunger68  in  the  narrow  region  of  Pice- 


67  The  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Justinian,  which  restores  and  regulates  the  civil 
state  of  Italy,  consists  of  twenty-seven  articles  :  it  is  dated  August  15,  a.d.  554  ; 
is  addressed  to  Narses,  V.  J.  Prajpositus  Sacri  Cubiculi,  and  to  Antiochus  Pras- 
fectus  Prsetorio  Italia? ;  and  has  been  preserved  by  Julian  Antecessor,  and  in  the 
Corpus  Juris  Civilis,  after  the  novels  and  edicts  of  Justinian,  Justin,  and  Tiberius. 

68  A  still  greater  number  was  consumed  by  famine  in  the  southern  provinces, 
without  (Jktoq)  the  Ionian  Gulf.  Acorns  were  used  in  the  place  of  bread.  Pro- 
copius  had  seen  a  deserted  orphan  suckled  by  a  she-goat  [Goth.  ii.  c.  17].  Seven- 
teen passengers  were  lodged,  murdered,  and  eaten  by  two  women,  who  were  de- 
tected and  slain  by  the  eighteenth,  etc.* 


»  Denina  considers  that  greater  evil  was  inflicted  upon  Italy  by  the  Grecian  re 
conquest  than  by  any  other  invasion.     Revoluz.  d'ltalia,  t.  i.  1.  v.  p.  247. — M, 


A.D.559.]  INVASION  OF  THE  BULGARIANS.  409 

num;M  and  a  strict  interpretation  of  the  evidence  of  Procopius 
would  swell  the  loss  of  Italy  above  the  total  sum  of  her  pres- 
ent inhabitants.80 

I  desire  to  believe,  but  I  dare  not  affirm,  that  Belisarius 
sincerely  rejoiced  in  the  triumph  of  Narses.  Yet  the  con- 
invasion  sciousness  of  his  own  exploits  might  teach  him  to 
garland"1*  esteem,  without  jealousy,  the  merit  of  a  rival ;  and 
A.D.559.  ^e  rep0se  0f  the  aged  warrior  was  crowned  by  a 
last  victory,  which  saved  the  emperor  and  the  capital.  The 
barbarians,  who  annually  visited  the  provinces  of  Europe, 
were  less  discouraged  by  some  accidental  defeats  than  they 
were  excited  by  the  double  hope  of  spoil  and  of  subsidy.  .  In 
the  thirty-second  winter  of  Justinian's  reign  the  Danube  was 
deeply  frozen  ;  Zabergan  led  the  cavalry  of  the  Bulgarians, 
and  his  standard  was  followed  by  a  promiscuous  multitude  of 
Sclavonians.  The  savage  chief  passed,  without  opposition, 
the  river  and  the  mountains,  spread  his  troops  over  Macedo- 
nia and  Thrace,  and  advanced  with  no  more  than  seven  thou- 
sand horse  to  the  long  walls  which  should  have  defended  the 
territory  of  Constantinople.  But  the  works  of  man  are  im- 
potent against  the  assaults  of  nature :  a  recent  earthquake 
had  shaken  the  foundations  of  the  walls ;  and  the  forces  of 
the  empire  were  employed  on  the  distant  frontiers  of  Italy, 
Africa,  and  Persia.  The  seven  schools*1  or  companies,  of  the 
guards  or  domestic  troops  had  been  augmented  to  the  num- 
ber of  five  thousand  five  hundred  men,  whose  ordinary  sta- 
tion was  in  the  peaceful  cities  of  Asia.  But  the  places  of  the 
brave  Armenians  were  insensibly  supplied  by  lazy  citizens, 


59  Quinta  regio  Piceni  est ;  quondam  uberrima?  multitudinis.  ccclx  millia  Picen- 
tium  in  fidem  P.  R.  venere(Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  iii.  18).  In  the  time  of  Vespasian 
this  ancient  population  was  already  diminished. 

60  Perhaps  fifteen  or  sixteen  millions.  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  18)  computes  that 
Africa  lost  five  millions,  that  Italy  was  thrice  as  extensive,  and  that  the  depopula- 
tion was  in  a  larger  proportion.  But  his  reckoning  is  inflamed  by  passion  and 
clouded  with  uncertainty. 

61  In  the  decay  of  these  military  schools,  the  satire  of  Procopius  (Anecdot.  c.  24 
[torn.  iii.  p.  135,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Aleman.  p.  102, 103)  is  confirmed  and  illustrated  by 
Agathias  (1.  v.  p.  159  [p.  310,  edit.  Bonn]),  who  cannot  be  rejected  as  a  hostile 
witness. 


MO  LAST  VICTORY  OF  BELISARIUS.  [Ch.  XLIIL 

who  purchased  an  exemption  from  the  duties  of  civil  life 
without  being  exposed  to  the  dangers  of  military  service.  Of 
such  soldiers  few  could  be  tempted  to  sally  from  the  gates ; 
and  none  could  be  persuaded  to  remain  in  the  field,  unless 
they  wanted  strength  and  speed  to  escape  from  the  Bulga- 
rians. The  report  of  the  fugitives  exaggerated  the  numbers 
and  fierceness  of  an  enemy  who  had  polluted  holy  virgins 
and  abandoned  new-born  infants  to  the  dogs  and  vultures  ;  a 
crowd  of  rustics,  imploring  food  and  protection,  increased  the 
consternation  of  the  city  ;  and  the  tents  of  Zabergan  were 
pitched  at  the  distance  of  twenty  miles,63  on  the  banks  of  a 
small  river  which  encircles  Melanthias  and  afterwards  falls 
into  the  Propontis.83  Justinian  trembled :  and  those  who 
had  only  seen  the  emperor  in  his  old  age  were  pleased  to  sup- 
pose that  he  had  lost  the  alacrity  and  vigor  of  his  youth.  By 
his  command  the  vessels  of  gold  and  silver  were  removed 
from  the  churches  in  the  neighborhood,  and  even  the  suburbs, 
of  Constantinople  :  the  ramparts  were  lined  with  trembling 
spectators ;  the  golden  gate  was  crowded  with  useless  gener- 
als and  tribunes;  and  the  senate  shared  the  fatigues  and  the 
apprehensions  of  the  populace. 

But  the  eyes  of  the  prince  and  people  were  directed  to  a 
feeble  veteran,  who  was  compelled  by  the  public  danger  to 
Last  victory  resume  the  armor  in  which  he  had  entered  Car- 
of  Beiisaiins.  thage  and  defended  Borne.  The  horses  of  the  royal 
stables  of  private  citizens,  and  even  of  the  circus,  were  hasti- 
ly collected ;  the  emulation  of  the  old  and  young  was  roused 
by  the  name  of  Belisarius,  and  his  first  encampment  was  in 
the  presence  of  a  victorious  enemy.     His  prudence,  and  the 

6S  The  distance  from  Constantinople  to  Melanthias,  Villa  Csesaviana  (Ammian. 
Marcellin.  xxxi.  11),  is  variously  fixed  at  120  or  140  stadia  (Suidas,  torn.  ii.  p. 
522,  523  ;  Agathias,  1.  v.  [c.  14]  p.  158  [p.  308,  edit.  Bonn]),  or  eighteen  or  nine- 
teen miles  (Itineraria.p.  138,  230,  323,  332,  and  Wesseling's  Observations).  The 
first  twelve  miles,  as  far  as  Rhegium,  were  paved  by  Justinian,  who  built  a 
bridge  over  a  morass  or  gullet  between  a  lake  and  the  sea  (Procop.  de  ^Edif. 
1.  iv.  c.  8). 

63  The  Atyras  (Pompon.  Mela,  1.  ii.  c.  2,  p.  169,  edit.Voss.)  At  the  river's 
mouth  a  town  or  castle  of  the  same  name  was  fortified  by  Justinian  (Procop.  da 
ffidif.  1.  iv.  c.  2 ;  Itinerar.  p.  570 ;  and  Wesseling). 


A.D.  559.]  LAST  VICTORY  OF  BELISARIUS.  411 

labor  of  the  friendly  peasants,  secured,  with  a  ditch  and  ram- 
part, the  repose  of  the  night ;  innumerable  fires  and  clouds 
of  dust  were  artfully  contrived  to  magnify  the  opinion  of  his 
strength ;  his  soldiers  suddenly  passed  from  despondency  to 
presumption ;  and,  while  ten  thousand  voices  demanded  the 
battle,  Belisarius  dissembled  his  knowledge  that  in  the  hour 
of  trial  he  must  depend  on  the  firmness  of  three  hundred  vet- 
erans. The  next  morning  the  Bulgarian  cavalry  advanced  to 
the  charge.  But  they  heard,  the  shouts  of  multitudes,  they 
beheld  the  anus  and  discipline  of  the  front ;  they  were  as- 
saulted on  the  flanks  by  two  ambuscades  which  rose  from  the 
woods ;  their  foremost  warriors  fell  by  the  hand  of  the  aged 
hero  and  his  guards ;  and  the  swiftness  of  their  evolutions 
was  rendered  useless  by  the  close  attack  and  rapid  pursuit  of 
the  Romans.  In  this  action  (so  speedy  was  their  flight)  the 
Bulgarians  lost  only  four  hundred  horse  :  but  Constantinople 
was  saved;  and  Zabergan,  who  felt  the  hand  of  a  master, 
withdrew  to  a  respectful  distance.  But  his  friends  were  nu- 
merous in  the  councils  of  the  emperor,  and  Belisarius  obeyed 
with  reluctance  the  commands  of  envy  and  Justinian,  which 
forbade  him  to  achieve  the  deliverance  of  his  country.  On 
his  return  to  the  city,  the  people,  still  conscious  of  their  dan- 
ger, accompanied  his  triumph  with  acclamations  of  joy  and 
gratitude,  which  were  imputed  as  a  crime  to  the  victorious 
general.  But  when  he  entered  the  palace  the  courtiers  were 
silent,  and  the  emperor,  after  a  cold  and  thankless  embrace, 
dismissed  him  to  mingle  with  the  train  of  slaves.  Yet  so 
deep  was  the  impression  of  his  glory  on  the  minds  of  men, 
that  Justinian,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age,  was  en- 
couraged to  advance  near  forty  miles  from  the  capital,  and  to 
inspect  in  person  the  restoration  of  the  long  wall.  The  Bul- 
garians wasted  the  summer  in  the  plains  of  Thrace ;  but  they 
were  inclined  to  peace  by  the  failure  of  their  rash  attempts 
on  Greece  and  the  Chersonesus.  A  menace  of  killing  their 
prisoners  quickened  the  payment  of  heavy  ransoms ;  and  the 
departure  of  Zabergan  was  hastened  by  the  report  that  dou- 
ble-prowed  vessels  were  built  on  the  Danube  to  intercept  his 
passage.     The  danger  was  soon  forgotten ;  and  a  vain  ques- 


412  CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  JUSTINIAN.  [CH.XLIH 

tion,  whether  their  sovereign  had  shown   more  wisdom  o* 
weakness,  amused  the  idleness  of  the  city.64 

About  two  years  after  the  last  victory  of  Belisarius,  the 
emperor  returned  from  a  Thracian  journey  of  health,  or  busi- 
ness, or  devotion.     Justinian  was  afflicted  by  a  pain 

His  disgrace      ,  .      .  .  i 

and  death.  m  his  head ;  and  Ins  private  entry  countenanced 
the  rumor  of  his  death.  Before  the  third  hour  of 
the  day,  the  bakers'  shops  were  plundered  of  their  bread,  the 
houses  were  shut,  and  every  citizen,  with  hope  or  terror,  pre- 
pared for  the  impending  tumult.  The  senators  themselves, 
fearful  and  suspicious,  were  convened  at  the  ninth  hour ;  and 
the  praefect  received  their  commands  to  visit  every  quarter 
of  the  city  and  proclaim  a  general  illumination  for  the  re- 
covery of  the  emperor's  health.  The  ferment  subsided  ;  but 
every  accident  betrayed  the  impotence  of  the  government 
and  the  factious  temper  of  the  people :  the  guards  were  dis- 
posed to  mutiny  as  often  as  their  quarters  were  changed  or 
their  pay  was  withheld :  the  frequent  calamities  of  fires  and 
earthquakes  afforded  the  opportunities  of  disorder ;  the  dis- 
putes of  the  blues  and  greens,  of  the  orthodox  and  heretics, 
degenerated  info  bloody  battles;  and,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Persian  ambassador,  Justinian  blushed  for  himself  and  for  his 
subjects.  Capricious  pardon  and  arbitrary  punishment  em- 
bittered the  irksomeness  and  discontent  of  a  long  reign :  a 
conspiracy  was  formed  in  the  palace ;  and,  unless  we  are  de- 
ceived by  the  names  of  Marcellus  and  Sergius,  the  most  virt- 
uous and  the  most  profligate  of  the  courtiers  were  associated 
in  the  same  designs.  They  had  fixed  the  time  of  the  execu- 
tion ;  their  rank  gave  them  access  to  the  royal  banquet ;  and 
their  black  slaves65  were  stationed  in  the  vestibule  and  porti- 

44  The  Bulgarian  war,  and  the  last  victory  of  Belisarius,  are  imperfectly  repre- 
sented in  the  prolix  declamation  of  Agathias  (1.  v.  p.  154-174  [p.  299  seq.,  edit. 
Bonn])  and  the  dry  Chronicle  of  Theophanes  (p.  197,  198  [torn.  i.  p.  360  seq., 
edit.  Bonn]). 

65  "IrSovg.  They  could  scarcely  be  real  Indians;  and  the  ^Ethiopians,  some- 
times known  by  that  name,  were  never  used  by  the  ancients  as  guards  or  follow- 
ers: they  were  the  trifling,  th®ugh  costly,  objects  of  female  and  royal  luxury  (Te- 
rent.  Eunuch,  act  i.  scene  ii.  [v.  88] ;  Sueton.  in  August,  c.  83,  with  a  good  noto 
of  Casaubon,  in  Caligul&,  c.  57). 


a.d.  563-565.]    DISGBACE  AND  DEATH  OF  BELISARIUS.  413 

coes  to  announce  the  death  of  the  tyrant,  and  to  excite  a  se 
dition  in  the  capital.  But  the  indiscretion  of  an  accomplice 
saved  the  poor  remnant  of  the  days  of  Justinian.  The  con- 
spirators were  detected  and  seized,  with  daggers  hidden  under 
their  garments ;  Marcellus  died  by  his  own  hand,  and  Sergius 
was  dragged  from  the  sanctuary.89  Pressed  by  remorse,  or 
tempted  by  the  hopes  of  safety,  he  accused  two  officers  of  the 
household  of  Belisarius,  and  torture  forced  them  to  declare 
that  they  had  acted  according  to  the  secret  instructions  of 
their  patron.67  Posterity  will  not  hastily  believe  that  a  hero 
who  in  the  vigor  of  life  had  disdained  the  fairest  offers  of 
ambition  and  revenge  should  stoop  to  the  murder  of  his 
prince,  whom  he  could  not  long  expect  to  survive.  His 
followers  were  impatient  to  fly ;  but  flight  must  have  been 
supported  by  rebellion,  and  he  had  lived  enough  for  nature 
and  for  glory.  Belisarius  appeared  before  the  council  with 
a.d.563,  less  ^ear  tnan  indignation:  after  forty  years'  ser- 
Dec.5.  vjce  tke  emperor  had  prejudged  his  guilt;  and  in- 

justice was  sanctified  by  the  presence  and  authority  of  the 
patriarch.  The  life  of  Belisarius  was  graciously  spared,  but 
a.d.564,  hi8  fortunes  were  sequestered;  and,  from  Decem- 
Juiyw.  ker  t0  July?  lie  was  guarded  as  a  prisoner  in  his 

own  palace.  At  length  his  innocence  was  acknowledged ; 
his  freedom  and  honors  were  restored ;  and  death,  which 
might  be  hastened  by  resentment  and  grief,  removed  him 
*..n.  565,  from  the  world  about  eight  months  after  his  deliv- 
Marchi3.  erance.  The  name  of  Belisarius  can  never  die: 
but,  instead  of  the  funeral,  the  monuments,  the  statues,  so  just- 
ly due  to  his  memory,  I  only  read  that  his  treasures,  the  spoils 
of  the  Goths  and  Yandals,  were  immediately  confiscated  by 
the  emperor.    Some  decent  portion  was  reserved,  however,  for 

68  The1  Sergius  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  21,  22 ;  Anecdot.  c.  5)  and  Marcellus  (Goth.  L 
fii.  c.  32)  are  mentioned  by  Procopius.  See  Theophanes,  p.  197,  201  [torn.  i.  p. 
360,  367,  edit.  Bonn]. 

61  Alemannus  (p.  3)  quotes  an  old  Byzantine  MS.,  which  has  been  printed  in 
the  Imperium  Orientale  of  Banduri  [torn.  iii.  p.  349,  edit.  Bonn]. 


*  Some  words,  "the  acts  of,"  or  "the  crimes  of,"  appear  to  have  fallen  from 
the  text.    The  omission  is  in  all  the  editions  I  have  consulted. — M. 


414:  DISGKACE  AND  DEATH  OF  BELISARIUS.    [Ch.  XLIIL 

the  use  of  Lis  widow :  and  as  Antonina  had  much  to  repent, 
she  devoted  the  last  remains  of  her  life  and  fortune  to  the 
foundation  of  a  convent.  Such  is  the  simple  and  genuine  nar- 
rative of  the  fall  of  Belisarius,  and  the  ingratitude  of  Justin- 
ian.08 That  he  was  deprived  of  his  eyes,  and  reduced  by  envy 
to  beg  his  bread,  "  Give  a  penny  to  Belisarius  the  general !"  is 
a  fiction  of  later  times,69  which  has  obtained  credit,  or  rather 
favor, as  a  strange  example  of  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune.70* 

68  Of  the  disgrace  and  restoration  of  Belisarius,  the  genuine  original  record  is 
preserved  in  the  Fragment  of  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  234-243  [p.  494  seq.,  edit. 
Bonn])  and  the  exact  Chronicle  of  Theophanes  (p.  194-204  [torn.  i.  p.  308  seq., 
edit.  Bonn]).  Cedrenus  (Oompend.  p.  387,  388  [torn.  i.  p.  G80,  edit.  Bonn])  and 
Zonaras  (torn.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  9]  p.  69)  seem  to  hesitate  between  the  obsolete  truth 
and  the  growing  falsehood. 

69  The  source  of  this  idle  fable  may  be  derived  from  a  miscellaneous  work  of 
the  twelfth  century,  the  Chiliads  of  John  Tzetzes,  a  monkb  (Basil.  1546,  ad  cal- 
cem  Lycophront.  Colon.  Allobrog.  1614,  in  Corp.  Poet.  Grasc).  He  relates  the 
blindness  and  beggary  of  Belisarius  in  ten  vulgar  or  political  verses  (Chiliad  iii. 
No.  88,  339-348,  in  Corp.  Poet.  Grac.  torn.  ii.  p.  311). 

"EKiriofia  %v\ivov  Kparwv,  t€6a  r<£  fii\i((t, 

Bs\iGapi<i>  6€o\bv  Sots  tu>  arpanjXaTy 

"Ov  rhyi]  fiiv  iSo^aaev,  airorvipXoi  d'  6  $96vog. 

This  moral  or  romantic  tale  was  imported  into  Italy  with  the  language  and  man- 
uscripts of  Greece  ;  repeated  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  by  Crinitus, 
Pontanus,  and  Volaterranus  ;  attacked  by  Alciat,  for  the  honor  of  the  Law  ;  and 
defended  by  Baronius  (a.d.  561,  No.  2,  etc.),  for  the  honor  of  the  Church.  Yet 
Tzetzes  himself  had  read  in  other  chronicles  that  Belisarius  did  not  lose  his  sight, 
and  that  he  recovered  his  fame  and  fortunes. 

,0  The  statue  in  the  villa  Borghese  at  Rome,0  in  a  sitting  posture,  with  an  open 


*  Lord  Mahon,  in  his  Life  of  Belisarius,  argues  with  learning  and  ingenuity 
favor  of  the  celebrated  story  of  the  tragic  fate  of  Belisarius.  But  in  this,  as  in  al 
other  historical  questions,  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  any  satisfactory  result  withoui 
contemporary  evidence.  Now  this  is  entirely  wanting  in  the  present  instance. 
The  earliest  writer  who  mentions  the  disgrace  of  Belisarius  is  Theophanes,  wh 
lived  in  the  ninth  century,  and  he  relates  that  the  hero  was  subsequently  reston 
to  his  freedom  and  honors.  Two  other  writers  of  a  later  date  are  the  authorities 
for  the  common  story,  namely,  the  anonymous  author  of  the  Description  of  Con 
stantinople,  who  lived  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  whose  statement  on  the  subject 
(Banduri's  Imperinm  Oriental?,  vol.  i.  pt.  ii.  p.  7)  was  pointed  out  for  the  first  tim^ 
bv  Lord  Mahon,  and  John  Tzetzes,  who  lived  in  the  twelfth  century.  The  prior- 
ity of  time  belongs  to  Theophanes,  but  he  does  not  give  any  authority  for  his  nar- 
raiive,  and  he  lived  at  too  great  a  distance  from  the  event  to  be  of  any  value  as 
an  iii'-h-pendent  authority.     Neither  the  anonymous  author  of  the  Description  of 


b  I  know  not  where  Gibbon  found  Tzetzes  to  be  a  monk :  I  suppose  he  consid- 
ered his  had  verses  a  proof  of  his  monachism.  Compare  the  preface  of  Gerbelius 
in  Killing's  edition  of  Tzeta«8.  ■  It  is  at  present  in  the  Louvre. — S. 


A.D.  565.]        DEATH  AND  CHARACTER  OF  JUSTINIAN.  415 

If  the  emperor  could  rejoice  in  the  death  of  Belisarius,  he 
enjoyed  the  base  satisfaction  only  eight  months,  the  last  pe* 
riod  of  a  reign  of  thirty-eight  and  a  life  of  eighty- 
character  of    three  years.     It  would  be  difficult  to  trace  the  char- 

Justiniau.  "  .  , 

a.d.565,  acter  01  a  prince  who  is  not  the  most  conspicuous 
object  of  his  own  times :  but  the  confessions  of  an 
enemy  may  be  received  as  the  safest  evidence  of  his  virtues. 
The  resemblance  of  Justinian  to  the  bust  of  Domitian  is  ma- 
liciously urged,"  with  the  acknowledgment,  however,  of  a  well- 

liand,  which  is  vulgarly  given  to  Belisarius,  may  be  ascribed  with  more  dignity  to 
Augustus  in  the  act  of  propitiating  Nemesis  (Winckelman,  Hist,  de  l'Art,  torn.  iii. 
p.  2GC).  Ex  nocturno  visa  etiam  stipem,  quotannis,  die  certo,  emendicabat  a  po- 
pulo,  cavam  manum  asses  porrigentibus  prsebens  (Sueton.  in  August,  c.  91,  with  an 
excellent  note  of  Casaubon), 

11  The  rubor  of  Domitian  is  stigmatized,  quaintly  enough,  by  the  pen  of  Tacitus 


Constantinople  nor  John  Tzetzes  quotes  any  authority  for  the  other  story ;  nor  is 
there  any  reason  for  believing  that  they  had  information  which  Theophanes  did  not 
possess  or  neglected  to  use.  At  the  same  time  this  is  not  impossible  ;  and  as  we 
have  no  satisfactory  evidence  on  either  side,  we  must  be  content  to  leave  the  mat- 
ter in  uncertainty.  It  may,  however,  be  remarked  that  Gibbon's  note  (68)  conveys 
scarcely  a  fair  impression  of  the  authorities  on  the  subject.  Malala  says  nothing 
of  the  restoration  of  Belisarius  to  favor,  but,  on  the  contrary,  states  that  he  remain- 
ed under  the  displeasure  of  Justinian  (kch  efieivtv  6  avroc  Bskurapiog  virb  dyavdic- 
Tr)mv,  p.  495,  edit.  Bonn).  Moreover,  Gibbon  gives  more  value  to  the  testimony 
of  Theophanes  than  it  deserves,  by  speaking  of  "the  exact  Chronicle  "  of  that 
writer ;  while  in  other  passages,  as  Lord  Mahon  observes,  he  gives  a  very  different 
estimate  of  the  value  of  Theophanes.  Thus  in  one  place  he  informs  us  that  The- 
ophanes is  "  full  of  strange  blunders  "  (ch.  xlii.  note  100),  and  elsewhere  he  re- 
marks that  he  is  "  the  father  of  many  a  lie  "  (ch.  1.  note  68),  and  that  "his  chro- 
nology is  loose  and  inaccurate"  (ch.  li.  note  145).  Cedrenus  ought  not  to  be 
quoted  as  an  independent  authority,  as  he  merely  abridges  from  Theophanes. 

Two  theories  have  been  started  in  modern  limes  to  account  for  the  story  of  the 
beggary  of  Belisarius.  The  first  is  that  of  Le  Beau,  who  supposes  that  Belisa- 
rius was  confounded  with  his  contemporary,  John  of  Cappadocia,  who  was  re- 
duced to  such  poverty  that  he  begged  his  bread  from  province  to  province.  (His- 
toire  du  Bas  Empire,  vol.  ix.  p.  419.)  The  second  is  that  of  Mr.  Finlay,  who  sug- 
gests that  the  story  took  its  rise  from  t he  fate  of  Symbatius  and  Peganes,  who, 
having  formed  a  conspiracy  against  Michael  HI.  in  the  ninth  century,  were  de- 
prived of  their  sight,  and  exposed  as  common  beggars  in  Constantinople.  "The 
degrading  punishment  to  which  two  men  of  the  highest  rank  in  the  empire  were 
subject  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  people  of  Constantinople.  The  figure 
of  Peganes — a  soldier  of  high  reputation — standing  in  the  Milion,  asking  for  an 
obolos,  with  a  platter  in  his  hand,  like  a  blind  beggar,  haunted  their  imagination, 
and,  finding  its  way  into  the  romances  of  the  age,  was  borrowed  to  illustrate  the 
greatest  vicissitudes  of  court  favor,  and  give  coloring  to  the  strongest  pictures  of 
the  ingratitude  of  emperors.  The  fate  of  Peganes  and  Symbatius  was  woven  into 
a  tale  called  the  Life  of  Belisarius  "  (Finlay,  Hist,  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  vol. 
i.  p.  229).  This  conjecture,  however,  seems  improbable,  on  account  of  the  vast 
gap  in  the  chronology  ;  for  it  is  not  likely  that  the  fate  of  a  person  in  the  ninth 
century  should  have  been  transferred  to  a  person  in  the  sixth.—  S. 


416  CHARACTER  AND  DEATH  OF  JUSTINIAN.     £Ch.  XLITJ. 

proportioned  figure,  a  ruddy  complexion,  and  a  pleasing  coun- 
tenance. The  emperor  was  easy  of  access,  patient  of  hearing, 
courteous  and  affable  in  discourse,  and  a  master  of  the  angry 
passioni  which  rage  with  such  destructive  violence  in  the 
breast  of  a  despot.  Procopius  praises  his  temper,  to  reproach 
him  with  calm  and  deliberate  cruelty:  but  in  the  conspira- 
cies which  attacked  his  authority  and  person,  a  more  candid 
judge  will  approve  the  justice,  or  admire  the  clemency,  of  Jus- 
tinian. He  excelled  in  the  private  virtues  of  chastity  and  tem- 
perance ;  but  the  impartial  love  of  beauty  would  have  been 
less  mischievous  than  his  conjugal  tenderness  for  Theodora; 
and  his  abstemious  diet  was  regulated,  not  by  the  prudence 
of  a  philosopher,  but  the  superstition  of  a  monk.  His  repasts 
were  short  and  frugal :  on  solemn  fasts  he  contented  himself 
with  water  and  vegetables ;  and  such  was  his  strength  as  well 
as  fervor,  that  he  frequently  passed  two  days,  and  as  many 
nights,  without  tasting  any  food.  The  measure  of  his  sleep 
was  not  less  rigorous :  after  the  repose  of  a  single  hour,  the 
body  was  awakened  by  the  soul,  and,  to  the  astonishment  of 
his  chamberlains,  Justinian  walked  or  studied  till  the  morning 
light.  Such  restless  application  prolonged  his  time  for  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge79  and  the  despatch  of  business  ;  and 
he  might  seriously  deserve  the  reproach  of  confounding,  by 
minute  and  preposterous  diligence,  the  general  order  of  his 
administration.  The  emperor  professed  himself  a  musician 
and  architect,  a  poet  and  philosopher,  a  lawyer  and  theolo- 
gian ;  and  if  he  failed  in  the  enterprise  of  reconciling  the 
Christian  sects,  the  review  of  the  Roman  jurisprudence  is  a 
noble  monument  of  his  spirit  and  industry.  In  the  govern- 
ment of  the  empire  he  was  less  wise,  or  less  successful :  the 
age  was  unfortunate ;  the  people  was  oppressed  and  discon- 

(in  Vit.  Agricol.  c.  45),  and  has  been  likewise  noticed  by  the  younger  Pliny  (Pa- 
negyr.  c.  48)  and  Suetonius  (in  Domitian,  c.  18,  and  Casaubon  ad  locum).  Pro- 
copius (Anecdot.  c.  8  [torn.  iii.  p.  55,  edit.  Bonn])  foolishly  believes  that  only  one 
bust  of  Domitian  had  reached  the  sixth  century. 

M  The  studies  and  science  of  Justinian  are  attested  by  the  confession  (Anecdot. 
c.  8,  13)  still  more  than  by  the  praises  (Gothic.  1.  iii.  c.  31,  de  JEdific.  1.  i.  Proem, 
c.  7)  of  Procopius.  Consult  the  copious  index  of  Alemannus,  and  read  the  Lift 
of  Justinian  by  Ludewig  (p.  135-142). 


A.D.  565.]  COMETS.  417 

tented ;  Theodora  abused  her  power ;  a  succession  of  bad 
ministers  disgraced  his  judgment ;  and  Justinian  was  neither 
beloved  in  his  life  nor  regretted  at  his  death.  The  love  of 
fame  was  deeply  implanted  in  his  breast,  but  he  condescend- 
ed to  the  poor  ambition  of  titles,  honors,  and  contemporary 
praise ;  and  while  he  labored  to  fix  the  admiration,  he  forfeit- 
ed the  esteem  and  affection,  of  the  Romans.  The  design  of 
the  African  and  Italian  wars  was  boldly  conceived  and  exe- 
cuted ;  and  his  penetration  discovered  the  talents  of  Belisarius 
in  the  camp,  of  Narses  in  the  palace.  But  the  name  of  the 
emperor  is  eclipsed  by  the  names  of  his  victorious  generals ; 
and  Belisarius  still  lives,  to  upbraid  the  envy  and  ingratitude 
of  his  sovereign.  The  partial  favor  of  mankind  applauds  the 
genius  of  a  conqueror  who  leads  and  directs  his  subjects  in 
the  exercise  of  arms.  The  characters  of  Philip  the  Second 
and  of  Justinian  are  distinguished  by  the  cold  ambition  which 
delights  in  war  and  declines  the  dangers  of  the  field.  Yet  a 
colossal  statue  of  bronze  represented  the  emperor  on  horse- 
back, preparing  to  march  against  the  Persians  in  the  habit 
and  armor  of  Achilles.  In  the  great  square  before  the  Church 
of  St.  Sophia,  this  monument  was  raised  on  a  brass  column 
and  a  stone  pedestal  of  seven  steps;  and  the  pillar  of  Theo- 
dosius,  which  weighed  seven  thousand  four  hundred  pounds 
of  silver,  was  removed  from  the  same  place  by  the  avarice 
and  vanity  of  Justinian.  Future  princes  were  more  just  or 
indulgent  to  Ms  memory ;  the  elder  Andronicus,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourteenth  century,  repaired  and  beautified  his 
equestrian  statue:  since  the  fall  of  the  empire  it  has  been 
melted  into  cannon  by  the  victorious  Turks." 

I  shall  conclude  this  chapter  with  the  comets,  the  earth- 
quakes, and  the  plague,  which  astonished  or  afflicted  the  age 
of  Justinian. 

I.  In  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  and  in  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember, a  comet74  was  seen  during  twenty  days  in  the  western 

13  See  in  the  C.  P.  Christiana  of  Ducange  (1.  i.  c.  24,  No.  1)  a  ehain  of  original 
testimonies,  from  Procopius  in  the  sixth,  to  Gyllins  in  the  sixteenth,  cehtnry. 

14  The  first  comet  is  mentioned  by  John  Malala  (torn.  ii.  p.  190,  219  [p.  454, 

IV.— 27 


418  COMETS.  [Ch.  XLIII. 

quarter  of  the  heavens,  and  which  shot  its  rays  into  the  north. 
Comets.  Eight  years  afterwards,  while  the  sun  was  in  Cap- 

a.d.  531-539.  ricornj  another  comet  appeared  to  follow  in  the 
Sagittary :  the  sizo  was  gradually  increasing;  the  head  was 
in  the  east,  the  tail  in  the  west,  and  it  remained  visible  above 
forty  days.  The  nations,  who  gazed  with  astonishment,  ex- 
pected wars  and  calamities  from  their  baleful  influence;  and 
these  expectations  were  abundantly  fulfilled.  The  astrono- 
mers dissembled  their  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  these  blaz- 
ing stars,  which  they  affected  to  represent  as  the  floating  me- 
teors of  the  air ;  and  few  among  them  embraced  the  simple 
notion  of  Seneca  and  the  Chaldeeans,  that  they  are  only  plan- 
ets of  a  longer  period  and  more  eccentric  motion.75  Time 
and  science  have  justified  the  conjectures  and  predictions  of 
the  Roman  sage:  the  telescope  has  opened  new  worlds  to  the 
eyes  of  astronomers;73  and,  in  the  narrow  space  of  history  and 
fable,  one  and  the  same  comet  is  already  found  to  have  revis- 
ited the  earth  in  seven  equal  revolutions  of  five  hundred  and 
seventy -five  years.  The  first"  which  ascends  beyond  the 
Christian  era  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty -seven 
years,  is  coeval  with  Ogyges,  the  father  of  Grecian  antiquity. 
And  this  appearance  explains  the  tradition  which  Yarro  has 
preserved,  that  under  his  reign  the  planet  Yenus  changed  her 
color,  size,  figure,  and   course;   a  prodigy  without  example 

477,  edit.  Bonn])  nnd  Theophanes  (p.  154  [torn.  i.  p.  278,  edit.  Bonn]);  the  sec- 
ond by  PrOcopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  4).  Yet  I  strongly  suspect  their  identity.  The 
paleness  of  the  sun  (Vandal.  1.  ii.  c.  14)  is  applied  by  Theophanes  (p.  158)  to  a  dif- 
ferent year.3 

15  Seneca's  seventh  book  of  Natural  Questions  displays  in  the  theory  of  comets 
a  philosophic  mind.  Yet  should  we  not  too  candidly  confound  a  vague  predic- 
tion, a  "  veniet  tempus,"  etc.,  with  the  merit  of  real  discoveries. 

76  Astronomers  may  study  Newton  and  Halley.  I  draw  my  humble  science 
from  the  article  Comets,  in  the  French  Encyclopedic,  by  M.  d'Alembert. 

77  Wliiston,  the  honest,  pious,  visionary  Whiston,  had  fancied,  for  the  era  of 
Noah's  flood  (2242  years  before  Christ),  a  prior  apparition  of  the  same  comet 
which  drowned  the  earth  with  its  tail. 


■  See  Lydus  de  Ostentis,  particularly  c.  15,  in  which  the  author  begins  to  show 
the  signification  of  comets  according  to  the  part  of  the  heavens  in  which  they  ap- 
pear, and  what  fortunes  they  prognosticate  to  the  lioman  empire  and  their  Per- 
sian enemies.     The  chapter,  however,  is  imperfect.     (Edit.  Niebuhr,  p.  290.) — M. 


A.D.  531-539.]  COMETS.  419 

either  in  past  or  succeeding  ages.78  The  second  visit,  in  the 
year  eleven  hundred  and  ninety-three,  is  darkly  implied  in 
the  fable  of  Electra,  the  seventh  of  the  Pleiads,  who  have 
been  reduced  to  six  since  the  time  of  the  Trojan  war.  That 
nymph,  the  wife  of  Dardanus,  was  unable  to  support  the  ruin 
of  her  country :  she  abandoned  the  dances  of  her  sister  orbs, 
fled  from  the  zodiac  to  the  north  pole,  and  obtained,  from  her 
dishevelled  locks,  the  name  of  the  comet.  The  third  period 
expires  in  the  year  six  hundred  and  eighteen,  a  date  that  ex- 
actly agrees  with  the  tremendous  comet  of  the  Sibyl,  and  per- 
haps of  Pliny,  which  arose  in  the  West  two  generations  be- 
fore the  reign  of  Cyrus.  The  fourth  apparition,  forty-four 
years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  is  of  all  others  the  most  splen- 
did and  important.  After  the  death  of  Caesar,  a  long-haired 
star  was  conspicuous  to  Rome  and  to  the  nations  during  the 
games  which  were  exhibited  by  young  Octavian  in  honor  of 
Venus  and  his  uncle.  The  vulgar  opinion,  that  it  conveyed 
to  heaven  the  divine  soul  of  the  dictator,  was  cherished  and 
consecrated  by  the  piety  of  a  statesman ;  while  his  secret  su- 
perstition referred  the  comet  to  the  glory  of  his  own  times." 
The  fifth  visit  has  been  already  ascribed  to  the  fifth  year  of 
Justinian,  which  coincides  with  the  five  hundred  and  thirty- 
first  of  the  Christian  era.  And  it  may  deserve  notice  that 
in  this,  as  in  the  preceding  instance,  the  comet  was  followed, 
though  at  a  longer  interval,  by  a  remarkable  paleness  of  the 
sun.  The  sixth  return,  in  the  year  eleven  hundred  and  six,  is 
recorded  by  the  chronicles  of  Europe  and  China:  and  in  the 
first  fervor  of  the  Crusades,  the  Christians  and  the  Mahome- 


18  A  Dissertation  of  Freret  (Memoires  de  lAcade'mie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  x. 
p.  357-377)  affords  a  happy  union  of  philosophy  and  erudition.  The  phenome- 
non in  the  time  of  Ogyges  was  preserved  by  Varro  (apud  Augustin.  de  Civitate 
Dei,  xxi.  8),  who  quotes  Castor,  Dion  of  Naples,  and  Adrastus  of  Cyzicus — "no- 
biles  mathematici."  The  two  subsequent  periods  are  preserved  by  the  Greek 
mythologists  and  the  spurious  books  of  Sibylline  verses. 

79  Pliny  (Hist.  Nat.  ii.  23)  has  transcribed  the  original  memorial  of  Augustus. 
Mairan,  in  his  most  ingenious  letters  to  the  P.  Parennin,  missionary  in  China,  re- 
moves the  games  and  the  comet  of  September  from  the  year  44  to  the  year  43 
before  the  Christian  era;  but  I  am  not  totally  subdued  by  the  criticism  of  th« 
astronomer  (Opuscules,  p.  275-351). 


420  COMETS  AND  EARTHQUAKES.  [Ch.  XLIII. 

tans  might  surmise,  with  equal  reason,  that  it  portended  the 
destruction  of  the  infidels.  The  seventh  phenomenon,  of  on« 
thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty,  was  presented  to  the  eyes 
of  an  enlightened  age.'0  The  philosophy  of  Bayle  dispelled 
a  prejudice  which  Milton's  muse  had  so  recently  adorned, 
that  the  comet,  "  from  its  horrid  hair  shakes  pestilence  and 
war.""  Its  road  in  the  heavens  was  observed  with  exquisite 
skill  by  Flamsteed  and  Cassini:  and  the  mathematical  sci- 
ence of  Bernoulli,  Newton,a  and  Halley  investigated  the  laws 
of  its  revolutions.  At  the  eighth  period,  in  the  year  two 
thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty-five,  their  calculations  may 
perhaps  be  verified  by  the  astronomers  of  some  future  capital 
in  the  Siberian  or  American  wilderness. 

II.  The  near  approach  of  a  comet  may  injure  or  destroy 
the  globe  which  we  inhabit;  but  the  changes  on  its  surface 
„    ,     ,       have  been  hitherto  produced  by  the  action  of  vol- 

Earthquakcs.  r  mi 

canoes  and  earthquakes.  lhe  nature  of  the  soil 
may  indicate  the  countries  most  exposed  to  these  formidable 
concussions,  since  they  are  caused  by  subterraneous  fires,  and 
such  fires  are  kindled  by  the  union  and  fermentation  of  iron 
and  sulphur.  But  their  times  and  effects  appear  to  lie  be- 
yond the  reach  of  human  curiosity ;  and  the  philosopher  will 
discreetly  abstain  from  the  prediction  of  earthquakes,  till  he 
has  counted  the  drops  of  water  that  silently  filtrate  on  the  in- 

80  This  last  comet  was  visible  in  the  month  of  December,  1680.  Bayle,  who 
began  his  Pensees  sur  la  Comete  in  January,  1681  (CEuvres,  torn,  iii.),  was  forced 
to  argue  that  a  supernatural  comet  would  have  confirmed  the  ancients  in  their 
idolatry.  Bernoulli  (see  his  Eloge,  in  Fontenelle,  torn.  v.  p.  99)  was  forced  to  al- 
low that  the  tail,  though  not  the  head,  was  a  sign  of  the  wrath  of  God. 

81  Paradise  Lost  was  published  in  the  year  1667 ;  and  the  famous  lines  (1.  ii. 
708,  etc.),  which  startled  the  licenser,  may  allude  to  the  recent  comet  of  1664,  ob- 
serv«d  by  Cassini  at  Rome  in  the  presence  of  Queen  Christina  (Fontenelle,  in  his 
Eloge,  torn.  v.  p.  338).  Had  Charles  II.  betrayed  any  symptoms  of  curiosity  or 
fear? 

82  For  the  cause  of  earthquakes,  see  Buffon  (torn.  i.  p.  502-536 ;  Supplement 
a  l'Hist.  Naturelle,  torn.  v.  p.  382-390,  edition  in  4to)  ;  Valmont  de  Bomare  (Dic- 
tionnaire  d'Histoire  Naturelle,  Tremblemens  de  Terre,  Pyrites) ;  Watson  (Chem« 
Seal  Essays,  torn.  i.  p.  181-209). 


*  Compare  Pingre,  Histoire  des  Cometea.— M. 


A.D.526.]  EARTHQUAKES.  421 

flammable  mineral,  and  measured  the  caverns  which  increase 
by  resistance  the  explosion  of  the  imprisoned  air.  "Without 
assigning  the  cause,  history  will  distinguish  the  periods  in 
which  these  calamitous  events  have  been  rare  or  frequent, 
and  will  observe  that  this  fever  of  the  earth  raged  with  un- 
common violence  during  the  reign  of  Justinian."  Each  year 
is  marked  by  the  repetition  of  earthquakes,  of  such  duration 
that  Constantinople  has  been  shaken  above  forty  days;  of 
euch  extent  that  the  shock  has  been  communicated  to  the 
whole  surface  of  the  globe,  or  at  least  of  the  Roman  empire. 
An  impulsive  or  vibratory  motion  was  felt,  enormous  chasms- 
were  opened,  huge  and  heavy  bodies  were  discharged  into  the 
air,  the  sea  alternately  advanced  and  retreated  beyond  its  or- 
dinary bounds,  and  a  mountain  was  torn  from  Libanus84  and 
cast  into  the  waves,  where  it  protected,  as  a  mole,  the  new 
harbor  of  Botrys,86  in  Phoenicia.  The  stroke  that  agitates  an 
ant-hill  may  crush  the  insect-myriads  in  the  dust;  yet  truth 
must  extort  a  confession  that  man  has  industriously  labored 
for  his  own  destruction.  The  institution  of  great  cities, 
which  include  a  nation  within  the  limits  of  a  wall,  almost  re- 
alizes the  wish  of  Caligula  that  the  Roman  people  had  but 
A.».B26,  0Iie  neck.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  per- 
May  20.  sons  are  ga^  fo  have  perished  in  the  earthquake  of 
Antioch,  whose  domestic  multitudes  were  swelled  by  the  con- 

M  The  earthquakes  that  shook  the  Eoman  world  in  the  reign  of  Justinian  are 
described  or  mentioned  by  Procopius  (Goth.  1.  iv.  c.  25  [torn.  ii.  p.  594,  edit.  Bonn]  ; 
Anecdot.  c.  18),  Agathias  (1.  ii.  p.  52,  53,  54;  1.  v.  p.  U5-152  [p.  96-101,  281- 
294,  edit.  Bonn]),  John  Malala  (Chron.  torn.  ii.  p.  140-146,  176,  177,  183,  193, 
220,  229,  231,  233,  234  [p.  419  seq.,  442  seq.,  448,  456,  478,  485  seq.,  488  seq., 
edit.  Bonn]),  and  Theophanes  (p.  151,  183, 189,  191-196  [torn.  i.  p.  272,  336,  347, 
350,  357,  edit.  Bonn]).a 

84  An  abrupt  height,  a  perpendicular  cape,  between  Aradus  and  Botrys,  named 
by  the  Greeks  Srtuiv  irpoaoj-irov,  and  (.vTrpoauirov  or  XiOoirpoawirov  by  the  scrupu- 
lous Christians  (Polyb.  1.  v.  [c.  C8]  p.  411 ;  Pompon.  Mela,  1.  i.  c.  12,  p.  87,  cum 
Isaac  Voss.  Observat.  Maundrell,  Journey,  p.  32,  33 ;  Pocock's  Description,  vol. 
ii.  p.  99). 

88  Botrys  was  founded  (ann.  ante  Christ.  935-903)  by  Ithobal,  King  of  Tyre 
{Marsham,  Canon  Chron.  p.  387,  388).  Its  poor  representative,  the  village  of  Pa- 
trone,  is  now  destitute  of  a  harbor. 


Compare  Daubeny  on  Earthquakes,  and  Lyell'i  Geology,  vol.  ii.  p.  181  seq.—  M. 


422  EARTHQUAKES.  [Ch.  XLIIL 

flux  of  strangers  to  the  festival  of  the  Ascension.  The  loss 
a.i).  55i,  °f  Berytus66  was  of  smaller  account,  but  of  much 
July  9.  greater  value.    That  city,  on  the  coast  of  Phoenicia, 

was  illustrated  by  the  study  of  the  civil  law,  which  opened 
the  surest  road  to  wealth  and  dignity :  the  schools  of  Berytus 
were  filled  with  the  rising  spirits  of  the  age,  and  many  a 
youth  was  lost  in  the  earthquake  who  might  have  lived  to  be 
the  scourge  or  the  guardian  of  his  country.  In  these  disas- 
ters the  architect  becomes  the  enemy  of  mankind.  The  hut 
of  a  savage  or  the  tent  of  an  Arab  may  be  thrown  down 
without  injury  to  the  inhabitant;  and  the  Peruvians  had  rea- 
son to  deride  the  folly  of  their  Spanish  conquerors,  who  with 
eo  much  cost  and  labor  erected  their  own  sepulchres.  The 
rich  marbles  of  a  patrician  are  dashed  on  his  own  head;  a 
whole  people  is  buried  under  the  ruins  of  public  and  private 
edifices ;  and  the  conflagration  is  kindled  and  propagated  by 
the  innumerable  fires  which  are  necessary  for  the  subsist- 
ence and  manufactures  of  a  great  city.  Instead  of  the  mu- 
tual sympathy  which  might  comfort  and  assist  the  distressed, 
they  dreadfully  experience  the  vices  and  passions  which  are 
released  from  the  fear  of  punishment :  the  tottering  houses 
are  pillaged  by  intrepid  avarice;  revenge  embraces  the  mo- 
ment and  selects  the  victim;  and  the  earth  often  swallows 
the  assassin,  or  the  ravisher,  in  the  consummation  of  their 
crimes.  Superstition  involves  the  present  danger  with  in- 
visible terrors ;  and  if  the  image  of  death  may  sometimes  be 
subservient  to  the  virtue  or  repentance  of  individuals,  an  af- 
frighted people  is  more  forcibly  moved  to  expect  the  end  of 
the  world,  or  to  deprecate  with  servile  homage  the  wrath  of 
an  avenging  Deity. 

III.  ^Ethiopia  and  Egypt  have  been  stigmatized  in  every 
age  as  the  original  source  and  seminary  of  the  plague.87     In  a 

86  The  university,  splendor,  and  ruin  of  Berytus  are  celebrated  by  Heinecciua 
(p.  351-35G)  as  an  essential  part  of  the  history  of  the  Roman  law.  It  was  over- 
thrown in  tho  twenty -fifth  year  of  Justinian,  a.d.  551,  July  9  (Theophanes,  p. 
192);  but  Agathias  (1.  ii.  p.  51,  52  [p.  95  seq.,  edit  Bonn])  suspends  the  earth- 
quake till  he  has  achieved  the  Italian  war. 

87  I  have  read  with  pleasure  Mead's  short,  but  elegant,  treatise  concerning  Pes- 
tilential Disorders,  the  eighth  edition,  London,  1722. 


A.D.C40.]  THE  PLAGUE.  423 

damp,  Lot,  stagnating  air,  this  African  fever  is  generated  from 
piague—  the  putrefaction  of  animal  substances,  and  espe- 
aud'nalure.  cially  from  the  swarms  of  locusts,  not  less  destruc- 
a.d.  542.  ^.jve  ^0  mankind  [u  tlieir  death  than  in  their  lives. 
The  fatal  disease  which  depopulated  the  earth  in  the  time  of 
Justinian  and  his  successors88  first  appeared  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Pelusium,  between  the  Serbonian  bog  and  the  eastern 
channel  of  the  Nile.  From  thence,  tracing  as  it  were  a  dou- 
ble path,  it  spread  to  the  East,  over  Syria,  Persia,  and  the 
Indies,  and  penetrated  to  the  West,  along  the  coast  of  Africa 
and  over  the  continent  of  Europe.  In  the  spring  of  the  sec- 
ond year  Constantinople,  during  three  or  four  months,  was 
visited  by  the  pestilence ;  and  Procopius,  who  observed  its 
progress  and  symptoms  with  the  eyes  of  a  physician,89  has 
emulated  the  skill  and.  diligence  of  Thucydides  in  the  de- 
scription of  the  plague  of  Athens.90  The  infection  was  some- 
times announced  by  the  visions  of  a  distempered  fancy,  and 
the  victim  despaired  as  soon  as  he  had  heard  the  menace  and 
felt  the  stroke  of  an  invisible  spectre.  But  the  greater  num- 
ber, in  tlieir  beds,  in  the  streets,  in  their  usual  occupation, 
were  surprised  by  a  slight  fever;  so  slight,  indeed,  that  nei- 
ther the  pulse  nor  the  color  of  the  patient  gave  any  signs  of 
the  approaching  danger.  The  same,  the  next,  or  the  succeed- 
ing day,  it  was  declared  by  the  swelling  of  the  glands,  partic- 
ularly those  of  the  groin,  of  the  armpits,  and  under  the  ear ; 

88  The  great  plague  which  raged  in  542  and  the  following  years  (Pagi,  Critica, 
torn,  ii.  p.  518)  must  be  traced  in  Procopius  (Persic.  1.  ii.  c.  22,  23),  Agathias  (1. 
v.  p.  153,  154  [p.  297  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]),  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  c.  29),  Paul  Diaconus  (1. 
ii.  c.  4,  p.  776,  777),  Gregory  of  Tours  (torn.  ii.  1.  iv.  ch.  5,  p.  205),  who  styles  it 
Lues  Inguinaria,  and  the  Chronicles  of  Victor  Tunnunensis  (p.  9  in  Thesaur. 
Temporum),  of  Marcellinus  (p.  54),  and  of  Theophanes  (p.  153). 

89  Dr.  Friend  (Hist.  Medicin.  in  Opp.  p.  416-420,  Lond.  1733)  is  satisfied  that 
Procopius  must  have  studied  physic,  from  his  knowledge  and  use  of  the  technical 
words.  Yet  many  words  that  are  now  scientific  were  common  and  popular  in 
the  Greek  idiom. 

90  See  Thucydides,  1.  ii.  c.  47-54,  p.  127-133,  edit.  Duker,  and  the  poetical  de- 
scription of  the  same  plague  by  Lucretius  (1.  vi.  1136-1284).  I  was  indebted  to 
Dr.  Hunter  for  an  elaborate  commentary  on  this  part  of  Thucydides,  a  quarto  of 
600  pages  (Venet.  1603,  apnd  Juntas),  which  was  pronounced  in  St.  Mark's  Li- 
brary by  Eabius  Paullinus  Utinensis,  a  physician  and  philosopher. 


424  THE  PLAGUE.  tCH.XLUI. 

and  when  these  buboes  or  tumors  were  opened,  they  wer« 
found  to  contain  a  coal,  or  black  substance,  of  the  size  of  a 
lentil.  If  they  came  to  a  just  swelling  and  suppuration,  the 
patient  was  saved  by  this  kind  and  natural  discharge  of  the 
morbid  humor ;  but  if  they  continued  hard  and  dry,  a  morti- 
fication quickly  ensued,  and  the  fifth  day  was  commonly  the 
term  of  his  life.  The  fever  was  often  accompanied  with 
lethargy  or  delirium;  the  bodies  of  the  sick  were  covered 
with  black  pustules  or  carbuncles,  the  symptoms  of  immedi- 
ate death ;  and  in  the  constitutions  too  feeble  to  produce  an 
eruption,  the  vomiting  of  blood  was  followed  by  a  mortifi- 
cation of  the  bowels.  To  pregnant  women  the  plague  was 
generally  mortal ;  yet  one  infant  was  drawn  alive  from  his 
dead  mother,  and  three  mothers  survived  the  loss  of  their  in- 
fected foetus.  Youth  was  the  most  perilous  season,  and  the 
female  sex  was  less  susceptible  than  the  male;  but  every 
rank  and  profession  was  attacked  with  indiscriminate  rage, 
and  many  of  those  who  escaped  were  deprived  of  the  use  of 
their  speech,  without  being  secure  from  a  return  of  the  dis- 
order.91 The  physicians  of  Constantinople  were  zealous  and 
skilful;  but  their  art  was  baffled  by  the  various  symptoms 
and  pertinacious  vehemence  of  the  disease :  the  same  reme- 
dies were  productive  of  contrary  effects,  and  the  event  capri- 
ciously disappointed  their  prognostics  of  death  or  recovery. 
The  order  of  funerals  and  the  right  of  sepulchres  were  con- 
founded ;  those  who  were  left  without  friends  or  servants 
lay  unburied  in  the  streets  or  in  their  desolate  houses ;  and  a 
magistrate  was  authorized  to  collect  the  promiscuous  heaps 
of  dead  bodies,  to  transport  them  by  land  or  water,  and  to 
inter  them  in  deep  pits  beyond  the  precincts  of  the  city. 
Their  own  danger  and  the  prospect  of  public  distress  awaken- 
ed some  remorse  in  the  minds  of  the  most  vicious  of  man- 


91  Thucydides  (c.  51)  affirms  that  the  infection  could  only  be  once  taken ;  but 
Evagrius,  who  had  family  experience  of  the  plague,  observes  that  some  persons, 
who  had  escaped  the  first,  sunk  under  th«  second  attack ;  and  this  repetition  is 
confirmed  by  Fabius  Paullinus  (p.  588).  I  observe  that  on  this  head  physicians 
are  divided;  and  the  nature  and  operation  of  the  disease  may  not  always  be 


a.d.  543-594.]  THE  PLAGUE.  425 

kind :  the  confidence  of  health  again  revived  their  passions 
and  habits ;  but  philosophy  must  disdain  the  observation  of 
Procopius,  that  the  lives  of  such  men  were  guarded  by  the 
peculiar  favor  of  fortune  or  Providence.  He  forgot,  or  per- 
haps he  secretly  recollected,  that  the  plague  had  touched  the 
person  of  Justinian  himself;  but  the  abstemious  diet  of  the 
emperor  may  suggest,  as  in  the  case  of  Socrates,  a  more  ra- 
tional and  honorable  cause  for  his  recovery."  During  his 
sickness  the  public  consternation  was  expressed  in  the  habits 
of  the  citizens ;  and  their  idleness  and  despondence  occasion- 
ed a  general  scarcity  in  the  capital  of  the  East. 

Contagion  is  the  inseparable  symptom  of  the  plague, 
which,  by  mutual  respiration,  is  transfused  from  the  infected 

persons  to  the  lungs  and  stomach  of  those  who  ap- 
dnration.        proach  them.   "While  philosophers  believe  and  trem- 

ble,  it  is  singular  that  the  existence  of  a  real  danger 
should  have  been  denied  by  a  people  most  prone  to  vain  and 
imaginary  terrors.93  Yet  the  fellow-citizens  of  Procopius  were 
satisfied,  by  some  short  and  partial  experience,  that  the  in- 
fection could  not  be  gained  by  the  closest  conversation  ;94  and 
this  persuasion  might  support  the  assiduity  of  friends  or  phy- 
sicians in  the  care  of  the  sick,  whom  inhuman  prudence  would 
have  condemned  to  solitude  and  despair.  But  the  fatal  secu- 
rity, like  the  predestination  of  the  Turks,  must  have  aided 
the  progress  of  the  contagion ;  and  those  salutary  precautions 
to  which  Europe  is  indebted  for  her  safety  were  unknown  to 
the  government  of  Justinian.     No  restraints  were  imposed 

*!  It  was  thus  that  Socrates  had  been  saved  by  his  temperance,  in  the  plague 
of  Athens  (Aul.  Gellius,  Noct.  Attic,  ii.  1).  Dr.  Mead  accounts  for  the  peculiar 
salubrity  of  religious  houses  by  the  two  advantages  of  seclusion  and  abstinence 
(p.  18,  19). 

93  Mead  proves  that  the  plague  is  contagious,  from  Thucydides,  Lucretius,  Aris- 
totle, Galen,  and  common  experience  (p.  10-20) ;  and  he  refutes  (Preface,  p.  ii.- 
xiii.)  the  contrary  opinion  of  the  French  physicians  who  visited  Marseilles  in  the 
year  1720.  Yet  these  were  the  recent  and  enlightened  spectators  of  a  plague 
which,  in  a  few  months,  swept  away  50,000  inhabitants  (sur  la  Peste  de  Marseille, 
Paris,  1786),  of  a  city  that,  in  the  present  hour  of  prosperity  and  trade,  contains 
no  more  than  90,000  souls  (Necker,  sur  les  Finances,  torn.  i.  p.  231). 

94  The  strong  assertions  of  Procopius — oSre  yap  iarp^  ovre  iduxiry — are  over* 
thrown  by  the  subsequent  experience  of  Evagrius. 


426  THE  PLAGUE.  [Ch.  XLIIL 

on  the  free  and  frequent  intercourse  of  the  Roman  provinces : 
from  Persia  to  France  the  nations  were  mingled  and  infected 
by  wars  and  emigrations;  and  the  pestilential  odor  which 
lurks  for  years  in  a  bale  of  cotton  was  imported,  by  the  abuse 
of  trade,  into  the  most  distant  regions.  The  mode  of  its  prop- 
agation is  explained  by  the  remark  of  Procopius  himself,  that 
it  always  spread  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  inland  country :  the 
most  sequestered  islands  and  mountains  were  successively  vis- 
ited ;  the  places  which  had  escaped  the  fury  of  its  first  pas- 
sage were  alone  exposed  to  the  contagion  of  the  ensuing  year. 
The  winds  might  diffuse  that  subtle  venom ;  but  unless  the 
atmosphere  be  previously  disposed  for  its  reception,  the  plague 
would  soon  expire  in  the  cold  or  temperate  climates  of  the 
earth.  Such  was  the  universal  corruption  of  the  air,  that  the 
pestilence  which  burst  forth  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  Justinian 
was  not  checked  or  alleviated  by  any  difference  of  the  sea- 
sons. In  time  its  first  malignity  was  abated  and  dispersed ; 
the  disease  alternately  languished  and  revived ;  but  it  was  not 
till  the  end  of  a  calamitous  period  of  fifty-two  years  that  man- 
kind recovered  their  health,  or  the  air  resumed  its  pure  and 
salubrious  quality.  No  facts  have  been  preserved  to  sustain 
an  account,  or  even  a  conjecture,  of  the  numbers  that  perish- 
ed in  this  extraordinary  mortality.  I  only  find  that,  during 
three  months,  five  and  at  length  ten  thousand  persons  died 
each  day  at  Constantinople ;  that  many  cities  of  the  East  were 
left  vacant ;  and  that  in  several  districts  of  Italy  the  harvest 
and  the  vintage  withered  on  the  ground.  The  triple  scourge 
of  war,  pestilence,  and  famine  afflicted  the  subjects  of  Justin- 
ian ;  and  his  reign  is  disgraced  by  a  visible  decrease  of  the 
human  species,  which  has  never  been  repaired  in  some  of  the 
fairest  countries  of  the  globe.95 

*5  After  some  figures  of  rhetoric,  the  sands  of  the  sea,  etc.,  Procopius  (Anecdol. 
c.  18)  attempts  a  more  definite  account ;  that  fivpidSaq  fivpiddwv  fivpiag  had  been 
exterminated  under  the  reign  of  the  imperial  demon.  The  expression  is  obscure 
in  grammar  and  arithmetic ;  and  a  literal  interpretation  would  produce  several 
millions  of  millions.  Alemannus  (p.  80)  and  Cousin  (torn.  iii.  p.  178)  translate 
this  passage  "  two  hundred  millions  ;"  but  I  am  ignorant  of  their  motives.  If  we 
drop  the  pvpidSag,  the  remaining  ftvpidSiav  fivpiag,  a  myriad  of  myriads,  would 
famish  one  hundred  millions — a  number  ^ot  wholly  inadmissible. 


Ch.  XLIV.l  THE  ROMAN  LAW.  427 


CHAPTER  XLIY.a 

Idea  of  the  Roman  Jurisprudence.— The  Laws  of  the  Kings. — The  Twelve  Ta- 
bles of  the  Decemvirs. — The  Laws  of  the  People. — The  Decrees  of  the  Senate. 
— The  Edicts  of  the  Magistrates  and  Emperors. — Authority  of  the  Civilians. — 
Code,  Pandects,  Novels,  and  Institutes  of  Justinian: — I.  Rights  of  Persons. — 
II.  Rights  of  Things. — III.  Private  Injuries  and  Actions. — IV.  Crimes  and 
Punishments. 

The  vain  titles  of  the  victories  of  Justinian  are  crumbled 
into  dust,  but  the  name  of  the  legislator  is  inscribed  on  a  fair 

and  everlasting  monument.  Under  his  reign,  and 
or  Roman       by  his  care,  the  civil  jurisprudence  was  digested  in 

the  immortal  works  of  the  Code,  the  Pandects,  and 
the  Institutes  :'  the  public  reason  of  the  Romans  has  been 
silently  or  studiously  transfused  into  the  domestic  institutions 
of  Europe,2  and  the  laws  of  Justinian  still  command  the  re- 

1  The  civilians  of  the  darker  ages  have  established  an  absurd  and  incompre- 
hensible mode  of  quotation,  which  is  supported  by  authority  and  custom.  In  their 
references  to  the  Code,  the  Pandects,  and  the  Institutes,  they  mention  the  number, 
not  of  the  book,  but  only  of  the  law;  and  content  themselves  with  reciting  the 
first  words  of  the  title  to  which  it  belongs  ;  and  of  these  titles  there  are  more  than 
a  thousand.  Ludewig  (Vit.  Justiniani,  p.  268)  wishes  to  shake  off  this  pedantic 
yoke ;  r.nd  I  have  dared  to  adopt  the  simple  and  rational  method  of  numbering 
the  book,  the  title,  and  the  law.b 

2  Germany,  Bohemia,  Hungary,  Poland,  and  Scotland  have  received  them  as 
common  law  or  reason ;    in  France,  Italy,  etc.,  they  possess  a  direct  or  indirect 


a  In  the  notes  to  this  important  chapter,  which  is  received  as  the  text-book  on 
Civil  Law  in  some  of  the  foreign  universities,  I  have  consulted  :  I.  The  newly  dis- 
covered Institutes  of  Gains  (Gaii  Institutiones,  edit.  Goeschen,  Berlin,  1824),  with 
some  other  fragments  of  the  Roman  law  (Codicis  Theodosiani  Eraginenta  inedita, 
ab  Amadeo  Peyron,  Turin,  1824).  II.  The  History  of  the  Roman  Law,  by  Pro- 
fessor Hugo,  in  the  French  translation  of  M.  Jourdan,  Paris,  1825.  III.  Savigny, 
Geschichte  des  Romischen  Rechts  im  Mittelalter,  6  vols.,  Heidelberg,  1815  [2d 
edit.  1834-1851].  IV.  Walther,  Geschichte  des  Romischen  Rechts,  Bonn,  1834 
[2d  edit.  2  vols.  1845-46].  But  I  am  particularly  indebted  to  an  edition  of  the 
French  translation  of  this  chapter,  with  additional  notes,  by  one  of  the  most  learn- 
ed civilians  of  Europe,  Professor  Warnkonig,  published  at  Liege,  1821.  These 
potes  are  distinguished  by  the  letter  W. — M. 

b  The  example  of  Gibbon  has  been  followed  by  M.  Hugo  and  other  civilians. — M. 


428  THE  ROMAN  LAW.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

spect  or  obedience  of  independent  nations.  Wise  or  fortu- 
nate is  the  prince  who  connects  his  own  reputation  with  the 
honor  and  interest  of  a  perpetual  order  of  men.  The  defence 
of  their  founder  is  the  first  cause  which  in  every  age  has  ex- 
ercised the  zeal  and  industry  of  the  civilians.  They  piously 
commemorate  his  virtues,  dissemble  or  deny  his  failings,  and 
fiercely  chastise  the  guilt  or  folly  of  the  rebels  who  presume 
to  sully  the  majesty  of  the  purple.  The  idolatry  of  love  has 
provoked,  as  it  usually  happens,  the  rancor  of  opposition ;  the 
character  of  Justinian  has  been  exposed  to  the  blind  vehe- 
mence of  flattery  and  invective ;  and  the  injustice  of  a  sect 
(the  Anti-Trihonians)  has  refused  all  praise  and  merit  to  the 
prince,  his  ministers,  and  his  laws.*  Attached  to  no  party,  in- 
terested only  for  the  truth  and  candor  of  history,  and  directed 

influence;  and  they  were  respected  in  England  from  Stephen  to  Edward  I.,  our 
national  Justinian  (Duck,  de  Usu  et  Auctoritate  Juris  Civilis,  1.  ii.  c.  1,  8-15  ; 
Heineccius,  Hist.  Juris  Germanici,  c.  3,  4,  No.  55-124,  and  the  legal  historians  of 
each  country).* 

3  Francis  Hottoman,  a  learned  and  acute  lawyer  of  the  sixteenth  century,  wished 
to  mortify  Cujacius  and  to  please  the  Chancellor  de  l'Hdpital.  His  Anti-Tribonia- 
nus  (which  I  have  never  been  able  to  procure)  was  published  in  French  in  1609  ; 
and  his  sect  was  propagated  in  Germany  (Heineccius,  Op.  torn.  iii.  sylloge  iii.  p. 
171-183).  

*  Although  the  restoration  of  the  Roman  law,  introduced  by  the  revival  of  this 
•tudy  in  Italy,  is  one  of  the  most  important  branches  of  history,  it  had  been  treat- 
ed but  imperfectly  when  Gibbon  wrote  his  work.  That  of  Arthur  Duck  is  but  an 
insignificant  performance.  But  the  researches  of  the  learned  have  thrown  much 
light  upon  the  matter.  The  Sarti,  the  Tiraboschi,  the  Fantuzzi,  the  Savioli,  had 
made  some  very  interesting  inquiries  ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  M.  de  Savigny,  in  a 
work  entitled  "  The  History  of  the  Roman  Law  during  the  Middle  Ages,"  to  cast 
the  strongest  light  on  this  part  of  history.  He  demonstrates  incontestably  the 
preservation  of  the  Roman  law  from  Justinian  to  the  time  of  the  Glossators,  who, 
by  their  indefatigable  zeal,  propagated  the  study  of  the  Roman  jurisprudence  in 
all  the  countries  of  Europe.  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  the  author  should  con- 
tinue this  interesting  work,  and  that  the  learned  should  engage  in  the  inquiry  in 
what  manner  the  Roman  law  introduced  itself  into  their  respective  countries,  and 
the  authority  which  it  progressively  acquired.  For  Belgium,  there  exists  on  this 
subject  (proposed  by  the  Academy  of  Brussels  in  1781)  a  Collection  of  Memoirs, 
printed  at  Brussels  in  4to,  1783,  among  which  should  be  distinguished  those  of  M. 
de  Berg.  M.  Berriat  Saint  Prix  has  given  us  hopes  of  the  speedy  appearance 
of  a  work  in  which  he  will  discuss  this  question,  especially  in  relation  to  France. 
M.  Spangenberg,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Corpus  Juris  Civilis, 
Hanover,  1817,  1  vol.  8vo,  p.  86, 116,  gives  us  a  general  sketch  of  the  history  of 
the  Roman  law  in  different  parts  of  Europe.  We  cannot  avoid  mentioning  an  ele- 
mentary work  by  M.  Hugo,  in  which  he  treats  of  the  History  of  the  Roman  Law 
from  Justinian  to  the  Present  Time,  2d  edit.  Berlin,  1818.— W. 


CH.XLIV.]  LAWS  OF  THE  KINGS  OF  ROME.  429 

by  the  most  temperate  and  skilful  guides,4  I  enter  with  just 
diffidence  on  the  subject  of  civil  law,  which  has  exhausted 
so  many  learned  lives  and  clothed  the  walls  of  such  spacious 
librarieSc  In  a  single,  if  possible  in  a  short,  chapter,  I  shall 
trace  the  Roman  jurisprudence  from  Romulus  to  Justinian,* 
appreciate  the  labors  of  that  emperor,  and  pause  to  contem- 
plate the  principles  of  a  science  so  important  to  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  society.  The  laws  of  a  nation  form  the  most  in- 
structive portion  of  its  history ;  and,  although  I  have  devoted 
myself  to  write  the  annals  of  a  declining  monarchy,  I  shall 
embrace  the  occasion  to  breathe  the  pure  and  invigorating 
air  of  the  republic. 

The  primitive  government  of  Rome9  was  composed  with 

some  political  skill  of  an  elective  king,  a  council  of  nobles, 

and  a  general  assembly  of  the  people.     War  and 

Laws  of  .    °  t     •    •  i   i  i 

takings  religion  were  administered  by  the  supreme  magis- 
trate, and  he  alone  proposed  the  laws  which  were 
debated  in  the  senate,  and  finally  ratified  or  rejected  by  a 
majority  of  votes  in  the  thirty  curice  or  parishes  of  the  city. 
Romulus,  Numa,  and  Servius  Tullius  are  celebrated  as  the 
most  ancient  legislators ;  and  each  of  them  claims  his  pe- 
culiar part  in  the  threefold  division  of  jurisprudence.7     The 

4  At  the  head  of  these  guides  I  shall  respectfully  place  the  learned  and  perspic- 
uous Heineccius,  a  German  professor,  who  died  at  Halle  in  the  year  1741  (see  his 
Eloge  in  the  Nouvelle  Bibliotheque  Germanique,  torn.  ii.  p.  51-G4).  His  ample 
works  have  been  collected  in  eight  volumes  in  4to,  Geneva,  1743-1748.  The 
treatises  which  I  have  separately  used  are :  1.  Historia  Juris  Roraani  et  Germanici, 
Lugd.  Batav.  1740,  in  8vo;  2.  Syntagma  Antiquitatum  Romanam  Jurispruden- 
tiam  illustrantium,  2  vols,  in  8vo,  Traject.  ad  Rhenum  ;  3.  Elementa  Juris  Civi- 
lis  secundum  Ordinem  Institutionum,  Lugd.  Bat.  1751,  in  8vo  ;  4.  Elementa  J„  C. 
secundum  Ordinem  Pandectarum,  Traject.  1772,  in  8vo,  2  vols. 

6  Our  original  text  is  a  fragment  de  Origine  Juris  (Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.)  of  Pom- 
ponius,  a  Roman  lawyer,  who  lived  under  the  Antonines  (Heinecc.  torn.  iii.  syl.  iii. 
p.  G6-126).  It  has  been  abridged,  and  probably  corrupted,  by  Tribonian,  and 
since  restored  by  Bynkershoek  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  279-304). 

6  The  constitutional  history  of  the  kings  of  Rome  may  be  studied  in  the  first 
book  of  Livy,  and  more  copiously  in  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis  (1.  ii.  [c.  4-25]  p. 
80-96,  119-130  [c.  57-70]  ;  1.  iv.  [c.  15,  etc.]  p.  198-220),  who  sometimes  betrays 
the  character  of  a  rhetorician  and  a  Greek. 

7  This  threefold  division  of  the  law  was  applied  to  the  three  Roman  kings  by 
Justus  Lipsius  (Opp.  torn.  iv.  p.  279) ;  is  adopted  by  Gravina  (Origines  Juri*  Civi. 


430  LAWS  OF  THE  KINGS  OF  ROME.  [Ch.  XLIT. 

laws  of  marriage,  the  education  of  children,  and  the  author- 
ity of  parents,  which  may  seem  to  draw  their  origin  from  nat- 
ure itself,  are  ascribed  to  the  untutored  wisdom  of  Romulus. 
The  law  of  nations  and  of  religious  worship,  which  Numa 
introduced,  was  derived  from  his  nocturnal  converse  with  the 
nymph  Egeria.  The  civil  law  is  attributed  to  the  experience 
of  Servius ;  he  balanced  the  rights  and  fortunes  of  the  sev- 
en classes  of  citizens,  and  guarded  by  fifty  new  regulations 
the  observance  of  contracts  and  the  punishment  of  crimes. 
The  State,  which  he  had  inclined  towards  a  democracy,  was 
changed  by  the  last  Tarquin  into  lawless  despotism ;  and 
when  the  kingly  office  was  abolished,  the  Patricians  engrossed 
the  benefits  of  freedom.  The  royal  laws  became  odious  or 
obsolete,  the  mysterious  deposit  was  silently  preserved  by 
the  priests  and  nobles,  and  at  the  end  of  sixty  years  the  cit- 
izens of  Rome  still  complained  that  they  were  ruled  by  the 
arbitrary  sentence  of  the  magistrates.  Yet  the  positive  insti- 
tutions of  the  kings  had  blended  themselves  with  the  pub- 
lic and  private  manners  of  the  city ;  some  fragments  of  that 
venerable  jurisprudence8  were  compiled  by  the  diligence  of 

lis,  p.  28,  edit.  Lips.  1737) ;  and  is  reluctantly  admitted  by  Mascou,  his  German 
editor. 

8  The  most  ancient  Code  or  Digest  was  styled  Jus  Papirianum,  from  the  first 
compiler,  Papirius,  who  flourished  somewhat  before  or  after  the  Regifugium  (Pan- 
dect. 1.  i.  tit.  ii.).  The  best  judicial  critics,  even  Bynkershoek  (torn.  i.  p.  284,  285) 
and  Ileineccius  (Hist.  J.  C.  R.  1.  i.  c.  16,  17,  and  Opp.  torn.  iii.  sylloge  iv.  p.  1-8), 
give  credit  to  this  tale  of  Pomponius,  without  sufficiently  adverting  to  the  value 
and  rarity  of  such  a  monument  of  the  third  century  of  the  illiterate  city.  I  much 
suspect  that  the  Cains  Papirius,  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  who  revived  the  laws  of 
Numa  (Dionys.  Hal.  1.  iii.  [c.  36]  p.  171),  left  only  an  oral  tradition  ;  and  that  the 
Jus  Papirianum  of  Granius  Flaccus  (Pandect.  1.  l.  tit.  xvi.  leg.  144)  was  not  a  com- 
mentary, but  am  original  work,  compiled  in  the  time  of  Csesar  (Censorin.  de  Die 
Natali,  c.  iii.  p.  13  ;  Duker  de  Latinitate  J.  C.  p.  157).a 


a  Much  has  been  written  since  the  time  of  Gibbon  respecting  this  compilation  of 
Papirius  ;  but  nothing  certain  is  known,  and  all  conjecture  is  fruitless.  Even  the 
name  of  the  compiler  is  not  quite  certain,  as  he  is  variously  called  Caius,  Sextus, 
and  Publius.  Dionysius  says  (iii.  36)  that  Caius  Papirius,  the  Pontifex  Maximus, 
made  a  collection  of  the  religious  ordinances  of  Numa,  after  the  expulsion  of  the 
last  Tarquin  ;  and  Pomponius  (Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  2,  leg.  2,  §  2,  36)  states  that  Sex- 
tus  or  Publius  Papirius  made  a  compilation  of  all  the  Leges  Regise.  The  best  no- 
tice of  the  fragments  of  the  Leges  Regiae  is  by  Diiksen  in  his  Versuchen  zur  Kritik 
und  Auslegung  der  Quellen  des  Romischen  Rechts.    See  Zimmern,  Geschichte  des 


Cn.  XLIV.]  LAWS  OF  THE  KINGS  OF  ROME.  431 

antiquarians;9  and  above  twenty  texts  still  speak  the  rudeness 
of  the  Pelasgic  idiom  of  the  Latins.10 

I  shall  not  repeat  the  well-known  story  of  the  Decemvirs,11 

9  A  pompous,  though  feeble,  attempt  to  restore  the  original  is  made  in  the  His- 
toire  de  la  Jurisprudence  Romaine  of  Terrasson,  p.  22-72  ;  Paris,  1750,  in  folio; 
a  work  of  more  promise  than  performance. 

10  In  the  year  1444  seven  or  eight  tables  of  brass  were  dug  up  between  Cortona 
and  Gubbio.  A  part  of  these  (for  the  rest  is  Etruscan)  represents  the  primitive 
state  of  the  Pelasgic  letters  and  language,  which  are  ascribed  by  Herodotus  to  that 
district  of  Italy  (1.  i.  c.  56,  57,  58)  ;  though  this  difficult  passage  may  be  explained 
of  a  Crestona  in  Thrace  (Notes  de  Larcher,  torn.  i.  p.  256-26 l).a  The  savage  dia- 
lect of  the  Eugubine  Tables  has  exercised,  and  may  still  elude,  the  divination  of 
criticism  ;  but  the  root  is  undoubtedly  Latin,  of  the  same  age  and  character  as  the 
Saliare  Carmen,  which,  in  the  time  of  Horace,  none  could  understand. b  The  Ro- 
man idiom,  by  an  infusion  of  Doric  and  iEolic  Greek,0  was  gradually  ripened  into 
the  style  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  of  the  Duilian  column,  ofEnmus,  of  Terence,  and 
of  Cicero  (Gruter.  Inscript.  torn.  i.  p.  cxlii.;  Scipion  Maffei,  Istoria  Diplomatica, 
p.  241-258  ;  Bibliotheque  Italique,  torn.  iii.  p.  30-41,  174-205  ;  torn.  xiv.  p.  1-52). 

II  Compare  Livy  (1.  iii.  c.  31-59)  with  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis  (1.  x.  [c.  55J 
p.  644 — xi.  [c.  1  seq.]  p.  691).     How  concise  and  animated  is  the  Roman — how 


Romischen  Privatrechts,  vol.  i.  p.  86,  88 ;  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Rom.  Antiq, 
p.  659,  2d  edit.;  Diet,  of  Biogr.  vol.  iii.  p.  1 18.— S. 

a  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  Pelasgian  inhabitants  of  Creston,  a  town  above  the 
Tyrrhenians.  The  mention  of  the  Tyrrhenians  has  led  many  writers,  whom  Gib- 
bon follows,  to  conclude  that  Creston  was  a  city  of  Italy.  Niebuhr,  on  the  au- 
thority of  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus  (Antiq.  Rom.  i.  c.  29),  proposes  to  read  Cro- 
ton  instead  of  Creston  in  Herodotus,  regarding  this  city  as  Cortona,  in  Etruria ; 
but  this  seems  improbable,  as  Herodotus  couples  Creston  with  Scylace  and  Placie, 
on  the  Hellespont.  The  Tyrrhenians  mentioned  by  Herodotus  in  this  passage  are 
probably  the  Tyrrhenian  Pelasgians  of  Mount  Ariios ;  and  Creston  was  a  town  in 
Crestonia,  a  district  of  Macedonia.  See  Niebuhr,  Hist,  of  Rome,  vol.  i.  p.  34,  note 
89;  Miiller,  Etrusker,  vol.  i.  p.  94  seq.;  Lepsius,  Tyrrhenische  Pelasger,  p.  18 
seq.  — S. 

b  The  Eugubine  Tables  contain  four  inscriptions  in  Etruscan  characters,  two  in 
Latin,  and  one  partially  in  Etruscan  and  partially  in  Latin  characters ;  but  the 
language  is  in  all  cases  apparently  the  same,  and  is  wholly  distinct  from  that  of  the 
genuine  Etruscan  monuments  on  the  one  hand,  as  well  as  from  Latin  on  the  oth- 
er, though  exhibiting  strong  traces  of  affinity  with  the  older  Latin  forms,  as  well 
as  with  the  existing  remains  of  the  Oscan  dialects.  The  best  modern  scholars  are 
agreed  that  the  language  which  we  here  find  is  that  of  the  Umbrians  themselves, 
who  are  represented  by  all  ancient  writers  as  nationally  distinct  both  from  the 
Etruscan  and  Sabellian  races.  The  best  works  on  the  interpretation  of  these  Ta- 
bles are — Lepsius  De  Tabulis  Eugubinis,  1833  ;  Inscriptiones  Umbricse  et  Oscse, 
1841 ;  Grotefend,  Rudimenta  Linguae  Umbricaa,  1835-1839  ;  Aufiecht  und  Kirch- 
hoff,  Die  Umbrischen  Sprach-Denkmaler,  1849.  See  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and 
Rom.  Geography,  vol.  i.  p.  30. — S. 

e  This  remark  belongs  to  the  scholarship  of  a  former  age.  It  is  almost  unnec- 
essary to  remark  that  the  Latin  language  is  not  borrowed  from  the  Greek,  but  is 
as  ancient  as  the  latter,  and  that  their  similarity  is  owing  to  their  both  being 
members  of  the  great  Indo-European  family  of  languages. — S. 


432  THE  TWELVE  TABLES.  [Ch.  XL1T. 

who  sullied  by  their  actions  the  honor  of  inscribing  on  brass, 

or  wood,  or  ivory,  the  twelve  tables  of  the  Bo- 

Tabiea  of  the  man  laws."     They  were  dictated  by  the  rigid  and 

Decemvirs.        .  ..  J  ,  -i.ii-i.iii 

jealous  spirit  of  an  aristocracy  which  had  yielded 
with  reluctance  to  the  just  demands  of  the  people.  But  the 
substance  of  the  Twelve  Tables  was  adapted  to  the  state  of 
the  city,  and  the  Komans  had  emerged  from  barbarism,  since 
they  were  capable  of  studying  and  embracing  the  institu- 
tions of  their  more  enlightened  neighbors.  A  wise  Ephe- 
sian  was  driven  by  envy  from  his  native  country :  before  he 
could  reach  the  shores  of  Latium,  he  had  observed  the  vari- 
ous forms  of  human  nature  and  civil  society;  he  imparted 
his  knowledge  to  the  legislators  of  Rome,  and  a  statue  was 
erected  in  the  Forum  to  the  perpetual  memory  of  Hermodo- 
rus.18  The  names  and  divisions  of  the  copper  money,  the  sole 
coin  of  the  infant  State,  were  of  Dorian  origin  ;14  the  harvests 

prolix  and  lifeless  the  Greek !     Yet  he  has  admirably  judged  the  masters,  and  de- 
fined the  rules,  of  historical  composition. 

12  From  the  historians,  Heineccius  (Hist.  J.  E.  1.  i.  No.  26)  maintains  that  the 
Twelve  Tables  were  of  brass  —  cereas:  in  the  text  of  Pomponius  we  read  eboreas; 
for  which  Scaliger  has  substituted  roboreas  (Bynkershoek,  p.  286).  Wood,  brass, 
and  ivory  might  be  successively  employed.* 

13  His  exile  is  mentioned  by  Cicero  (Tusculan.  Qusestion.  v.  36);  his  statue  by 
Pliny  (Hist.  Nat.  xxxiv.  11).  The  letter,  dream,  and  prophecy  of  Heraclitus  are 
alike  spurious  (Epistoke  Grsec.  Divers,  p.  337). b 

14  This  intricate  subject  of  the  Sicilian  and  Roman  money  is  ably  discussed  by 
Dr.  Bentley  (Dissertation  on  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris,  p.  427-479),  whose  powers 
in  this  controversy  were  called  forth  by  honor  and  resentment. 


■  Niebuhr  justly  observes  that  the  notion  of  ivory  tables  (eborece,  not  roborece  by 
aisy  means)  in  Pomponius  is  in  the  spirit  of  an  age  which  could  form  no  concep- 
tion of  anything  important  without  show  and  costliness  in  the  materials ;  it  was 
probably  suggested  by  the  ivory  diptychs.  Hist,  of  Rome,  vol.  ii.  p.  316,  note 
720.— S. 

It  is  a  more  important  question  whether  the  Twelve  Tables  in  fact  include  laws 
Imported  from  Greece.  The  negative  opinion  maintained  by  our  author  is  now 
almost  universally  adopted,  particularly  by  MM.  Niebuhr,  Hugo,  and  others.  See 
my  Institutiones  Juris  Romani  privati  Leodii,  1819,  p.  311,  312. — W.  Dr.  Ar- 
nold, p.  255,  seems  to  incline  to  the  opposite  opinion.  Compare  some  just  and  sen- 
sible observations  in  the  Appendix  to  Mr.  Travers  Twiss's  Epitome  of  Niebuhr,  p. 
347,  Oxford,  1836.— M.  Mr.  Phillimore,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  study  of  Ro- 
man Law  (p.  160),  maintains  that  the  elements  of  Greek  law  existing  in  the  Ro- 
man law  are  much  more  numerous  than  are  usually  supposed. — S. 

b  Niebuhr  accepts  the  tradition  that  Hermodorus  assisted  the  Decemvirs  in 
framing  their  laws,  but  that  the  share  he  had  in  the  Twelve  Tables  was  confined 
to  the  constitution.     Hist,  of  Rome,  vol.  ii.  p.  309. — S, 


Ch.  XLIV.]  the  twelve  tables.  433 

of  Campania  and  Sicily  relieved  the  wants  of  a  people  whose 
agriculture  was  often  interrupted  by  war  and  faction ;  and 
since  the  trade  was  established,"  the  deputies  who  sailed  from 
the  Tiber  might  return  from  the  same  harbors  with  a  more 
precious  cargo  of  political  wisdom.  The  colonies  of  Great, 
Greece  had  transported  and  improved  the  arts  of  their  moth- 
er-country. Cumse  and  Rhegium,  Crotona  and  Tarentum,  Ag- 
rigentum  and  Syracuse,  were  in  the  rank  of  the  most  flourish- 
ing cities.  The  disciples  of  Pythagoras  applied  philosophy  to 
the  use  of  government,  the  unwritten  laws  of  Charondas  ac- 
cepted the  aid  of  poetry  and  music,18  and  Zaleucus  framed 
the  republic  of  the  Locrians,  which  stood  without  alteration 
above  two  hundred  years."  From  a  similar  motive  of  na- 
tional pride,  both  Livy  and  Dionysius  are  willing  to  believe 
that  the  deputies  of  Rome  visited  Athens  under  the  wise  and 
splendid  administration  of  Pericles,  and  the  laws  of  Solon 
were  transfused  into  the  Twelve  Tables.  If  such  an  embassy 
had  indeed  been  received  from  the  barbarians  of  Hesperia, 
the  Roman  name  would  have  been  familiar  to  the  Greeks  be- 
fore the  reign  of  Alexander,18  and  the  faintest  evidence  would 


15  The  Eomans,  or  their  allies,  sailed  as  far  as  the  fair  promontory  of  Africa 
(Polyb.  1.  iii.  [c.  22]  p.  177,  edit.  Casaubon,  in  folio).  Their  voyages  to  Cumse, 
etc.,  are  noticed  by  Livy  and  Dionysius. 

16  This  circumstance  would  alone  prove  the  antiquity  of  Charondas,  the  legisla- 
tor of  Rhegium  and  Catana,  who,  by  a  strange  error  of  Diodorus  Siculus  (torn.  i. 
1.  xii.  [c.  11  seq.]  p.  485-492),  is  celebrated  long  afterwards  as  the  author  of  the 
policy  of  Thurium. 

11  Zaleucus,  whose  existence  has  been  rashly  attacked,  had  the  merit  and  glory 
of  converting  a  band  of  outlaws  (the  Locrians)  into  the  most  virtuous  and  orderly 
of  the  Greek  republics.  (See  two  Me'moires  of  the  Baron  de  St.  Croix,  sur  la  Le- 
gislation de  la  Grande  Grece;  Me'm.  de  l'Acade'mie,  torn.  xlii.  p.  276-333.)  But 
the  laws  of  Zaleucus  and  Charondas,  which  imposed  on  Diodorus  and  Stobasus, 
are  the  spurious  composition  of  a  Pythagorean  sophist,  whose  fraud  has  been  de- 
tected by  the  critical  sagacity  of  Bentley,  p.  335-377. 

18  I  seize  the  opportunity  of  tracing  the  progress  of  this  national  intercourse  : 
1.  Herodotus  and  Thucydides  (a.u.c.  300-350)  appear  ignorant  of  the  name  and 
existence  of  Rome  (Joseph,  contra  Apion.  torn.  ii.  1.  i.  c.  12,  p.  444,  edit.  Haver- 
camp.).  2.  Theopompus  (a.u.c.  400,  Plin.  iii.  9)  mentions  the  invasion  of  the 
Gauls,  which  is  noticed  in  looser  terms  by  Heraclides  Ponticus  (Plutarch  in  Ca- 
millo  [c.  15],  p.  292,  edit.  H.  Stephan.).  3.  The  real  or  fabulous  embassy  of  the 
Romans  to  Alexander  (a.u.c.  430)  is  attested  by  Gits'-chus  (Plin.  iii.  9),  by  Aril* 

IV.— 3S 


434  THE  TWELVE  TABLES.  [Ch.  iLIV. 

have  been  explored  and  celebrated  by  the  curiosity  of  suc- 
ceeding times.  But  the  Athenian  monuments  are  silent,  nor 
will  it  seem  credible  that  the  Patricians  should  undertake  a 
long  and  perilous  navigation  to  copy  the  purest  model  of  a 
democracy.  In  the  comparison  of  the  tables  of  Solon  with 
those  of  the  Decemvirs,  some  casual  resemblance  may  be 
found ;  some  rules  which  nature  and  reason  have  revealed  to 
every  society ;  some  proofs  of  a  common  descent  from  Egypt 
or  Phoenicia.19  But  in  all  the  great  lines  of  public  and  pri- 
vate jurisprudence  the  legislators  of  Rome  and  Athens  appear- 
to  be  strangers  or  adverse  to  each  other. 

Whatever  might  be  the  origin  or  the  merit  of  the  Twelve 
Tables,20  they  obtained  among  the  Romans  that  blind  and  par- 
tial reverence  which  the  lawyers  of  every  country 

Their  char-  J         .    .       ,    .    J   .        .       J 

acierand  delight  to  bestow  on  their  municipal  institutions. 
The  study  is  recommended  by  Cicero21  as  equally 
pleasant  and  instructive.  "  They  amuse  the  mind  by  the  re- 
membrance of  old  words  and  the  portrait  of  ancient  manners ; 
they  inculcate  the  soundest  principles  of  government  and  mor- 
als ;  and  I  am  not  afraid  to  affirm  that  the  brief  composition 

tus  and  Asclepiades  (Arrian,  1.  vii.  [c.  15]  p.  294,  295),  and  by  Memnon  of  Hera- 
clea  (apud  Photium,  cod.  ccxxiv.  p.  725  [p.  229,  edit.  Bekker]),  though  tacitly- 
denied  by  Livy.  4.  Theophrastus  (a.u.c.  440)  primus  externorura  aliqua  de  Ro- 
manis  diligentius  scripsit  (Plin.  iii.  9).  5.  Lycophron  (a.u.c.  480-500)  scattered 
the  first  seed  of  a  Trojan  colony  and  the  fable  of  the  iEneid  (Cassandra,  1226- 
1280) : 

1%  Kal  Sa\d<Tffr]Q  ffKtJTTpa  Kai  /wvapxiav 

Aa€6vT£Q. 

A  bold  prediction  before  the  end  of  the  first  Punic  war. 

19  The  tenth  table,  "  De  modo  sepulture,"  was  borrowed  from  Solon  (Cicero  de 
Legibus,  ii.  23-26) :  the  turtum  per  lancem  et  licium  conceptum  is  derived  by 
Heineccius  from  the  manners  of  Athens  (Antiquitat.  Rom.  torn.  ii.  p.  167-175). 
The  right  of  killing  a  nocturnal  thief  was  declared  by  Moses,  Solon,  and  the  De- 
cemvirs (Exodus  xxii.  2 ;  Demosthenes  contra  Timocratem,  torn.  i.  p.  736,  edit. 
Reiske ;  Macrob.  Saturnalia,  1.  i.  c.  4 ;  Collatio  Legum  Mosaicarum  et  Romana- 
rum,  tit.  vii.  No.  i.  p.  218,  edit.  Cannegieter  [Lugd.  Bat.  1774]). 

20  Bpaxio-'C  K«t  airtpirrioQ  is  the  praise  of  Diodorus  (torn.  i.  1.  xii.  [c.  26]  p.  494), 
which  may  be  fairly  translated  by  the  "  eleganti  atque  absoluta  brevitate  verbo- 
rum"  of  Aulas  Gellius  (Noct.  Attic,  xx.  1). 

21  Listen  to  Cicero  (de  Legibus,  ii.  23)  and  his  representative  Cerassus  (de  Op  ' 
atore,  i.  43,  44). 


Ch.XLIV.]     their  character  and  influence.  435 

of  the  Decemvirs  surpasses  in  genuine  value  the  libraries  of 
Grecian  philosophy.  How  admirable,"  says  Tully,  with  hon- 
est or  affected  prejudice,  "  is  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors! 
We  alone  are  the  masters  of  civil  prudence,  and  our  superior- 
ity is  the  more  conspicuous  if  we  deign  to  cast  our  eyes  on 
the  rude  and  almost  ridiculous  jurisprudence  of  Draco,  of 
Solon,  and  of  Lycurgus."  The  Twelve  Tables  were  commit^ 
ted  to  the  memory  of  the  young  and  the  meditation  of  the 
old ;  they  were  transcribed  and  illustrated  with  learned  dili- 
gence :  they  had  escaped  the  flames  of  the  Gauls,  they  sub- 
sisted in  the  age  of  Justinian,  and  their  subsequent  loss  has 
been  imperfectly  restored  by  the  labors  of  modern  critics.22 
But  although  these  venerable  monuments  were  considered  as 
the  rule  of  right  and  the  fountain  of  justice,23  they  were  over- 
whelmed by  the  weight  and  variety  of  new  laws  which,  at  the 
end  of  five  centuries,  became  a  grievance  more  intolerable 
than  the  vices  of  the  city.24  Three  thousand  brass  plates,  the 
acts  of  the  senate  and  people,  were  deposited  in  the  Capitol ;" 
and  some  of  the  acts,  as  the  Julian  law  against  extortion,  sur- 
passed the  number  of  a  hundred  chapters.28  The  Decemvirs 
had  neglected  to  import  the  sanction  of  Zaleucus,  which  so 
long  maintained  the  integrity  of  his  republic.  A  Locrian 
who  proposed  any  new  law  stood  forth  in  the  assembly  of 
the  people  with  a  cord  round  his  neck,  and  if  the  law  was  re- 
jected the  innovator  was  instantly  strangled. 

22  See  Heineccius  (Hist.  J.  R.  No.  29-33).  I  have  followed  the  restoration  of 
the  twelve  tnbles  by  Gravina  (Origines  J.  C.  p.  280-307)  and  Terrasson  (Hist,  de 
la  Jurisprudence  Roinaine,  p.  94-205).* 

23  Finis  sequi  juris  (Tacit.  Annal.  iii.  27).  Fons  omnis  publici  et  privati  juria 
(T.  Liv.  iii.  34). 

24  De  principiis  juris,  et  quibus  modis  ad  hanc  multitudinem  infinitam  ac  va- 
rietatem  legum  perventum  sit  altius  disseram  (Tacit.  Annal.  iii.  25).  Tbis  deep 
disquisition  fills  only  two  pages,  but  they  are  the  pages  of  Tacitus.  With  equal 
sense,  but  with  less  energy,  Livy  (iii.  34)  bad  complained,  "  in  hoc  immenso  ali- 
arum  super  alias  acervatarum  legum  cumulo,"  etc. 

25  Suetonius  in  Vespasiano,  c.  8.  26  Cicero  ad  Familiares,  viii.  8. 


a  The  most  complete  work  on  the  history  and  criticism  of  the  Twelve  Tables  is 
by  Dirksen — Uebersicbt  der  bisherigen  Versuche  zur  Kritik  und  Herstellung  dea 
Textes  der  Zwolf-Tafel-Fragmente,  Leipzig,  1824.— S. 


436  LAWS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

The  Decemvirs  had  been  named,  and  their  tables  were  ap- 
proved, by  an  assembly  of  the  centuries,  in  which  riches  pre- 
Lawiofth*  ponderated  against  numbers.  To  the  first  class  of 
people.  Romans,  the  proprietors  of  one  hundred  thousand 

pounds  of  copper,"  ninety-eight  votes  were  assigned,  and  only 
ninety-five  were  left  for  the  six  inferior  classes,  distributed 
according  to  their  substance  by  the  artful  policy  of  Servius. 
But  the  tribunes  soon  established  a  more  specious  and  popu* 
lar  maxim,  that  every  citizen  has  an  equal  right  to  enact  the 
laws  which  he  is  bound  to  obey.  Instead  of  the  centuries, 
they  convened  the  tribes ;  and  the  Patricians,  after  an  im- 
potent struggle,  submitted  to  the  decrees  of  an  assembly  in 
which  their  votes  were  confounded  with  those  of  the  meanest 
Plebeians.  Yet  as  long  as  the  tribes  successively  passed  over 
narrow  bridges™  and  gave  their  voices  aloud,  the  conduct  of 
each  citizen  was  exposed  to  the  eyes  and  ears  of  his  friends 
and  countrymen.  The  insolvent  debtor  consulted  the  wishes 
of  his  creditor,  the  client  would  have  blushed  to  oppose  the 
views  of  his  patron,  the  general  was  followed  by  his  veterans, 
and  the  aspect  of  a  grave  magistrate  was  a  living  lesson  to 
the  multitude.  A  new  method  of  secret  ballot  abolished  the 
influence  of  fear  and  shame,  of  honor  and  interest ;  and  the 
abuse  of  freedom  accelerated  the  progress  of  anarchy  and  des- 

81  Dionysius,  with  Arbuthnot,  and  most  of  the  moderns  (except  Eisenschmidt 
de  Ponderibus,  etc.,  p.  137-140),  represent  the  100,000  asses  by  10,000  Attic 
drachmae,  or  somewhat  more  than  300  pounds  sterling.  But  their  calculation 
can  apply  only  to  the  later  times,  when  the  as  was  diminished  to  one  twenty- 
fourth  of  its  ancient  weight :  nor  can  I  believe  that  in  the  first  ages,  however  des- 
titute of  the  precious  metals,  a  single  ounce  of  silver  could  have  been  exchanged 
for  seventy  pounds  of  copper  or  brass.  A  more  simple  and  rational  method  is  to 
value  the  copper  itself  according  to  the  present  rate,  and,  after  comparing  the  mint 
and  the  market-price,  the  Eoman  and  avoirdupois  weight,  the  primitive  as  or  Ro- 
man pound  of  copper  may  be  appreciated  at  one  English  shilling,  and  the  100,000 
asses  of  the  first  class  amounted  to  5000  pounds  sterling.  It  will  appear  from  the 
same  reckoning  that  an  ox  was  sold  at  Rome  for  five  pounds,  a  sheep  for  ten  shil- 
lings, and  a  quarter  of  wheat  for  one  pound  ten  shillings  (Festus,  p.  330,  edit.  Da- 
cier ;  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xviii.  4)  :  nor  do  I  see  any  reason  to  reject  these  conse- 
quences, which  moderate  our  ideas  of  the  poverty  of  the  first  Romans. 

28  Consult  the  common  writers  on  the  Roman  Comitia,  especially  Sigonius  and 
Beaufort.  Spanheim  (de  Prasstantia  et  Usu  Numismatum,  torn.  ii.  dissert,  x.  p. 
192, 193)  shows,  on  a  curious  medal,  the  Cista,  Pontes,  Septa,  Diribitor,  etc. 


Ch.  XLIV.]  decrees  of  the  senate.  437 

potism."  The  Eomans  had  aspired  to  be  equal,  they  were 
levelled  by  the  equality  of  servitude,  and  the  dictates  of  Au- 
gustus were  patiently  ratified  by  the  formal  consent  of  the 
tribes  or  centuries.  Once,  and  once  only,  he  experienced  a 
sincere  and  strenuous  opposition.  His  subjects  had  resigned 
all  political  liberty ;  they  defended  the  freedom  of  domestic 
life.  A  law  which  enforced  the  obligation  and  strengthened 
the  bonds  of  marriage  was  clamorously  rejected ;  Propertius, 
in  the  arms  of  Delia,  applauded  the  victory  of  licentious  love ; 
and  the  project  of  reform  was  suspended  till  a  new  and  more 
tractable  generation  had  arisen  in  the  world.80  Such  an  ex- 
ample was  not  necessary  to  instruct  a  prudent  usurper  of  the 
mischief  of  popular  assemblies ;  and  their  abolition,  which 
Augustus  had  silently  prepared,  was  accomplished  without 
resistance,  and  almost  without  notice,  on  the  accession  of  his 
successor.81  Sixty  thousand  Plebeian  legislators,  whom  num- 
bers made  formidable  and  poverty  secure,  were  supplanted 
by  six  hundred  senators,  who  held  their  honors,  their  fortunes, 
and  their  lives  by  the  clemency  of  the  emperor.  The  loss  of 
executive  power  was  alleviated  by  the  gift  of  legislative  au- 
thority ;  and  Ulpian  might  assert,  after  the  practice  of  two 
Decrees  of  hundred  years,  that  the  decrees  of  the  senate  ob- 
the  senate,  tained  the  force  and  validity  of  laws.  In  the  times 
of  freedom  the  resolves  of  the  people  had  often  been  dictated 
by  the  passion  or  error  of  the  moment :  the  Cornelian,  Pom- 
peian,  and  Julian  laws  were  adapted  by  a  single  hand  to  the 
prevailing  disorders ;  but  the  senate,  under  the  reign  of  the 
Caesars,  was  composed  of  magistrates  and  lawyers,  and  in  ques- 
tions of  private  jurisprudence  the  integrity  of  their  judgment 
was  seldom  perverted  by  fear  or  interest.82 


89  Cicero  (de  Legibus,  iii.  16, 17, 18)  debates  this  constitutional  question,  and 
assigns  to  his  brother  Quintus  the  most  unpopular  side. 

30  Prae  tumultu  recusantium  perferre  non  potuit  (Sueton.  in  August,  c.  34).  See 
Propertius,  1.  ii.  eleg.  6  [or  7].  Heineccius,  in  a  separate  history,  has  exhausted 
the  whole  subject  of  the  Julian  and  Papian-Popptean  laws  (Opp.  torn.  vii.  pt.  i.  p. 
1-479). 

31  Tacit.  Annal.  i.  15  ;  Lipsius,  Excursus  E,  in  Taciturn. 

82  "  Non  ambigitur  senatum  jus  facere  posse,"  is  the  decision  of  Ulpian  (1.  xvi. 


438  EDICTS  OF  THE  PR.ETORS.  [Ch.  XLI V. 

The  silence  or  ambiguity  of  the  laws  was  supplied  by  the 
Edicts  of  the  occasional  edicts  of  those  magistrates  who  were  in- 
praetors.  vested  with  the  honors  of  the  State.33  This  ancient 
prerogative  of  the  Roman  kings  was  transferred  in  their  respec- 

ad  Edict,  in  Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  iii.  leg.  9).     Pomponius  taxes  the  comitia  of  the  peo- 
ple as  a  turba  hominum  (Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  leg.  9).a 

s3  The  jus  honorarium  of  the  praetors  and  other  magistrates  is  strictly  defined 
in  the  Latin  text  of  the  Institutes  (1.  i.  tit.  ii.  No.  7),  and  more  loosely  explained 
in  the  Greek  paraphrase  of  Theophilus  (p.  33-38,  edit.  Reitz),  who  drops  the  im- 
portant word  honorarium.^ 


a  The  author  adopts  the  opinion  that  under  the  emperors  alone  the  senate  had 
a  share  in  the  legislative  power.  They  had  nevertheless  participated  in  it  under 
the  Republic,  since  senatus-consulta  relating  to  civil  rights  have  been  preserved 
which  are  much  earlier  than  the  reigns  of  Augustus  or  Tiberius.  It  is  true  that 
under  the  emperors  the  senate  exercised  this  right  more  frequently,  and  that  the 
assemblies  of  the  people  had  become  much  more  rare,  though  in  law  they  were 
still  permitted,  in  the  time  of  Ulpian.  (See  the  fragments  of  Ulpian.)  Bach  has 
clearly  demonstrated  that  the  senate  had  the  same  power  in  the  time  of  the  Re- 
public. It  is  natural  that  the  senatus-consulta  should  have  been  more  frequent 
under  the  emperors,  because  they  employed  those  means  of  flattering  the  pride  of 
the  senators,  by  granting  them  the  right  of  deliberating  on  all  affairs  which  did 
not  intrench  on  the  imperial  power.  Compare  the  discussions  of  M.  Hugo,  vol.  L 
p.  284  et  seq.— W. 

b  The  author  here  follows  the  opinion  of  Heineccius,  who,  according  to  the  idea 
of  his  master  Thomasius,  was  unwilling  to  suppose  that  magistrates  exercising  a 
judicial  could  share  in  the  legislative  power.  For  this  reason  he  represents  the 
edicts  of  the  praetors  as  absurd.  (See  his  work,  Historia  Juris  Romani,  69,  74.) 
But  Heineccius  had  altogether  a  false  notion  of  this  important  institution  of  the 
Romans,  to  which  we  owe  in  a  great  degree  the  perfection  of  their  jurisprudence. 
Heineccius,  therefore,  in  his  own  days,  had  many  opponents  of  his  system,  among 
others  the  celebrated  Ritter,  professor  at  Wittenberg,  who  contested  it  in  notes  ap- 
pended to  the  work  of  Heineccius,  and  retained  in  all  subsequent  editions  of  that 
book.  After  Ritter,  the  learned  Bach  undertook  to  vindicate  the  edicts  of  the 
praetors  in  his  Historia  Jurisprud.  Rom.  edit.  6,  p.  218,  224.  But  it  remained  for 
a  civilian  of  our  own  days  to  throw  light  on  the  spirit  and  true  character  of  this 
institution.  M.  Hugo  has  completely  demonstrated  that  the  praetorian  edicts  fur- 
nished the  salutary  means  of  perpetually  harmonizing  the  legislation  with  the  spir- 
it of  the  times.  The  praetors  were  the  true  organs  of  public  opinion.  It  was  not 
according  to  their  caprice  that  they  framed  their  regulations,  but  according  to  the 
manners  and  to  the  opinions  of  the  great  civil  lawyers  of  their  day.  We  know 
from  Cicero  himself  that  it  was  esteemed  a  great  honor  among  the  Romans  to 
publish  an  edict,  well  conceived  and  well  drawn.  The  most  distinguished  lawyers 
of  Rome  were  invited  by  the  praetor  to  assist  in  framing  this  annual  law,  which, 
according  to  its  principle,  was  only  a  declaration  which  the  praetor  made  to  the 
public,  to  announce  the  manner  in  which  he  would  judge,  and  to  guard  against  ev- 
ery charge  of  partiality.  Those  who  had  reason  to  fear  his  opinions  might  delay 
their  cause  till  the  following  year. 

The  praetor  was  responsible  for  all  the  faults  which  he  committed.  The  trib- 
unes could  lodge  an  accusation  against  the  praetor  who  issued  a  partial  edict.  He  I 
was  bound  strictly  to  follow  and  to  observe  the  regulations  published  by  him  at 
the  commencement  of  his  year  of  office,  according  to  the  Cornelian  law,  by  which 
these  edicts  were  called  perpetual,  and  he  could  make  no  change  in  a  regulation : 


CH.XL1Y.]  EDICTS  OF  THE  PRAETORS.  439 

tive  offices  to  the  consuls  and  dictators,  the  censors  and  prae- 
tors; and  a  similar  right  was  assumed  by  the  tribunes  of  the 
people,  the  aediles,  and  the  proconsuls.  At  Rome,  and  in  the 
provinces,  the  duties  of  the  subject  and  the  intentions  of  the 
governor  were  proclaimed ;  and  the  civil  jurisprudence  was 
reformed  by  the  annual  edicts  of  the  supreme  judge,  the  proa- 
tor  of  the  city.a  As  soon  as  he  ascended  his  tribunal,  he  an- 
nounced by  the  voice  of  the  crier,  and  afterwards  inscribed 
on  a  white  wall,  the  rules  which  he  proposed  to  follow  in 
the  decision  of  doubtful  cases,  and  the  relief  which  his  equity 
would  afford  from  the  precise  rigor  of  ancient  statutes.  A 
principle  of  discretion  more  congenial  to  monarchy  was  in- 
troduced into  the  republic :  the  art  of  respecting  the  name 
and  eluding  the  efficacy  of  the  laws  was  improved  by  succes- 
sive praetors ;  subtleties  and  fictions  were  invented  to  defeat 
the  plainest  meaning  of  the  Decemvirs ;  and  where  the  end 
was  salutary,  the  means  were  frequently  absurd.     The  secret 

once  published.  The  prastor  was  obliged  to  submit  to  his  own  edict,  and  to  judge 
his  own  affairs  according  to  its  provisions.  These  magistrates  had  no  power  of 
departing  from  the  fundamental  laws,  or  the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  The 
people  held  them  in  such  consideration,  that  they  rarely  enacted  laws  contrary  to 
their  provisions ;  but  as  some  provisions  were  found  inefficient,  others  opposed  to 
the  manners  of  the  people  and  to  the  spirit  of  subsequent  ages,  the  praetors,  still 
maintaining  respect  for  the  laws,  endeavored  to  bring  them  into  accordance  with 
the  necessities  of  the  existing  time,  by  such  fictions  as  best  suited  the  nature  of 
the  case.  In  what  legislation  do  we  not  find  these  fictions,  which  even  yet  exist, 
absurd  and  ridiculous  as  they  are,  among  the  ancient  laws  of  modern  nations  ? 
These  always  variable  edicts  at  length  comprehended  the  whole  of  the  Roman  leg- 
islature, and  became  the  subject  of  the  commentaries  of  the  most  celebrated  law- 
yers. They  must,  therefore,  be  considered  as  the  basis  of  all  the  Roman  jurispru- 
dence comprehended  in  the  Digest  of  Justinian. 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  M.  Schrader  has  written  on  this  important  institution, 
proposing  it  for  imitation  as  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  our  manners  and  agree- 
able to  our  political  institutions,  in  order  to  avoid  immature  legislation  becoming 
a  permanent  evil.  See  the  History  of  the  Roman  Law  by  M.  Hugo,  vol.  i.  p.  296, 
etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  30  et  seq.,  78  et  seq.,  and  the  note  in  my  elementary  book  on  the 
Institutes,  p.  313.  With  regard  to  the  works  best  suited  to  give  information  on 
the  framing  and  the  form  of  these  edicts,  see  Haubold,  Institutiones  Literariae, 
torn.  i.  p.  321,368. 

All  that  Heineccius  says  about  the  usurpation  of  the  right  of  making  these 
edicts  by  the  praetors  is  false,  and  contrary  to  all  historical  testimony.  A  multi- 
tude of  authorities  proves  that  the  magistrates  were  under  an  obligation  to  publish 
these  edicts. — W. 

a  Compare  throughout  the  brief  but  admirable  sketch  of  the  progress  and  growth 
of  the  Roman  jurisprudence,  the  necessary  operation  of  the  jus  gentium,  when 
Rome  became  the  sovereign  of  nations,  upon  the  jus  civile  of  the  citizens  of 
Rome,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Savigny,  Geschichte  des  Romischen  Rechts  im  Mifr 
telalter.— M. 


440  THE  PEKPETUAL  EDICT.  [CH.XLIV. 

or  probable  wish  of  the  dead  was  suffered  to  prevail  over  the 
order  of  succession  and  the  forms  of  testaments;  and  th9 
claimant,  who  was  excluded  from  the  character  of  heir,  ac- 
cepted with  equal  pleasure  from  an  indulgent  praetor  the  pos- 
session of  the  goods  of  his  late  kinsman  or  benefactor.  In 
the  redress  of  private  wrongs,  compensations  and  fines  were 
substituted  to  the  obsolete  rigor  of  the  Twelve  Tables ;  time 
and  space  were  annihilated  by  fanciful  suppositions ;  and  the 
plea  of  youth,  or  fraud,  or  violence,  annulled  the  obligation 
or  excused  the  performance  of  an  inconvenient  contract.  A 
jurisdiction  thus  vague  and  arbitrary  was  exposed  to  the  most 
dangerous  abuse ;  the  substance,  as  well  as  the  form  of  jus- 
tice, were  often  sacrificed  to  the  prejudices  of  virtue,  the  bias 
of  laudable  affection,  and  the  grosser  seductions  of  interest  or 
resentment.  But  the  errors  or  vices  of  each  praetor  expired 
with  his  annual  office ;  such  maxims  alone  as  had  been  ap- 
proved by  reason  and  practice  were  copied  by  succeeding 
judges;  the  rule  of  proceeding  was  defined  by  the  solution 
of  new  cases ;  and  the  temptations  of  injustice  were  removed 
by  the  Cornelian  law,  which  compelled  the  praetor  of  the  year 
to  adhere  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  his  first  proclamation.8* 
It  was  reserved  for  the  curiosity  and  learning  of  Hadrian  to 
accomplish  the  design  which  had  been  conceived  by  the  gen- 
ius of  Caesar ;  and  the  praetorship  of  Salvius  Julian,  an  emi- 
nent lawyer,  was  immortalized  by  the  composition  of  the  pek- 
The  Perpet-  petual  edict.  This  well-digested  code  was  ratified 
uai  Edict.  j>y  tjie  emperor  an(j  the  senate ;  the  long  divorce 
of  law  and  equity  was  at  length  reconciled ;  and,  instead  of 
the  Twelve  Tables,  the  Perpetual  Edict  was  fixed  as  the  in- 
variable standard  of  civil  jurisprudence.8* 


34  Dion  Cassius  (torn.  i.  1.  xxxvi.  [c.  23]  p.  100)  fixes  the  perpetual  edicts  in 
the  year  of  Rome  686.  Their  institution,  however,  is  ascribed  to  the  year  585 
in  the  Acta  Diurna,  which  have  been  published  from  the  papers  of  Ludovicus 
Vives.  Their  authenticity  is  supported  or  allowed  by  Pighius  (Annal.  Roman, 
torn.  ii.  p.  377,  378),  Graevius  (ad  Sueton.  p.  778),  Dodwell  (Praelection.  Cambden, 
p.  665),  and  Heineccius :  but  a  single  word,  Scutum  Cimbricum,  detects  the  forg- 
ery (Moyle's  Works,  vol.  L  p.  303). 

86  The  history  of  edicts  is  composed,  and  the  text  of  the  perpetual  edict  is  re* 


Ch.  XLIV.]     constitutions  of  the  emperors.  441 

From  Augustus  to  Trajan,  the  modest  Csesars  were  content 
to  promulgate  their  edicts  in  the  various  characters 

Constltn-  »       -r,  .  i  .        ,        i  »    -, 

tiouaofth*     of  a  Koman  magistrate;  and  in  the  decrees  of  the 

senate  the  epistUi  and  orations  of  the  prince  were 

respectfully  inserted.     Hadrian"  appears  to  have  been  the 

stored,  by  the  master-hand  of  Heineccius  (Opp.  torn.  vii.  pt.  ii.  p.  1-564)  ;■  in 
whose  researches  I  might  safely  acquiesce.  In  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions, 
M.  Bouchaud  has  given  a  series  of  memoirs  to  this  interesting  subject  of  law  and 
literature. b 

86  His  laws  are  the  first  in  the  Code.    See  Dodwell  (Praelect.  Cambden,  p.  319- 
840),  who  wanders  from  the  subject  in  confused  reading  and  feeble  paradox.' 


•  This  restoration  was  only  the  commencement  of  a  work  found  among  the  pa- 
pers of  Heineccius,  and  published  after  his  death. — G. 

b  Gibbon  has  here  fallen  into  an  error,  with  Heineccius,  and  almost  the  whole 
literary  world,  concerning  the  real  meaning  of  what  is  called  the  perpetual  edict 
of  Hadrian.  Since  the  Cornelian  law,  the  edicts  were  perpetual,  but  only  in  this 
sense,  that  the  praetor  could  not  change  them  during  trie  year  of  his  magistracy. 
And  although  it  appears  that  under  Hadrian  the  civilian  Julianus  made,  or  as- 
sisted in  making,  a  complete  collection  of  the  edicts  (which  certainly  had  been 
done  likewise  before  Hadrian,  for  example,  by  Ofilius,  "qui  diligenter  edictum 
composuit"),  we  have  no  sufficient  proof  to  admit  the  common  opinion  that  the 
praetorian  edict  was  declared  perpetually  unalterable  by  Hadrian.  The  writers  on 
law  subsequent  to  Hadrian  (and  among  the  rest  Pomponius,  in  his  Summary  of 
the  Roman  Jurisprudence)  speak  of  the  edict  as  it  existed  in  the  time  of  Cicero. 
They  would  not  certainly  have  passed  over  in  silence  so  remarkable  a  change  in 
the  most  important  source  of  the  civil  law.  M.  Hugo  has  conclusively  shown 
that  the  various  passages  in  authors  like  Eutropius  are  not  sufficient  to  establish 
the  opinion  introduced  by  Heineccius.  Compare  Hugo,  vol.  ii.  p.  78.  A  new 
proof  of  this  is  found  in  the  Institutes  of  Gaius,  who,  in  the  first  books  of  his 
work,  expresses  himself  in  the  same  manner,  without  mentioning  any  change 
made  by  Hadrian.  Nevertheless,  if  it  had  taken  place,  he  must  have  noticed  it, 
as  he  does,  1.  i.  §  7,  the  responsa  prudentum,  on  the  occasion  of  a  rescript  of  Ha- 
drian. There  is  no  lacuna  in  the  text.  Why  then  should  Gaius  maintain  silence 
concerning  an  innovation  so  much  more  important  than  that  of  which  he  speaks  ? 
After  all,  this  question  becomes  of  slight  interest,  since,  in  fact,  we  find  no  change 
in  the  perpetual  edict  inserted  in  the  Digest  from  the  time  of  Hadrian  to  the  end 
of  that  epoch,  except  that  made  by  Julian  (compare  Hugo,  1.  c).  The  later  law- 
yers appear  to  follow,  in  their  commentaries,  the  same  text  as  their  predecessors. 
It  is  natural  to  suppose  that,  after  the  labors  of  so  many  men  distinguished  in 
jurisprudence,  the  framing  of  the  edict  must  have  attained  such  perfection  that  it 
would  have  been  difficult  to  have  made  any  innovation.  We  nowhere  find  that 
the  jurists  of  the  Pandects  disputed  concerning  the  words  or  the  drawing  up  of 
the  edict. 

What  difference  would,  in  fact,  result  from  this  with  regard  to  our  codes  and 
our  modern  legislation  ?  Compare  the  learned  Dissertation  of  M.  Biener,  De  Sal- 
vii  Juliani  meritis  in  Edictum  Praetorium  recte  eestimandis.  Lipsiae,  1809,  4to. 
— W. 

c  This  is  again  an  error  which  Gibbon  shares  with  Heineccius  and  the  general- 
ity of  authors.  It  arises  from  having  mistaken  the  insignificant  edict  of  Hadrian, 
inserted  in  the  Code  of  Justinian  (lib.  vi.  tit.  xxiii.  c.  11),  for  the  first  constitutio 
principis,  without  attending  to  the  fact  that  the  Pandects  contain  so  many  con- 
stitutions of  the  emperors  from  Julius  Csesar.     M.  Hugo  justly  observes  that  tha 


442  CONSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  EMPERORS         [Ch.  XLIV. 

first  who  assumed  without  disguise  the  plenitude  of  legisla- 
tive power.  And  this  innovation,  so  agreeable  to  his  active 
mind,  was  countenanced  by  the  patience  of  the  times  and  his 
long  absence  from  the  seat  of  government.  The  same  poli- 
cy was  embraced  by  succeeding  monarchs,  and,  according  to 
the  harsh  metaphor  of  Tertullian,  "  the  gloomy  and  intricate 
forest  of  ancient  laws  was  cleared  away  by  the  axe  of  royal 
mandates  and  constitutions."3''  During  four  centuries,  from 
Hadrian  to  Justinian,  the  public  and  private  jurisprudence 
was  moulded  by  the  will  of  the  sovereign,  and  few  institu- 
tions, either  human  or  divine,  were  permitted  to  stand  on 
their  former  basis.  The  origin  of  imperial  legislation  was 
concealed  by  the  darkness  of  ages  and  the  terrors  of  armed 
despotism ;  and  a  double  fiction  was  propagated  by  the  ser- 
vility, or  perhaps  the  ignorance,  of  the  civilians  who  basked 
in  the  sunshine  of  the  Roman  and  Byzantine  courts.  1.  To 
the  prayer  of  the  ancient  Caesars  the  people  or  the  senate  had 
sometimes  granted  a  personal  exemption  from  the  obligation 
and  penalty  of  particular  statutes,  and  each  indulgence  was 
an  act  of  jurisdiction  exercised  by  the  republic  over  the  first 
of  her  citizens.  His  humble  privilege  was  at  length  trans- 
formed into  the  prerogative  of  a  tyrant ;  and  the  Latin  ex- 
pression of  "  released  from  the  laws  "38  was  supposed  to  exalt 
the  emperor  above  all  human  restraints,  and  to  leave  his 
conscience  and  reason  as  the  sacred  measure  of  his  conduct. 

37  "Totam  illam  veterem  et  squalentem  silvam  legum  novis  principalium  rescrip- 
toruni  et  edictorum  securibus  truncatis  et  caeditis  "  (Apologet.  c.  4,  p.  50,  edit.  Ha- 
vercamp.).  He  proceeds  to  praise  the  recent  firmness  of  Severus,  who  repealed 
the  useless  or  pernicious  laws,  without  any  regard  to  their  age  or  authority. 

88  The  constitutional  style  of  Legibus  solutus  is  misinterpreted  by  the  art  or 
ignorance  of  Dion  Cassius  (torn.  i.  1.  liii.  [c.  18]  p.  713). a  On  this  occasion  his 
editor,  Reimar,  joins  the  universal  censure  which  freedom  and  criticism  have  pro- 
nounced against  that  slavish  historian. 


acta  of  Sylla,  approved  by  the  senate,  were  the  same  thing  with  the  constitutions 
of  those  who  after  him  usurped  the  sovereign  power.  Moreover,  we  find  that  Pliny, 
and  other  ancient  authors,  report  a  multitude  of  rescripts  of  the  emperors  from  the 
fime  of  Augustus.     See  Hugo,  Hist,  du  Droit  Romain,  vol.  ii.  p.  24,  27. — W. 

a  It  seems  certain  that  the  expression  Legibus  solutus  only  meant  "released 
from  particular  laws."  See  the  following  note  respecting  the  Lex  de  Imperial 
Vespasiani. — S. 


Ch.XLIV.]    legislative  powers  OF  THE  EMPEKORS.        44:3 

il.  A  similar  dependence  was  implied  in  the  decrees  of  the 
senate,  which  in  every  reign  defined  the  titles  and  powers  of 
an  elective  magistrate.  But  it  was  not  before  the  ideas  and 
even  the  language  of  the  Komans  had  been  corrupted  that  a 
royal  law,39  and  an  irrevocable  gift  of  the  people,  were  created 
by  the  fancy  of  Ulpian,  or  more  probably  of  Tribonian  him- 
self ;40  and  the  origin  of  imperial  power,  though  false  in  fact 
and  slavish  in  its  consequence,  was  supported  on  a  principle 
of  freedom  and  justice.  "  The  pleasure  of  the  emperor  has 
the  vigor  and  effect  of  law,  since  the  Roman  people,  by  the 
Their  legisia-  royal  law,  have  transferred  to  their  prince  the  full 
tive  power.  extent  of  their  own  power  and  sovereignty."41  a 
The  will  of  a  single  man,  of  a  child,  perhaps,  was  allowed  to 
prevail  over  the  wisdom  of  ages  and  the  inclinations  of  mill- 
ions, and  the  degenerate  Greeks  were  proud  to  declare  that 
in  his  hands  alone  the  arbitrary  exercise  of  legislation  could 
be  safely  deposited.  "What  interest  or  passion,"  exclaims 
Theophilus  in  the  court  of  Justinian,  "  can  reach  the  calm 
and  sublime  elevation  of  the  monarch  ?  he  is  already  master  of 
the  lives  and  fortunes  of  his  subjects,  and  those  who  have  in- 
curred his  displeasure  are  already  numbered  with  the  dead."43 

S9  The  word  (Lex  liegia)  was  still  more  recent  than  the  thing.  Th«  slaves  of 
Commodus  or  Caracalla  would  have  started  at  the  name  of  royalty. 

40  See  Gravina  (Opp.  p.  501-512)  and  Beaufort  (Re'jmblique  Romaine,  torn.  i. 
p.  255-274).  He  has  made  a  proper  use  of  two  dissertations  by  John  Frederick 
Gronovius  and  Noodt,  both  translated,  with  valuable  notes,  by  Barbeyrac,  2  yols. 
in  12mo,  1731. 

41  Institut.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  No.  6 ;  Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  iv.  leg.  1 ;  Cod.  Justinian.  1.  i. 
tit.  xvii.  leg.  1,  No.  7.     In  his  Antiquities  and  Elements,  Heineccius  has  amply 

•eated  de  constitutionibus  principum,  which  are  illustrated  by  Godefroy  (Com- 
ment, ad  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  i.  tit.  i.  ii.  iii.)  and  Gravina  (p.  87-90). 

42  Theophilus,  in  Paraphras.  Graec.  Institut.  p.  33,  34,  edit.  Reitz.      For  his 


1  Imperial  authority  and  legislative  power  were  conferred  even  upon  the  early 
emperors  by  a  law  called  Lex  Imperii,  or  Lex  de  Imperio.  Hence  Gains  says  (1. 
i.  §5),  "Cum  ipse  Imperator  per  legem  impeiium  accipiat."  A  considerable 
fragment  of  the  Lex  de  Imperio  Vespasiani  is  still  preserved  at  Rome.  This 
Lex  empowers  Vespasian  to  make  treaties,  to  originate  senatus-consulta,  to  pro- 
pose persons  to  the  people  and  the  senate  to  be  elected  to  magistracies,  to  extend 
the  Pomoeiium,  to  make  constitutions  or  edicts  which  should  have  the  force  of 
law,  and  to  be  released  from  the  same  laws  from  which  Augustus,  Claudius,  and 
Tiberius  were  released.  It  was  this  Lex  Imperii  which  was  called  Lex  Regia 
under  the  later  emperors.     See  Diet,  of  Antiq.  p.  697,  2d  edit, — S. 


444  RESCRIPTS  OF  THE  EMPERORS.  [Ch.  XLIV, 

Disdaining  the  language  of  flattery,  the  historian  may  confess 
that  in  questions  of  private  jurisprudence  the  absolute  sover- 
eign of  a  great  empire  can  seldom  be  influenced  by  any  per- 
sonal considerations.  Virtue,  or  even  reason,  will  suggest  to 
his  impartial  mind  that  he  is  the  guardian  of  peace  and  equi- 
ty, and  that  the  interest  of  society  is  inseparably  connected 
with  his  own.  Under  the  weakest  and  most  vicious  reign, 
the  seat  of  justice  was  filled  by  the  wisdom  and  integrity  of 
Papinian  and  Ulpian,48  and  the  purest  materials  of  the  Code 
and  Pandects  are  inscribed  with  the  names  of  Caracalla  and 
his  ministers.44  The  tyrant  of  Rome  was  sometimes  the  ben- 
efactor of  the  provinces.  A  dagger  terminated  the  crimes 
of  Domitian ;  but  the  prudence  of  Nerva  confirmed  his  acts, 
which,  in  the  joy  of  their  deliverance,  had  been  rescinded 
Their  re-  by  an  indignant  senate.46  Yet  in  the  rescripts" 
scripts.  replies  to  the  consultations  of  the  magistrates,  the 

wisest  of  princes  might  be  deceived  by  a  partial  exposition  of 
the  case.  And  this  abuse,  which  placed  their  hasty  decisions 
on  the  same  level  with  mature  and  deliberate  acts  of  legisla- 
tion, was  ineffectually  condemned  by  the  sense  and  example 
of  Trajan.  The  rescripts  of  the  emperor,  his  grants  and  de- 
crees, his  edicts  and  pragmatic  sanctions,  were  subscribed  m 
purple  ink,47  and  transmitted  to  the  provinces  as  general  or 

person,  time,  writings,  see  the  Theophilus  of  J.  H.  Mylius,  Excurs.  iii.  p.  1034- 
1073. 

43  There  is  more  envy  than  reason  in  the  complaint  of  Macrinus  (Jul.  Capito- 
lin.  c.  13).  "Nefas  esse  leges  videri  Commodi  et  Caracallae  et  hominum  imperito- 
rum  voluntates."  Commodus  was  made  a  Divus  by  Severus  (Dodwell,  Praelect. 
viii.  p.  324,  325).     Yet  he  occurs  only  twice  in  the  Pandects. 

44  Of  Antoninus  Caracalla  alone  200  constitutions  are  extant  in  the  Code,  and 
with  his  father  160.  These  two  princes  are  quoted  fifty  times  in  the  Pandects 
and  eight  in  the  Institutes  (Terrasson,  p.  265). 

45  Plin.  Secund.  Epistol.  x.  66 ;  Sueton.  in  Domitian.  c.  23. 

46  It  was  a  maxim  of  Constantino,  "Contra  jus  rescripta  non  valeant"  (Cod. 
Theodos.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  leg.  1).  The  emperors  reluctantly  allow  some  scrutiny  into  the 
law  and  the  fact,  some  delay,  petition,  etc. ;  but  these  insufficient  remedies  are 
too  much  in  the  discretion  and  at  the  peril  of  the  judge. 

47  A  compound  of  vermilion  and  cinnabar,  which  marks  the  imperial  diplomas 
from  Leo  I.  (a.d.  470)  to  the  fall  of  the  Greek  empire  (Bibliotheque  Raisonnee  da 
la  Diplomatique,  torn.  i.  p.  509-514 ;  Lami,  de  Eruditione  Apostolorum,  torn.  ii. 
p.  7Z0-726> 


Ch.  XLIV.]      FOEMS  OF  THE  ROMAN  LAW.  445 

special  laws,  which  the  magistrates  were  bound  to  execute 
and  the  people  to  obey.  But  as  their  number  continually 
multiplied,  the  rule  of  obedience  became  each  day  more 
doubtful  and  obscure,  till  the  will  of  the  sovereign  was  fixed 
and  ascertained  in  the  Gregorian,  the  Hermogenian,  and  the 
Theodosian  codes.a  The  two  first,  of  which  some  fragments 
have  escaped,  were  framed  by  two  private  lawyers  to  preserve 
the  constitutions  of  the  Pagan  emperors  from  Hadrian  to 
Constantine.  The  third,  which  is  still  extant,  was  digested  in 
sixteen  books  by  the  order  of  the  younger  Theodosius  to  con- 
secrate the  laws  of  the  Christian  princes  from  Constantine  to 
his  own  reign.  But  the  three  codes  obtained  an  equal  au- 
thority in  the  tribunals,  and  any  act  which  was  not  included 
in  the  sacred  deposit  might  be  disregarded  by  the  judge  as 
spurious  or  obsolete." 

Among  savage  nations  the  want  of  letters  is  imperfectly 
supplied  by  the  use  of  visible  signs,  which  awaken  attention 
Forms  of  the  an(^  perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  any  public  or 
Eoman  law.  private  transaction.  The  jurisprudence  of  the  first 
Romans  exhibited  the  scenes  of  a  pantomime;  the  words 
were  adapted  to  the  gestures,  and  the  slightest  error  or  neg- 
lect in  the  forms  of  proceeding  was  sufficient  to  annul  the 
substance  of  the  fairest  claim.  The  communion  of  the  mar- 
riage life  was  denoted  by  the  necessary  elements  of  fire  and 

48  Schuking,  Jurisprudentia  Ante-Justinianea,  p.  681-718.  Cujacius  assigned 
to  Gregory  the  reigns  from  Hadrian  to  Gallienus,  and  the  continuation  to  his  fel- 
low-laborer Hermogenes.  This  general  division  may  be  just,  but  they  often  tres- 
passed on  each  other's  ground. 


a  Savigny  states  the  following  as  the  authorities  for  the  Roman  law  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  fifth  century : 

1.  The  writings  of  the  jurists  according  to  the  regulations  of  the  Constitution 
of  Valentinian  the  Third,  first  promulgated  in  the  West,  but  by  its  admission  into 
the  Theodosian  Code  established  likewise  in  the  East.  (This  Constitution  estab- 
lished the  authority  of  the  five  great  jurists,  Papinian,  Paulus,  Caius,  Ulpian,  and 
Modestinus,  as  interpreters  of  the  ancient  law.  *  *  *  In  case  of  difference  of  opin- 
ion among  these  five,  a  majority  decided  the  case ;  where  they  were  equal,  tha 
opinion  of  Papinian  ;  where  he  was  silent,  the  judge  :  but  see  p.  40,  and  Hugo, 
vol.  ii.  p.  89.) 

2.  The  Gregorian  and  Hermogenian  Collection  of  the  Imperial  Rescripts. 

3.  The  Code  of  Theodosius  the  Second. 

4.  The  particular  Novelise,  as  additions  and  supplements  to  this  Code.  Savigny 
vol.  i.  p.  10.—  M. 


446  FORMS  OF  THE  ROMAN  LAW.  [Ck.  XLIV. 

water  ;4'  and  the  divorced  wife  resigned  the  bunch  of  keys,  by 
the  delivery  of  which  she  had  been  invested  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  family.  The  manumission  of  a  son  or  a  slave 
was  performed  by  turning  him  round  with  a  gentle  blow  on 
the  cheek  ;  a  work  was  prohibited  by  the  casting  of  a  stone; 
prescription  was  interrupted  by  the  breaking  of  a  branch ; 
the  clinched  fist  was  the  symbol  of  a  pledge  or  deposit;  the 
right  hand  was  the  gift  of  faith  and  confidence.  The  indent 
ure  of  covenants  was  a  broken  straw;  weights  and  scales 
were  introduced  into  every  payment ;  and  the  heir  who  ac- 
cepted a  testament  was  sometimes  obliged  to  snap  his  fingers, 
to  cast  away  his  garments,  and  to  leap  and  dance  with  real  or 
affected  transport.60  If  a  citizen  pursued  any  stolen  goods 
into  a  neighbor's  house,  he  concealed  his  nakedness  with  a 
linen  towel,  and  hid  his  face  with  a  mask  or  basin,  lest  he 
should  encounter  the  eyes  of  a  virgin  or  a  matron."     In  a 

49  Scsevola,  most  probably  Q.  Cervidius  Scasvola,  the  master  of  Papinian,  con- 
siders this  acceptance  of  fire  and  water  as  the  essence  of  marriage  (Pandect.  L 
xxiv.  tit.  1,  leg.  66.     See  Heineccius,  Hist.  J.  R.  No.  317). 

50  Cicero  (de  Officiis,  iii.  19)  may  state  an  ideal  case,  but  St.  Ambrose  (de  Offi- 
ciis,  iii.  2)  appeals  to  the  practice  of  his  own  times,  which  he  understood  as  a  law- 
yer and  a  magistrate  (Schulting  ad  Ulpian.  Fragment,  tit.  xxii.  No.  28,  p.  643, 
644  [Jurispr.  Ante-Justin.]).1 

51  The  furtum  lance  licioque  conceptum  was  no  longer  understood  in  the  time 
of  the  Antonines  (Aulus  Gellius,  xvi.  10).  The  Attic  derivation  of  Heineccius 
(Antiquitat.  Rom.  1.  iv.  tit.  i.  No.  13-21)  is  supported  by  the  evidence  of  Aristo- 
phanes, his  scholiast,  and  Pollux.b 


*  In  this  passage  the  author  has  endeavored  to  collect  all  the  examples  of  judi- 
cial formicaries  which  he  could  find.  That  which  he  adduces  as  the  form  of  ere- 
tio  hereditatis  is  absolutely  false.  It  is  sufficient  to  glance  at  the  passage  in  Cic- 
ero which  he  cites  to  see  that  it  has  no  relation  to  it.  The  author  appeals  to  the 
opinion  of  Schulting,  who,  in  the  passage  quoted,  himself  protests  against  the  ridic- 
ulous and  absurd  interpretation  of  the  passage  in  Cicero,  and  observes  that  Grae- 
vins  had  already  well  explained  the  real  sense.  See  in  Gaius  the  form  of  cretio 
hereditatis,  Instit.  1.  ii.  §  166.— W. 

b  Nothing  more  is  known  of  this  ceremony  ;  nevertheless  we  find  that  already 
in  his  own  days  Gaius  turned  it  into  ridicule.  He  says  (lib.  iii.  §  192,  193),  "  Pro- 
hibit actio  quadrupli  ex  edicto  praetoris  introducta  est ;  lex  autem  eo  nomine  nul- 
lum pcenam  constituit.  Hoc  solum  praecepit,  ut  qui  quaerere  velit,  nudiis  quadrat, 
linteo  cinctus,  lancem  habens  ;  qui  si  quid  invenerit,  jubet  id  lex  furtum  manifat- 
tum  esse.  Quid  sit  autem  linteum,  quaesitum  est.  Sed  verius  est,  consuti  genus 
esse,  quo  necessarian  partes  tegerentur.  Quare  lex  tota  ridicula  est.  Nam  qui 
vestitum  quaerere  probibet,  is  et  nudum  quajrere  prohibiturus  est ;  eo  magis,  quod 
ita  quaesita  res  inventa  majori  poena?  subjiciatur.  Deinde  quod  lancem  sive  ideo 
haberi  jubeat,  ut  manibus  occupatis  nihil  subjiciatur,  sive  ideo,  ut  quod  invenerit, 


Cu.  XLIV.]  FORMS  OF  THE  ROMAN  LAW.  447 

civil  action,  the  plaintiff  touched  the  ear  of  his  witness,  seized 
his  reluctant  adversary  by  the  neck,  and  implored,  in  solemn 
lamentation,  the  aid  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The  two  compet- 
itors grasped  each  other's  hand  as  if  they  stood  prepared  for 
combat  before  the  tribunal  of  the  praetor ;  he  commanded 
them  to  produce  the  object  of  the  dispute ;  they  went,  they 
returned  with  measured  steps,  and  a  clod  of  earth  was  cast 
at  his  feet  to  represent  the  field  for  which  they  contended. 
This  occult  science  of  the  words  and  actions  of  law  was  the 
inheritance  of  the  pontiffs  and  patricians.  Like  the  Chal- 
dsean  astrologers,  they  announced  to  their  clients  the  days  of 
business  and  repose ;  these  important  trifles  were  interwoven 
with  the  religion  of  K"uma,  and  after  the  publication  of  the 
Twelve  Tables  the  Eoman  people  was  still  enslaved  by  the 
ignorance  of  judicial  proceedings.  The  treachery  of  some 
Plebeian  officers  at  length  revealed  the  profitable  mystery ; 
in  a  more  enlightened  age  the  legal  actions  were  derided  and 
observed,  and  the  same  antiquity  which  sanctified  the  prac- 
tice, obliterated  the  use  and  meaning,  of  this  primitive  lan- 
guage.Ba 

A  more  liberal  art  was  cultivated,  however,  by  the  sages  of 
Kome,  who,  in  a  stricter  sense,  may  be  considered  as  the  au- 


52  In  his  Oration  for  Murena  (c.  9-13)  Cicero  turns  into  ridicule  the  forms  and 
mysteries  of  the  civilians,  which  are  represented  with  more  candor  by  Aulus  Gel- 
lius  (Noct.  Attic,  xx.  10),  Gravina  (Opp.  p.  265,  286,  267),  and  Heineccius  (An- 
tiquitat.  ..  iv.  tit.  vi.).a     

ibi  imponat,  neutrum  eorum  procedit,  si  id,  quod  quseratur,  ejus  magnitudinis  aut 
naturae  sit  ut  ueque  suhjiei,  neqne  ibi  imponi  possit.  Ceite  non  dubitatur,  cujus- 
cunque  materise  sit  eahmx,  satis  legi  fieri."  We  see,  moreover,  from  this  passage, 
that  the  basin,  as  most  authors,  resting  on  the  authority  of  Festus,  have  supposed, 
was  not  used  to  cover  the  face. — W.  See  Grimm,  Von  der  Poesie  in  Recht,  Zeit- 
ichrift  fur  geschichtliche  Rechtswissenschaft,vol.  ii. — S. 

a  Gibbon  iiad  conceived  opinions  too  decided  against  the  forms  of  procedure  in 
use  among  the  Romans.  Yet  it  is  on  these  solemn  forms  that  the  certainty  of 
laws  has  been  founded  among  all  nations.  Those  of  the  Romans  were  very  inti- 
mately allied  with  the  ancient  religion,  and  must  of  necessity  have  disappeared  as 
Rome  attained  a  higher  degree  of  civilization.  Have  not  modern  nations,  even 
the  most  civilized,  overloaded  their  laws  with  a  thousand  forms,  often  absurd,  al- 
most always  trivial  ?  How  many  examples  are  afforded  by  the  English  law  ?  See 
on  the  nature  of  these  forms  the  work  of  M.  de  Savigny  on  the  "Vocation  of  our 
Age  for  Legislation  and  Jurisprudence,  Heidelberg,  ISl-i.p.  9,  10.  W. — This 
work  of  M.  Savigny  has  beer,  translated  into  English  by  Mr.  Hay  ward. — M. 


4AS  SUCCESSION  OF  THE  CIVIL  LAWYEKS.      [Ch.  XLIV. 

thors  of  the  civil  law.  The  alteration  of  the  idiom  and  man- 
ners of  the  Eomans  rendered  the  style  of  the  Twelve 
of  the  civil  Tables  less  familiar  to  each  rising  generation,  and 
the  doubtful  passages  were  imperfectly  explained 
by  the  study  of  legal  antiquarians.  To  define  the  ambigui- 
ties, to  circumscribe  the  latitude,  to  apply  the  principles,  to 
extend  the  consequences,  to  reconcile  the  real  or  apparent 
contradictions,  was  a  much  nobler  and  more  important  task ; 
and  the  province  of  legislation  was  silently  invaded  by  the 
expounders  of  ancient  statutes.  Their  subtle  interpretations 
concurred  with  the  equity  of  the  prsetor  to  reform  the  tyr- 
anny of  the  darker  ages ;  however  strange  or  intricate  the 
means,  it  was  the  aim  of  artificial  jurisprudence  to  restore  the 
simple  dictates  of  nature  and  reason,  and  the  skill  of  private 
citizens  was  usefully  employed  to  undermine  the  public  insti- 
tutions of  their  country.  The  revolution  of  almost  one  thou- 
sand years,  from  the  Twelve  Tables  to  the  reign  of  Justinian, 
may  be  divided  into  three  periods  almost  equal  in  duration, 
and  distinguished  from  each  other  by  the  mode  of  instruction 
and  the  character  of  the  civilians.53  Pride  and  ignorance  con- 
The  first  tributed,  during  the  first  period,  to  confine  within 
Pe™d-  narrow  limits  the  science  of  the  Eoman  law.     On 

303-648.  ^e  pUb}jC  dayS  0f  market  or  assembly  the  masters 

of  the  art  were  seen  walking  in  the  Forum,  ready  to  impart 
the  needful  advice  to  the  meanest  of  their  fellow -citizens, 
from  whose  votes,  on  a  future  occasion,  they  might  solicit  a 
grateful  return.     As  their  years  and  honors  increased,  they 

63  The  series  of  the  civil  lawyers  is  deduced  by  Pomponius  (De  Origine  Juris 
Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  [§  35  seq.]).  The  moderns  have  discussed,  with  learning  and 
criticism,  this  branch  of  literary  history ;  and  among  these  I  have  chiefly  been 
guided  by  Gravina(p.  41-79)  and  Heineccius  (Hist.  J.  E.  No.  113-351).  Cicero, 
more  especially  in  his  books  de  Oratore,  de  Claris  Oratoribus,  de  Legibus,  and  the 
Clavis  Ciceroniana  of  Ernesti  (under  the  names  of  Mucins,  etc.),  afford  much  gen- 
uine and  pleasing  information.  Horace  often  alludes  to  the  morning  labors  of  the 
civilians  (Serm.  L  i.  10,  Epist.  II.  i.  103,  etc.). 

"  Agricolam  laudat  juris  legumque  peritus, 
Sub  galli  can  turn  consultor  ubi  ostia  pulsat. 

******* 
Romae  dulce  diu  fuit  et  solemne,  reclusa 
Mane  domo  vigilare,  clienti  promere  jura.* 


Ch.XLIV.]      SUCCESSION  OF  THE  CIVIL  LAWYE2S.  449 

seated  themselves  at  home  on  a  chair  or  throne,  to  expect, 
with  patient  gravity,  the  visits  of  their  clients,  who  at  the 
dawn  of  day,  from  the  town  and  country,  began  to  thunder  at 
their  door.  The  duties  of  social  life  and  the  incidents  of  ju- 
dicial proceeding  were  the  ordinary  subject  of  these  consulta- 
tions, and  the  verbal  or  written  opinion  of  the  juris-consults 
was  framed  according  to  the  rules  of  prudence  and  law.  The 
youths  of  their  own  order  and  family  were  permitted  to  lis- 
ten ;  their  children  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  more  private  les- 
sons, and  the  Mucian  race  was  long  renowned  for  the  he- 
Second  reditary  knowledge  of  the  civil  law.     The  second 

Aen!o.d"  period,  the  learned  and  splendid  age  of  jurispru- 

648-9S8.  dence,  may  be  extended  from  the  birth  of  Cicero 

to  the  reign  of  Severus  Alexander.  A  system  was  formed, 
schools  were  instituted,  books  were  composed,  and  both  the 
living  and  the  dead  became  subservient  to  the  instruction  of 
the  student.  The  tripartite  of  ^Elius  Psetus,  surnamed  Ca- 
tus,  or  the  Cunning,  was  preserved  as  the  oldest  work  of  ju- 
risprudence. Cato  the  censor  derived  some  additional  fame 
from  his  legal  studies  and  those  of  his  son ;  the  kindred  ap- 
pellation of  Mucius  Scsevola  was  illustrated  by  three  sages 
of  the  law,  but  the  perfection  of  the  science  was  ascribed  to 
Servius  Sulpicins,  their  disciple,  and  the  friend  of  Tully ;  and 
the  long  succession,  which  shone  with  equal  lustre  under  the 
republic  and  under  the  Csesars,  is  finally  closed  by  the  re- 
spectable characters  of  Papinian,  of  Paul,  and  of  TTlpian. 
Their  names,  and  the  various  titles  of  their  productions,  have 
been  minutely  preserved,  and  the  example  of  Labeo  may  sug- 
gest some  idea  of  their  diligence  and  fecundity.  That  emi- 
nent lawyer  of  the  Augustan  Age  divided  the  year  between 
the  city  and  country,  between  business  and  composition,  and 
four  hundred  books  are  enumerated  as  the  fruit  of  his  retire- 
ment. Of  the  collections  of  his  rival  Capito,  the  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-ninth  book  is  expressly  quoted,  and  few  teach- 
Thiid  ers  could  deliver  their  opinions  in  less  than  a  cen- 

Pe™d-  tury  of  volumes.     In  the  third  period,  between  the 

988-1230.        reigns  of  Alexander  and  Justinian,  the  oracles  of 
jurisprudence  were   almost  mute.     The  measure  of  curios- 
IY.— 29 


450  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  CIVIL  LAWYERS.     [Ch.  XLIV, 

ity  bad  been  filled ;  tbe  tbrone  was  occupied  by  tyrants  and 
barbarians;  tbe  active  spirits  were  diverted  by  religious  dis- 
putes ;  and  tbe  professors  of  Koine,  Constantinople,  and  Bery- 
tus  were  burably  content  to  repeat  tbe  lessons  of  tbeir  more 
enligbtened  predecessors.  From  tbe  slow  advances  and  rapid 
decay  of  tbese  legal  studies,  it  may  be  inferred  tbat  tbey  re- 
quire a  state  of  peace  and  refinement.  From  tbe  multitude 
of  voluminous  civilians  wbo  fill  the  intermediate  space,  it  is 
evident  tbat  such  studies  may  be  pursued,  and  such  works 
may  be  performed,  with  a  common  share  of  judgment,  expe- 
rience, and  industry.  Tbe  genius  of  Cicero  and  Yirgil  was 
more  sensibly  felt,  as  each  revolving  age  bad  been  found  in- 
capable of  producing  a  similar  or  a  second;  but  the  most 
eminent  teachers  of  the  law  were  assured  of  leaving  dis- 
ciples equal  or  superior  to  themselves  in  merit  and  repu- 
tation. 

The  jurisprudence  which  bad  been  grossly  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  the  first  Romans  was  polished  and  improved  in  the 
Their  pM-  seventh  century  of  the  city  by  the  alliance  of  Gre- 
losophy.  c-an  philosophy.  The  Scsevolas  had  been  taught 
by  use  and  experience;  but  Servius  Sulpiciusa  was  tbe  first 
civilian  who  established  his  art  on  a  certain  and  general  the- 
ory.54 For  the  discernment  of  truth  and  falsehood  he  applied, 
as  an  infallible  rule,  the  logic  of  Aristotle  and  the  Stoics,  re- 
duced particular  cases  to  general  principles,  and  diffused  over 
the  shapeless  mass  the  light  of  order  and  eloquence.  Cicero, 
bis  contemporary  and  friend,  declined  the  reputation  of  a  pro- 
fessed lawyer ;  but  the  jurisprudence  of  his  country  was  adorn- 
ed by  his  incomparable  genius,  which  converts  into  gold  ev- 
ery object  that  it  touches.      After  the  example  of  Plato,  he 


54  Crassus,  or  rather  Cicero  himself,  proposes  (De  Oratore,  i.  41,  42)  an  idea  of 
the  art  or  science  of  jurisprudence,  which  the  eloquent  but  illiterate  Antonius 
(i.  58)  affects  to  deride.  It  was  partly  executed  by  Servius  Sulpicius  (in  Bruto, 
c.  41),  whose  praises  are  elegantly  varied  in  the  classic  Latinity  of  the  Roman 
Gravina  (p.  60). 

a  M.  Hugo  thinks  that  the  ingenious  system  of  the  Institutes  adopted  by  a  great 
number  of  the  ancient  lawyers,  and  by  Justinian  himself,  dates  from  Servius  Sul- 
picius.    Hist,  du  Droit  Remain,  vol.  ii.  p.  119. — W. 


C&XLIV.]      PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  CIVIL  LAWYERS.  451 

composed  a  republic  ;  and,  for  the  use  of  his  republic,  a  trea« 
tise  of  laws,  in  which  he  labors  to  deduce  from  a  celestial  ori- 
gin the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  Roman  constitution.  The 
whole  universe,  according  to  his  sublime  hypothesis,  forms 
one  immense  commonwealth  :  gods  and  men,  who  participate 
of  the  same  essence,  are  members  of  the  same  community ; 
reason  prescribes  the  law  of  nature  and  nations  ;  and  all  posi- 
tive institutions,  however  modified  by  accident  or  custom,  are 
drawn  from  the  rule  of  right,  which  the  Deity  has  inscribed 
on  every  virtuous  mind.  From  these  philosophical  mysteries 
he  mildly  excludes  the  sceptics  who  refuse  to  believe,  and  the 
epicureans  who  are  unwilling  to  act.  The  latter  disdain  the 
care  of  the  republic :  he  advises  them  to  slumber  in  their 
shady  gardens.  But  he  humbly  entreats  that  the  new  Acad- 
emy would  be  silent,  since  her  bold  objections  would  too  soon 
destroy  the  fair  and  well-ordered  structure  of  his  lofty  sys- 
tem.55 Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Zeno  he  represents  as  the  only 
teachers  who  arm  and  instruct  a  citizen  for  the  duties  of  so* 
cial  life.  Of  these,  the  armor  of  the  Stoics66  was  found  to  be 
of  the  firmest  temper ;  and  it  was  chiefly  worn,  both  for  use 
and  ornament,  in  the  schools  of  jurisprudence.  From  the 
Portico  the  Roman  civilians  learned  to  live,  to  reason,  and  to 
die :  but  they  imbibed  in  some  degree  the  prejudices  of  the 
sect ;  the  love  of  paradox,  the  pertinacious  habits  of  dispute, 
and  a  minute  attachment  to  words  and  verbal  distinctions. 
The  superiority  oiform  to  matter  was  introduced  to  ascertain 
the  right  of  property ;  and  the  equality  of  crimes  is  counte- 
nanced by  an  opinion  of  Trebatius,57  that  he  who  touches  the 

66  "  Perturbatricem  autem  omnium  harum  reriim  Acaderniam,  hanc  ab  Areesila 
et  Carneade  recentem,  exoremus  ut  sileat,  nam  si  invaserit  in  hasc,  quae  satis  scita 
instructa  et  composita  videntur,  nimias  edet  ruinas,  quam  quidem  ego  placare  cu- 
pio,  submovere  non  audeo"  (De  Legibus,  i.  13).  From  this  passage  alone,  Bent- 
ley  (Remarks  on  Freethinking,  p.  250)  might  have  learned  how  firmly  Cicero  be- 
lieved in  the  specious  doctrines  which  he  has  adorned. 

68  The  Stoic  philosophy  was  first  taught  at  Rome  by  Panastius,  the  friend  of  tha 
younger  Scipio  (see  his  Life  in  the  Mem.  de  l'Acad^raie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  x. 
to.  75-89). 

51  As  he  is  quoted  by  Ulpian  (leg.  40  ad  Sabinum  in  Pandect.  1.  xlvii.  tit.  ii. 
teg.  21).     Yet  Trebatius,  after  he  was  a  leading  civilian,  "  qui  [quod]  familiam 


452  AUTHOKITY  OF  THE  CIVIL  LAWYEES.      [Ch.  XLTV* 

ear  touclies  the  whole  body,  and  that  he  who  steals  from  a 
heap  of  corn  or  a  hogshead  of  wine  is  guilty  of  the  entire 
theft.5* 

Arms,  eloquence,  and  the  study  of  the  civil  law  promoted  a 
citizen  to  the  honors  of  the  Roman  State ;  and  the  three  pro- 
fessions were  sometimes  more  conspicuous  by  their 
u  °"  y  union  in  the  same  character.  In  the  composition 
of  the  edict  a  learned  praetor  gave  a  sanction  and  preference 
to  his  private  sentiments ;  the  opinion  of  a  censor  or  a  consul 
was  entertained  with  respect ;  and  a  doubtful  interpretation 
of  the  laws  might  be  supported  by  the  virtues  or  triumphs  of 
the  civilian.  The  patrician  arts  were  long  protected  by  the 
veil  of  mystery ;  and  in  more  enlightened  times  the  freedom 
of  inquiry  established  the  general  principles  of  jurisprudence. 
Subtle  and  intricate  cases  were  elucidated  by  the  disputes  of 
the  Forum ;  rules,  axioms,  and  definitions69  were  admitted  as 
the  genuine  dictates  of  reason ;  and  the  consent  of  the  legal 
professors  was  interwoven  into  the  practice  of  the  tribunals. 
But  these  interpreters  could  neither  enact  nor  execute  the 
laws  of  the  republic;  and  the  judges  might  disregard  the 
authority  of  the  Scsevolas  themselves,  which  was  often  over- 
thrown by  the  eloquence  or  sophistry  of  an  ingenious  plead- 
er.60 Augustus  and  Tiberius  were  the  first  to  adopt,  as  a  use- 
ful engine,  the  science  of  the  civilians  ;  and  their  servile  la- 
bors accommodated  the  old  system  to  the  spirit  and  views  of 
despotism.     Under  the  fair  pretence  of  securing  the  dignity 

duxit,"  became  an  epicurean  (Cicero  ad  Fam.  vii.  5).a  Perhaps  he  was  not  con- 
stant or  sincere  in  his  new  sect. 

68  See  Gravina  (p.  45-51)  and  the  ineffectual  cavils  of  Mascou.  Heineccius 
(Hist.  J.  E.  No.  125)  quotes  and  approves  a  dissertation  of  Everard  Otto,  de  Sto- 
ica,  Jurisconsultorum  Philosophic. 

69  We  have  heard  of  the  Catonian  rule,  the  Aquilian  stipulation,  and  the  Manil- 
ian  forms,  of  211  maxims,  and  of  247  definitions  (Pandect.  1.  L.  tit.  xvi  xvii.). 

60  Bead  Cicero,  1.  i.  De  Oratore,  Topica,  pro  Murena. 


a  The  passage  in  Cicero  runs  "Accedit  etiam,  quod  familiam  ducit  in  jure  ci- 
vili,  singularis  memoria,  summa  scientia."  Modern  writers  interpret  "quod  fa- 
miliam ducit"  to  mean  "quod  prsecipuum  est."  Hence  the  passage  would  signi- 
fy that  Trebatius  was  remarkable  for  the  extent  of  his  memory,  etc.,  which  was 
the  most  important  thing  in  civil  law.  See  Zimmern,  Geschichte  des  Romischen 
Piivatrechts,  vol.  i.  p.  298,  note  7. — S. 


Ch.  XLIV.]  sects  of  lawyers.  453 

of  the  art,  the  privilege  of  subscribing  legal  and  valid  opin- 
ions was  confined  to  the  sages  of  senatorian  or  equestrian 
rank,  who  had  been  previously  approved  by  the  judgment  of 
the  prince ;  and  this  monopoly  prevailed  till  Hadrian  restored 
the  freedom  of  the  profession  to  every  citizen  conscious  of 
his  abilities  and  knowledge.  The  discretion  of  the  praetor 
was  now  governed  by  the  lessons  of  his  teachers ;  the  judges 
were  enjoined  to  obey  the  comment  as  well  as  the  text  of 
the  law ;  and  the  use  of  codicils  was  a  memorable  innovation, 
which  Augustus  ratified  by  the  advice  of  the  civilians.61 

The  most  absolute  mandate  could  only  require  that  the 
judges  should  agree  with  the  civilians,  if  the  civilians  agreed 
among  themselves.  But  positive  institutions  are 
often  the  result  of  custom  and  prejudice;  laws  and 
language  are  ambiguous  and  arbitrary;  where  reason  is  in- 
capable of  pronouncing,  the  love  of  argument  is  inflamed  by 
the  envy  of  rivals,  the  vanity  of  masters,  the  blind  attachment 
of  their  disciples ;  and  the  Roman  jurisprudence  was  divided 
by  the  once  famous  sects  of  the  Proculians  and  Sabinians™ 
Two  sages  of  the  law,  Ateius  Capito  and  Antistius  Labeo,63 


61  See  Pomponius  (De  Origine  Juris  Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  leg.  2,  No.  47),  Hei- 
ceccius(ad  Institut.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  No.  8  ;  1.  ii.  tit.  xxv.  in  Element,  et  Antiquitat.),  and 
Gravina  (p.  41-45).  Yet  the  monopoly  of  Augustus,  a  harsh  measure,  would  ap- 
pear with  some  softening  in  contemporary  evidence ;  and  it  was  ^robably  veiled 
by  a  decree  of  the  senate.* 

62  I  have  perused  the  Diatribe  of  Gotfridus  Mascovius,  the  learned  Mascou,  de 
Sectis  Jurisconsultorum  (Lipsias,  1728,  in  12mo,  p.  276),  a  learned  treatise  on  a 
narrow  and  barren  ground. 

63  See  the  character  of  Antistius  Labeo  in  Tacitus  (Annal.  iii.  75),  and  in  an 
epistle  of  Ateius  Capito  (Aul.  Gellms,  xiii.  12),  who  accuses  his  rival  of  "libertas 
nimia  et  vecors."  Yet  Horace  would  not  have  lashed  a  virtuous  and  respectable 
senator;  and  I  must  adopt  the  emendation  of  Bentley,  who  reads  Labieno  insa- 
niorb  (Serm.  I.  iii.  82).     See  Mascou,  de  Sectis  (c.  i.  p.  1-24). 


*  Gibbon  here  follows  the  opinion  of  Heineccius,  which  has  been  impugned  by 
Hugo ;  but  the  following  passage  from  Gaius  conclusively  settles  the  question  in 
favor  of  the  opinion  expressed  in  the  text:  "Responsa  prudentum  sunt  sentential  et 
opiniones  eorum,  quibus  permissum  est  jura  condere ;  quorum  omnium  si  in  unum 
6ententise  concurrunt,  id  quod  ita  sentiunt,  legis  vicem  obtinet,  si  vero  dissentiunt, 
judici  licet,  quam  velit  sententiam  sequi,  idque  rescripto  Divi  Hadriani  significa- 
tur"(l.i.  §7).-S. 

b  The  best  modern  editors  of  Horace  retain  the  old  reading,  but  suppose  the 
Labeo  mentioned  by  Horace  to  be  ?,  different  person  from  the  celebrated  jurist.— &, 


454  SECTS  OF  LAWYEES.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

adorned  the  peace  of  the  Augustan  age:  the  former  distin- 
guished by  the  favor  of  his  sovereign ;  the  latter  more  illus 
trious  by  his  contempt  of  that  favor,  and  his  stern  though 
harmless  opposition  to  the  tyrant  of  Kome.  Their  legal  stud- 
ies were  influenced  by  the  various  colors  of  their  temper  and 
principles.  Labeo  was  attached  to  the  form  of  the  old  repub- 
lic ;  his  rival  embraced  the  more  profitable  substance  of  the 
rising  monarchy.  But  the  disposition  of  a  courtier  is  tame 
and  submissive;  and  Capito  seldom  presumed  to  deviate 
from  the  sentiments,  or  at  least  from  the  words,  of  his  prede- 
cessors ;  while  the  bold  republican  pursued  his  independent 
ideas  without  fear  of  paradox  or  innovations.  The  freedom 
of  Labeo  was  enslaved,  however,  by  the  rigor  of  his  own  con- 
clusions, and  he  decided,  according  to  the  letter  of  the  law, 
the  same  questions  which  his  indulgent  competitor  resolved 
with  a  latitude  of  equity  more  suitable  to  the  common-sense 
and  feelings  of  mankind.  If  a  fair  exchange  had  been  sub- 
stituted to  the  payment  of  money,  Capito  still  considered  the 
transaction  as  a  legal  sale  ;64  and  he  consulted  nature  for  the 
age  of  puberty,  without  confining  his  definition  to  the  pre- 
cise period  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years.86  This  opposition  of 
sentiments  was  propagated  in  the  writings  and  lessons  of  the 
two  founders ;  the  schools  of  Capito  and  Labeo  maintained 
their  inveterate  conflict  from  the  age  of  Augustus  to  that  of 
Hadrian  ;66  and  the  two  sects  derived  their  appellations  from 

64  Justinian  (Institut.  1.  iii.  tit.  23,  and  Theophil.  Vers.  Grasc.  p.  677,  680)  has 
commemorated  this  weighty  dispute,  and  the  verses  of  Homer  that  were  alleged 
on  either  side  as  legal  authorities.  It  was  decided  by  Paul  (leg.  33,  ad  Edict,  ia 
Pandect.  1.  xviii.  tit.  i.  leg.  1),  since,  in  a  simple  exchange,  the  buyer  could  not  be 
discriminated  from  the  seller. 

65  This  controversy  was  likewise  given  for  the  Proculians,  to  supersede  the  in- 
decency of  a  search,  and  to  comply  with  the  aphorism  of  Hippocrates,  who  was 
attached  to  the  septenary  number  of  two  weeks  of  years,  or  700  of  days  (Institut. 
1.  i.  tit.  xxii.).  Plutarch  and  the  Stoics  (de  Placit.  Philosoph.  1.  v.  c.  24)  assign  a 
more  natural  reason.  Fourteen  years  is  the  age — irapl  rjv  6  (nrspp,aTucbg  icpivETai 
oppog.     See  the  vestigia  of  the  sects  in  Mascou,  c.  ix.  p.  145-276. 

66  The  series  and  conclusion  of  the  sects  are  described  by  Mascou  (c.  ii.-vii.  p. 
24-120);  and  it  would  be  almost  ridiculous  to  praise  his  equal  justice  to  these 
obsolete  sects. a 

a  The  work  of  Gaius,  subsequent  to  the  time  of  Hadrian,  furnishes  us  with 


Ch.  XLIV.]  sects  of  lawyers.  455 

Sabinus  and  Proeulus,  their  most  celebrated  teachers.  The 
names  of  Cassians  and  Pegasians  were  likewise  applied  to 
the  same  parties ;  but,  by  a  strange  reverse,  the  popular  cause 
was  in  the  hands  of  Pegasus,67  a  timid  slave  of  Domitian, 
while  the  favorite  of  the  Caesars  was  represented  by  Cassi- 
us,68  who  gloried  in  his  descent  from  the  patriot  assassin.  By 
the  perpetual  edict  the  controversies  of  the  sects  were  in  a 
great  measure  determined.  For  that  important  work  the 
Emperor  Hadrian  preferred  the  chief  of  the  Sabinians:  the 
friends  of  monarchy  prevailed ;  but  the  moderation  of  Salvi- 
us  Julian  insensibly  reconciled  the  victors  and  the  vanquish- 
ed. Like  the  contemporary  philosophers,  the  lawyers  of  the 
age  of  the  Antonines  disclaimed  the  authority  of  a  master, 
and  adopted  from  every  system  the  most  probable  doctrines.6* 
But  their  writings  would  have  been  less  voluminous,  had  their 
choice  been  more  unanimous.  The  conscience  of  the  judge 
was  perplexed  by  the  number  and  weight  of  discordant  testi- 
monies, and  every  sentence  that  his  passion  or  interest  might 
pronounce  was  justified  by  the  sanction  of  some  venerable 
name.  An  indulgent  edict  of  the  younger  Theodosius  ex- 
cused him  from  the  labor  of  comparing  and  weighing  their 
arguments.  Five  civilians,  Caius,  Papinian,  Paul,  Ulpian,  and 
Modestinus,  were  established  as  the  oracles  of  jurisprudence : 
a  majority  was  decisive ;  but  if  their  opinions  were  equally 
divided,  a  casting-vote  was  ascribed  to  the  superior  wisdom  of 
Papinian.70 

67  At  the  first  summons  he  flies  to  the  turbot-council ;  yet  Juvenal  (Satir.  W. 
75-81)  styles  the  prsefect  or  bailiff  of  Home  "sanctissimus  legum  interpres." 
From  his  science,  says  the  old  scholiast,  he  was  called,  not  a  man,  but  a  book. 
He  derived  the  singular  name  of  Pegasus  from  the  galley  which  his  father  com- 
manded. 68  Tacit.  Annal.  xvi.  7.     Sueton.  in  Nerone,  c.  xxxvii. 

69  Mascou,  de  Sectis,  c.  viii.  p.  120-144,  de  Herciscundis,  a  legal  term  which 
was  applied  to  these  eclectic  lawyers :  herciscere  is  synonymous  to  dividere. 

TO  See  the  Theodosian  Code,  1.  i.  tit.  iv.  with  Godefroy's  Commentary,  torn.  i. 


some  information  on  this  subject.  The  disputes  which  rose  between  these  two 
sects  appear  to  have  been  very  numerous.  Gaius  avows  himself  a  disciple  of  Sa- 
binus and  of  Caius.  Compare  Hugo,  vol.  ii.  p.  106.— W.  But  it  should  be  re- 
marked that,  on  controverted  points,  Gaius  notwithstanding  generally  follows  the 
opinion  of  the  opposite  school.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  antagonism  of 
the  rival  sects  was  dying  out  even  in  the  time  of  Gains. — S. 


456  REFORMATION  OF  THE  ROMAN  LAW       [Ch.  XEIV. 

When  Justinian  ascended  the  throne,  the  reformation  of 
the  Roman  "jurisprudence  was  an  arduous  but  indis- 

Keformatton  ".         %.        .  . 

.)f  the  Roman  pensable  task,     in  the  space  01  ten  centuries  the 

Jaw  by  Jus-       J    „     .  .  ,.  n  ,  ,         ,         .    . 

tinian.  mtmite  variety  or  laws  and  legal  opinions. had  filled" 

many  thousand  volumes,  which  no  fortune  could 

purchase  and  no  capacity  could  digest.     Books  could  not  ea=- 

p.  31-35. a  This  decree  might  give  occasion  to  Jesuitical  disputes  like  those  in  the 
Lettres  Provinciates,  whether  a  judge  was  obliged  to  follow  the  opinion  of  Papin- 
ian,  or  of  a  majority,  against  his  judgment,  against  his  conscience,  etc.  Yet  a 
legislator  might  give  that  opinion,  however  false,  the"  validity,  not  of  truth,  but  of 
lawA 

*  We  possess  (since,  1824)  some  interesting  information  as  to  the  framing  of 
the  Theodosiun  Code,  and  its  ratification  at  Rome,  in  the  year  438.  M.  Closius, 
now  professor  at  Dorpat,  in  Russia,  and  M.  Peyron,  member  of  the  Academy  of 
Turin,  have  discovered,  the  one  at  Milan,  the  other  at  Turin,  a  great  part  of  the 
five  first  books  of  the  Code,  which  were  wanting,  and  besides  this,  the  reports 
(gesta)  of  the  sitting  of  the  senate  at  Rome,  in  which  the  Code  was  published, -in 
the  yeaiv  after  the  marriage  of  Valentinian  III.  Among  these  pieces  are  the  con- 
stitutions which  nominate  commissioners  for  the  formation  of  the  Code;  and 
though  there  are  many  points  of  considerable  obscurity  "in  these  documents,  they 
communicate  many  facts  relative  to  this  legislation. 

1.  That  Theodosius  designed  a  great  reform  in  the  legislation ;  to  add  to  the 
©regorian  and  Hermogenian  codes  all  the  new  constitutions  from  Constantine  to 
his  own  day  ;  and  to  frame  a  second  code  for  common  use,  with  extracts  from  the 
three  codes,  and  from  the  works  of  the  civil  lawyers.  All  laws  either  abrogated 
or  fallen  into  disuse  were  to  be  noted  under  their  proper  heads. 

2.  An  ordinance  was  issued  in  429  to  form  a  commission  for  this  purpose,  of 
nine  persons,  of  which  Antiochus,  as  quagstor  and  praefectus,  was  president.  A 
second  commission  of  sixteen  members  was  issued  in  435  under  the  same  presi- 
dent. 

3.  A  code,  which  we  possess  under  the  name  of  Codex  Theodosianus,  was  fin- 
ished in  438,  published  in  the  East,  in  an  ordinance  addressed  to  the  praetorian 
prefect,  Florentines,  and  intended  to  be  published  in  the  West. 

4.  Before  it  was  published  in  the  West,  Valentinian  submitted  it  to  the  senate. 
There  is  a  report  of  tlie  proceedings  of  the  senate,  which  closed  with  loud  accla- 
mations and  gratulations. — From  Warnkonig,  Histoire  du  Droit  Romain,  p.  169. 
— Wenck  has  published  this  work,  Codicis  Theodosiani  libri  priores.  Leipzig, 
1825.—  M.  *" 

b  Closius  of  Tubingen  communicated  to  M.  Warnkonig  the  two  following  con- 
stitutions of  the  Emperor  Constantine,  which  he  discovered  in  the  Ambrosian  Li- 
brary at  Milan : 

1.  Imper.  Constantinus  Aug.  ad  Maximium  Prasf.  Prastorio. 

Perpetuas  prudentum  contentiones  eruere  cupientes,  Ulpiani  ac  Patdi,  in  Papin- 
ianum  notas,  qui  dum  ingenii  laudem  sectantur,  non  tam  corrigere  eum  quam  de- 
pravere  maluerunt,  aboleri  prajeepimus.  Dat.  III.  Kalend.  Octob.  et  Const.  Cons, 
et  Crispi  (321). 

2.  Idem  Aug.  ad^Maximrum  PrasJ  Praet. 

Uni versa,  qua?  scripture  Pauli  coh'tinentur,  recepta  auctoritate  firmanda  sunt, 
et  omni  veneratione  celebranda.  Ideoqne  sententiarum  libros  plen'issima  lace  et) 
perfectissima,  elocutione  et  justissima,  juris  ratione  suecinctos  in  judiciis  prolatos 
valere  minime  dubitatur.  Dat.  V.  Kalend.  Oct.  Trevir.  Const,  et  Max.  Coss. 
(327).— W. 


a.d.  527-546.]  BY  JUSTINIAN.  457 

sily  be  found ;  and  the  judges,  poor  in  the  midst  of  riches, 
were  reduced  to  the  exercise  of  their  illiterate  discretion. 
The  subjects  of  the  Greek  provinces  were  ignorant  of  the 
language  that  disposed  of  their  lives  and  properties ;  and  the 
barbarous  dialect  of  the  Latins  was  imperfectly  studied  in  the 
academies  of  Berytus  and  Constantinople.  As  an  Iltyrian 
soldier,  that  idiom  was  familiar  to  the  infancy  of  Justinian ; 
his  youth  had  been  instructed  by  the  lessons  of  jurisprudence, 
and  his -imperial  choice  selected  the  most  learned  civilians  of 
the  East,  to  labor  with  their  sovereign  in  the  work  of  refor- 
mation," The  theory  of  professors  was  assisted  by  the  prac- 
tice of  advocates  and  the  experience  of  magistrates ;  and  the 
Tribonian.  whole  undertaking  was  animated  by  the  spirit  of 
a.d. 52T-546.  Tribonian.72  This  extraordinary  man,  the  object  of 
so  much  praise  and  censure,  was  a  native  of  Side,  in  Pam- 
phylia;  and  his  genius,  like  that  of  Bacon,  embraced";  as  his 
own,  all  the  business  and  knowledge  of  the  age^  Tribonian 
composed,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  on  a  strange  diversity  of 
curious  and  abstruse  subjects  :73  a  double  panegyric  of  Justin- 
ian and  the  life  of  the  philosopher  Theodotus ;  the  nature  of 
happiness  and  the  duties  of  government;  Homer's  catalogue 
and  the  four -and -twenty  sorts  of  metre;  the  astronomical 
canon  of  Ptolemy;  the  changes  of  the  months;  the  houses  of 
the  planets ;  and  the  harmonic  system  of  the  world.     To  the 

' =! ■ ' ■ 

11  For  the  legal  labors  of  Justinian,  I  have  studied  the  Preface  to  the  Insti- 
tutes; the  first,  second,  and  third  j  'refaees  to  the  Pandects;  the  first  and  second 
Preface  to  the  Code;  and  the  Code  itself  (1.  i.  tit.  xvji.  de  Veteri  Jure  enuclean- 
do).  After  these  original  testimonies,  I  have  consulted,  among  the  moderns,  Hei- 
neccius  (Hist.  J.  R.  No.  383-404),  Terrassn  (Hist,  de  la  Jurisprudence  Romaine, 
p.  295-356),  Gravina  (Opp.  p.  93-100),  and  Lnlewig,  in  his  Life  of  Justinian 
(p.  19-123,  318-321;  for  the  Code  and  Novels,  p.  209-261;  for  the  Digest  or 
Pandects,  p.  262-317). 

72  For  the  character  of  Tribonian,  see  the  testimonies  of  Procopius  (Persic. 
I.  i.  c.  23,  24  [24,  25] ;  Anecdot.  c  13,  20)  and  Suidas  (torn.  Hi.  p.  501,  edit.  Kus- 
ter).  Ludewig  (in  Vit.  Justinian,  p.  175-209)  works  hard,  very  hard,  to  white- 
wash— the  blackamoor. 

73  I  apply  the  two  passages  of  Suidas  to  the  same  man  ;  every  circumstance  so 
exactly  tallies.  Yet  the  lawyers  appear  ignorant;  and  Fabricius  is  inclined  to 
separate  the  two  characters  (Biblioth.  Grsec.  torn.  i.  p.  341 ;  ii.  p.  518  ;  iii.  p.  418; 
xii.  p.  346,  353,  474). 


458  KEFORMATION  OF  THE  SOMAN  LAW.        [CH.XLIV. 

literature  of  Greece  he  added  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue ; 
the  Roman  civilians  were  deposited  in  his  library  and  in  his 
mind;  and  he  most  assiduously  cultivated  those  arts  which 
opened  the  road  of  wealth  and  preferment.  From  the  bar 
of  the  praetorian  praefects  he  raised  himself  to  the  honors  of 
quaestor,  of  consul,  and  of  master  of  the  offices :  the  Council 
of  Justinian  listened  to  his  eloquence  and  wisdom ;  and  envy 
was  mitigated  by  the  gentleness  and  affability  of  his  manners. 
The  reproaches  of  impiety  and  avarice  have  stained  the  virt- 
ues or  the  reputation  of  Tribonian.  In  a  bigoted  and  perse- 
cuting court,  the  principal  minister  was  accused  of  a  secret 
aversion  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  was  supposed  to  entertain 
the  sentiments  of  an  atheist  and  a  pagan,  which  have  been 
imputed,  inconsistently  enough,  to  the  last  philosophers  of 
Greece.  His  avarice  was  more  clearly  proved  and  more  sen- 
sibly felt.  If  he  were  swayed  by  gifts  in  the  administration 
of  justice,  the  example  of  Bacon  will  again  occur ;  nor  can  the 
merit  of  Tribonian  atone  for  his  baseness,  if  he  degraded  the 
sanctity  of  his  profession,  and  if  laws  were  every  day  enacted, 
modified,  or  repealed,  for  the  base  consideration  of  his  private 
emolument.  In  the  sedition  of  Constantinople,  his  removal 
was  granted  to  the  clamors,  perhaps  to  the  just  indignation,  of 
the  people :  but  the  quaestor  was  speedily  restored,  and,  till  the 
hour  of  his  death,  he  possessed,  above  twenty  years,  the  favor 
and  confidence  of  the  emperor.  His  passive  and  dutiful  sub- 
mission has  been  honored  with  the  praise  of  Justinian  him- 
self, whose  vanity  was  incapable  of  discerning  how  often  that 
submission  degenerated  into  the  grossest  adulation.  Tribo- 
nian adored  the  virtues  of  his  gracious  master  :  the  earth  was 
unworthy  of  such  a  prince  ;  and  he  affected  a  pious  fear  that 
Justinian,  like  Elijah  or  Romulus,  would  be  snatched  into  the 
air,  and  translated  alive  to  the  mansions  of  celestial  glory.74 

14  This  story  is  related  by  Hesyehius  (de  Viris  Ulustribus),  Procopius  (Anec- 
dot.  c.  13  [torn.  iii.  p.  84,  edit.  Bonn]),  and  Suidas  (com.  iii.  p.  501).  Such  flat- 
tery is  incredible ! 

"  Nihil  est  quod  credere  de  se 
Non  possit,  cum  laudatur  Diis  asqua  potestas." 

Fontenelle  (torn.  i.  p.  32-39)  has  ridiculed  the  impudence  of  the  modest  Virgil. 
But  the  same  Fontenelle  places  his  king  above  the  divine  Augustus ;  and  the  saga 


Feb.  13 ; 
s..i>.  529, 


ad. 523, 529.]  THE  CODE  OF  JUSTINIAN.  459 

If  Csesar  bad  achieved  the  reformation  of  the  Roman  law, 
his  creative  genius,  enlightened  by  reflection  and  study,  would 
The  code  of  have  given  to  the  world  a  pure  and  original  sys- 
tem of  jurisprudence.  Whatever  flattery  might 
suggest,  the  Emperor  of  the  East  was  afraid  to  es- 
Apnl  T#  tablisb  his  private  judgment  as  the  standard  of 
equity :  in  the  possession  of  legislative  power,  he  borrowed  the 
aid  of  time  and  opinion ;  and  his  laborious  compilations  are 
guarded  by  the  sages  and  legislators  of  past  times.  Instead 
of  a  statue  cast  in  a  simple  mould  by  the  hand  of  an  artist, 
the  works  of  Justinian  represent  a  tesselated  pavement  of 
antique  and  costly,  but  too  often  of  incoherent,  fragments.  In 
the  first  year  of  his  reign,  he  directed  the  faithful  Tribonian, 
and  nine  learned  associates,  to  revise  the  ordinances  of  his 
predecessors,  as  they  were  contained,  since  the  time  of  Ha- 
drian, in  the  Gregorian,  Hermogenian,  and  Theodosian  codes ; 
to  purge  the  errors  and  contradictions,  to  retrench  whatever 
was  obsolete  or  superfluous,  and  to  select  the  wise  and  salu- 
tary laws  best  adapted  to  the  practice  of  the  tribunals  and  the 
use  of  his  subjects.  The  work  was  accomplished  in  fourteen 
months ;  and  the  twelve  books  or  tables,  which  the  new  de- 
cemvirs produced,  might  be  designed  to  imitate  the  labors  of 
their  Roman  predecessors.  The  new  Code  of  Justinian  was 
honored  with  his  name  and  confirmed  by  his  royal  signa- 
ture: authentic  transcripts  were  multiplied  by  the  pens  of 
notaries  and  scribes ;  they  were  transmitted  to  the  magistrates 
of  the  European,  the  Asiatic,  and  afterwards  the  African  prov- 
inces ;  and  the  law  of  the  empire  was  proclaimed  on  solemn 
festivals  at  the  doors  of  churches.  A  more  arduous  operation 
was  still  behind — to  extract  the  spirit  of  jurisprudence  from 
the  decisions  and  conjectures,  the  questions  and  disputes,  of 
the  Roman  civilians.  Seventeen  lawyers,  with  Tribonian  at 
their  head,  were  appointed  by  the  emperor  to  exercise  an  ab- 
solute jurisdiction  over  the  works  of  their  predecessors.  If 
they  had  obeyed  his  commands  in  ten  years,  Justinian  would 


Boilean  has  not  blushed  to  say,  "Le  destin  k  ses  yeux  n'oseroit  balancer."    Yet 
neither  Augustus  nor  Louis  XIV.  were  fools. 


460  THE  PANDECTS.  [CH.XLIV. 

have  been  satisfied  with  their  diligence ;  and  the  rapid  com- 
Th^PaudectB  position  of  the  Digest  or  Pandects76  in  three  years 
T.-^Mo^  wiH  deserve  praise  or  censure  according  to  the 
a.d."533»  merit  of  the  execution.  From  the  library  of  Tri- 
Decrs.  b'onian  they  chose  forty,  the  most  eminent  civil- 

ians of  former  times  ;78  two  thousand  treatises  were  comprised 
in  an  abridgment  of  fifty  books ;  and  it  has  been  carefully 
recorded  that  three  millions  of  lines  or  sentences"  were  re- 
duced, in  this  abstract,  to  the  moderate  number  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand.  The  edition  of  this  great  work  was 
delayed  a  month  after  that  of  the  Institutes  ;  and  it  seemed 
reasonable  that  the  elements  should  precede  the  digest  of  the 
Pfmian  law.  As  soon  as  the  emperor  had  approved  their  la- 
bors, he  ratified,  by  his  legislative  power,  the  speculations  of 
these  private  citizens  :  their  commentaries  on  the  Twelve  Ta- 
bles, the  Perpetual  Edict,  the  laws  of  the  people,  and  the  de- 
crees of  the  senate,  succeeded  to  the  authority  of  the  text ; 
and  the  text  was  abandoned  as  a  useless,  though  venerable, 
relic  of  antiquity.  The  Code,  the  Pandects,  and  the  Institutes 
were  declared  to  be  the  legitimate  system  of  civil  jurispru- 
dence ;  they  alone  were  admitted  in  the  tribunals,  and  they 

16  UdvSeKTai  (general  receivers)  was  a  common  titJe  of  the  Greek  miscellanies 
(Plin.  Prsefat.  ad  Hist.  Natqr.).  The  Digesta  of  Scsevola,  Marcellinus,  Celsus, 
were  already  familiar  to  the  civilians :  but  Justinian  was  in  the  wrong  when  he 
used  the  two  appellations  as  synonymous.  Is  the  word  Pandects  Greek  or  Latin 
— masculine  or  feminine?  The  diligent  Brenckman  will  not  presume  to  decide 
these  momentous  controversies  (Hist.  Pandect.  EJorentin.  p.  300-304).* 

76  Angelus  Politianus  (1.  v.  Epist.  ult.)  reckons  thirty-seven  (p.  192-200)  civil- 
ians quoted  in  the  Pandects — a  learned,  and  for  his  times,  an  extraordinary  list. 
The  Greek  index  to  the  Pandects  enumerates  thirty-nine,  and  forty  are  produced 
by  the  indefatigable  Fabricius  (Biblioth.  Graac.  tqm.  iii.  p.  488-502).  Antoninus 
Augustus  [Antonius  Augustinus]  (de  Npminibus  P.ropriis  Pandect,  apud  Ludewig, 
p.  283)  is  s«id  to  have  added  fifty-four  names ;  but  they  must  be  vague  or  second- 
band  references. 

"  The  2rt%oi  of  the  aneient  MSS.  may  be  strictly  defined  as  sentences  or  peri- 
ods of  a  complete  sense,  which,  on  the  breadth  of  the  parchment  rolls  or  volumes, 
composed  as  many  lines  of  unequal  length.  The  number  of  Sn^ot  in  each  book 
served  as  a  check  on  the  errors  of  the  scribes  (Ludewig,  p.  211-215;  and  his  orig. 
inal  author  Suicer.     Thesaur.  Ecclesiast.  torn.  i.  p.  1021-1036). 


a^The  word  HavSwrcu  was  formerly  in  common  use.     See  the  preface  to  Aulas 
Gefiius.— W. 


a.d.  533.3  PRAISE  AND  CENSURE.  461 

alone  were  taught  in  the  academies,  of  Rome,  Constantinople, 
and  Berytus.  Justinian  addressed  to  the  senate  and  provinces 
his  eternal  oracles;  and  his  pride,  under  the  mask  of  piety, 
ascribed  the  consummation  of  this  great  design  to  the  support 
and  inspiration  of  the  Deity. 

Since  the  emperor  declined  the  fame  and  envy  of  original 
composition,  we  can  only  require  at  his  hands  method,  choice, 
praise  aud  an(^  fidelity  —  the  humble,  though  indispensable, 
onaeQm)dfthe  virtues  of  a  compil-er.  Among  the  various  combi- 
Paudeets.  nations  of  ideas  it  is  difficult  to  assign  any  reason- 
able preference;  but,  as  the  order  of  Justinian  is  different  in 
his  three  works,  it  is  possible  that  all  may  be  wrong,  and  it  is 
certain  that  two  cannot  be  right.  In  the  selection  of  ancient 
laws  he  seems  to  have  viewed  his  predecessors  without  jeal- 
ousy and  with  equal  regard :  the  series  could  not  ascend  above 
the  reign  of  Hadrian,  and  the  narrow  distinction  of  pagan- 
ism and  Christianity,  introduced  by  the  superstition  of  The- 
odosius,  had  been  abolished  by  the  consent  of  mankind.  But 
the  jurisprudence  of  the  Pandects  is  circumscribed  within  a 
period  of  a  hundred  years,  from  the  Perpetual  Edict  to  the 
death  of  Severus  Alexander :  the  civilians  who  lived  under 
the  first  Caesars  are  seldom  permitted  to  speak,  and  only  three 
names  can  be  attributed  to  the  age  of  the  republic.  The  fa- 
vorite of  Justinian  (it  has  been  fiercely  urged)  was  fearful  of 
encountering  the  light  of  freedom  and  the  gravity  of  Roman 
sages.  Tribonian  condemned  to  oblivion  the  genuine  and  na- 
tive wisdom  of  Cato,  the  Scsevolas,  and  Sulpicius ;  while  he 
invoked  spirits  more  congenial  to  his  own,  the  Syrians,  Greeks, 
and  Africans,  who  flocked  to  the  imperial  court  to  study  Latin 
as  a  foreign  tongue,  and  jurisprudence  as  a  lucrative  profes- 
sion. But  the  ministers  of  Justinian78  were  instructed  >to  la- 
bor not  for  the  curiosity  of  antiquarians,  but  for  the  imme- 
diate benefit  of  his  subjects.  It  was  their  duty  to  select  the 
useful  and  practical  parts  of  the  Roman  law ;  and  the  writ- 
ings of  the  old  republicans,  however  curious  or  excellent,  were 

15  An  ingenious  and  learned  oration  of  Schultingius  (Jurisprudentia  Ante- 
Justinianea,  p.  883-907)  justifies  the  choice  of  Tiibcftiian,  against  the  passional* 
charges  Qf  Francis  Hottoman  and  his  sectaries. 


462  THE  CODE  AND  PANDECTS.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

no  longer  suited  to  the  new  system  of  manners,  religion,  and 
government.  Perhaps,  if  the  preceptors  and  friends  of  Cicero 
were  still  alive,  our  candor  would  acknowledge  that,  except 
in  purity  of  language,79  their  intrinsic  merit  was  excelled  by 
the  school  of  Papinian  and  Ulpian.  The  science  of  the  laws 
is  the  slow  growth  of  time  and  experience,  and  the  advan- 
tage both  of  method  and  materials  is  naturally  assumed  by  the 
most  recent  authors.  The  civilians  of  the  reign  of  the  An- 
tonines  had  studied  the  works  of  their  predecessors:  their 
philosophic  spirit  had  mitigated  the  rigor  of  antiquity,  sim- 
plified the  forms  of  proceeding,  and  emerged  from  the  jeal- 
ousy and  prejudice  of  the  rival  sects.  The  choice  of  the  au- 
thorities that  compose  the  Pandects  depended  on  the  judg- 
ment of  Tribonian ;  but  the  power  of  his  sovereign  could  not 
absolve  him  from  the  sacred  obligations  of  truth  and  fidelity. 
As  the  legislator  of  the  empire,  Justinian  might  repeal  the 
acts  of  the  Antonines,  or  condemn  as  seditious  the  free  prin- 
ciples which  were  maintained  by  the  last  of  the  Roman  law- 
yers.80 But  the  existence  of  past  facts  is  placed  beyond  the 
reach  of  despotism;  and  the  emperor  was  guilty  of  fraud 
and  forgery  when  he  corrupted  the  integrity  of  their  text, 
inscribed  with  their  venerable  names  the  words  and  ideas  of 


19  Strip  away  the  crust  of  Tribonian,  and  allow  for  the  use  of  technical  words, 
and  the  Latin  of  the  Pandects  will  be  found  not  unworthy  of  the  silver  age.  It 
has  been  vehemently  attacked  by  Laurentius  Valla, a  a  fastidious  grammarian  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  and  by  his  apologist  Floridus  Sabinus.  It  has  been  defended 
by  Alciat,  and  a  nameless  advocate  (most  probably  James  Capellus).  Their  vari- 
ous treatises  are  collected  by  Duker  (Opuscula  de  Latinitate  veterum  Juriscon- 
sultorum,  Lugd.  Bat.  1721,  in  12mo). 

80  "  Nomina  quidem  veteribus  servavimus,  legum  autem  veritatem  nostram  feci- 
mus.  Itaque  siquid  erat  in  illis  seditiosum,  mult  a  autem  talia  erant  ibi  reposita, 
hoc  decisum  est  et  definitum,  et  in  perspicuum  finem  deducta  est  quseque  lex" 
(Cod.  Justinian.  1.  i.  tit.  xvii.  leg.  3,  No.  10).     A  frank  confession  !b 


a  Gibbon  is  mistaken  with  regard  to  Valla,  who,  though  he  inveighs  against  the 
barbarous  style  of  the  civilians  of  his  own  day,  lavishes  the  highest  praise  on  the 
admirable  purity  of  the  language  of  the  ancient  writers  on  civil  law.  (M.  Warn- 
konig  quotes  a  long  passage  of  Valla  in  justification  of  this  observation.)  Since 
his  time  this  truth  has  been  recognized  by  men  of  the  highest  eminence,  such  as 
TSrasmus,  David  Hume,  and  Ruhnkenius. — W. 

b  "  Seditiosum  "  in  the  language  of  Justinian  means  not  seditious,  but  disputed. 
— W. 


A.D.  533.]         LOSS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  JURISPRUDENCE.  463 

his  servile  reign,"  and  suppressed  by  the  hand  of  power  the 
pure  and  authentic  copies  of  their  sentiments.  The  changes 
and  interpolations  of  Tribonian  and  his  colleagues  are  ex- 
cused by  the  pretence  of  uniformity :  but  their  cares  have 
been  insufficient,  and  the  antinomies,  or  contradictions,  of  the 
Code  and  Pandects  still  exercise  the  patience  and  subtlety  of 
modern  civilians.82 

A  rumor,  devoid  of  evidence,  has  beer,  propagated  by  the 
enemies  of  Justinian,  that  the  jurisprudence  of  ancient  Kome 

was  reduced  to  ashes  by  the  author  of  the  Pan- 
Loss  of  the  .  .  ,  . 

audent  juris-  dects,  from  the  vain  persuasion  that  it  was  now 

prudence.  .         '  x 

either  false  or  superfluous.  Without  usurping  an 
office  so  invidious,  the  emperor  might  safely  commit  to  igno- 
rance and  time  the  accomplishment  of  this  destructive  wish. 
Before  the  invention  of  printing  and  paper,  the  labor  and  the 
materials  of  writing  could  be  purchased  only  by  the  rich; 
and  it  may  reasonably  be  computed  that  the  price  of  books 
was  a  hundred-fold  their  present  value.83  Copies  were  slow- 
ly multiplied  and  cautiously  renewed :  the  hopes  of  profit 
tempted  the  sacrilegious  scribes  to  erase  the  characters  of  an- 
tiquity, and  Sophocles  or  Tacitus  were  obliged  to  resign  the 
parchment  to  missals,  homilies,  and  the  golden  legend.84  If 
such  was  the  fate  of  the  most  beautiful  compositions  of  gen- 
ius, what  stability  could  be  expected  for  the  dull  and  barren 


81  The  number  of  these  emblemata  (a  polite  name  for  forgeries)  is  much  reduced 
by  Bynkershoek  (in  the  four  last  books  of  his  Observations),  who  poorly  maintains 
the  right  of  Justinian  and  the  duty  of  Tribonian. 

82  The  antinomies,  or  opposite  laws  of  the  Code  and  Pandects,  are  sometimes 
the  cause,  and  often  the  excuse,  of  the  glorious  uncertainty  of  the  civil  law,  which 
so  often  affords  what  Montaigne  calls  ' ;  Questions  pour  l'Ami."  See  a  fine  passaga 
of  Franciscus  Balduinus  in  Justinian  (1.  ii.  p.  259,  etc.,  apud  Ludewig,  p.  305,  306). 

83  When  Faust,  or  Faustus,  sold  at  Paris  his  first  printed  Bibles  as  manuscripts, 
the  price  of  a  parchment  copy  was  reduced  from  four  or  five  hundred  to  sixty,  fif- 
ty, and  forty  crowns.  The  public  was  at  first  pleased  with  the  cheapness,  and  at 
length  provoked  by  the  discovery  of  the  fraud  (Mattaire,  Annal.  Typograph.  torn. 
i.  p.  12;  first  edition). 

84  This  execrable  practice  prevailed  from  the  eighth,  and  more  especially  from 
the  twelfth  century,  when  it  became  almost  universal  (Montfaucon,  in  the  Me- 
moires  de  l'Acade'mie,  torn.  vi.  p.  606,  etc.;  Bibliotheque  Raisonnee  de  la  Diplo- 
matique, torn,  i,  p.  176). 


464:  LOSS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  JURISPRUDENCE.     [Ch.  XLIV. 

works  of  an  obsolete  science  ?  The  books  of  jurisprudence 
were  interesting  to  few  and  entertaining  to  none ;  their  val- 
ue was  connected  with  present  use,  and  they  sunk  forever  as 
soon  as  that  use  was  superseded  by  the  innovations  of  fash- 
ion, superior  merit,  or  public  authority.  In  the  age  of  peace 
and  learning,  between  Cicero  and  the  last  of  the  Antonines, 
many  losses  had  been  already  sustained,  and  some  luminaries 
of  the  school  or  forum  were  known  only  to  the  curious  by 
tradition  and  report.  Three  hundred  and  sixty  years  of  dis- 
order and  decay  accelerated  the  progress  of  oblivion ;  and  it 
may  fairly  be  presumed  that,  of  the  writings  which  Justinian 
is  accused  of  neglecting,  many  were  no  longer  to  be  found  in 
the  libraries  of  the  East.85  The  copies  of  Papinian  or  Ulpian, 
which  the  reformer  had  proscribed,  were  deemed  unworthy 
of  future  notice ;  the  Twelve  Tables  and  praetorian  edict 
insensibly  vanished ;  and  the  monuments  of  ancient  Rome 
were  neglected  or  destroyed  by  the  envy  and  ignorance  of 
the  Greeks.  Even  the  Pandects  themselves  have  escaped 
with  difficulty  and  danger  from  the  common  shipwreck,  and 
criticism  has  pronounced  that  all  the  editions  and  manu- 
scripts of  the  West  are  derived  from  one  original.8'  It  was 
transcribed  at  Constantinople  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century,87  was  successively  transported  by  the  accidents  of 

85  Pomponius  (Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  ii.  leg.  2  [§  39])  observes,  that  of  the  three  found- 
ers of  the  civil  law, Mucius,  Brutus,  and  Manilius,  "extant  volumina,  [in-J  scripta 
Manilii  monumenta;"  that  of  some  old  republican  lawyers,  "hsec  versantur  eorum 
scripta  inter  manus  hominum."  Eight  of  the  Augustan  sages  were  reduced  to  a 
compendium:  of  Cascellius,  "scripta  non  extant  sed  unus  liber,"  etc.  [§  45];  of 
Trebatius,  "minus  frequentatur "  [ib.];  of  Tubero,  "libri  parum  grati  sunt"[§ 
46].  Many  quotations  in  the  Pandects  are  derived  from  books  which  Tribonian. 
never  saw ;  and,  in  the  long  period  from  the  seventh  to  the  thirteenth  century  of 
Rome,  the  apparent  reading  of  the  moderns  successively  depends  on  the  knowl- 
edge and  veracity  of  their  predecessors. 

86  All,  in  several  instances,  repeat  the  errors  of  the  scribe  and  the  transpositions 
of  some  leaves  in  the  Elorentine  Pandects.  This  fact,  if  it  be  true,  is  decisive.  Yet 
the  Pandects  are  quoted  by  Ivo  of  Chartres  (who  died  in  1117),  by  Theobald,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  by  Vacarius,  our  first  professor,  in  the  year  1140  (Sel- 
den  ad  Fletam,  c.  7,  torn.  ii.  p.  1080-1085).  Have  our  British  MSS.  of  the  Pan- 
dects been  collated  P 

87  See  the  description  of  this  original  in  Brenckman  (Hist.  Pandect.  Florent.  1. 
i.  c.  2,  3,  p.  4-17,  and  1.  ii.).     Politian,  an  enthusiast,  revered  it  as  the  authentic 


A.D.533.]  LEGAL  INCONSTANCY  OF  JUSTINIAN.  405 

war  and  commerce  to  Amalphi,88  Pisa,60  and  Florence,00  and  is 
now  deposited  as  a  sacred  relic91  in  the  ancient  palace  of  the 
republic." 

It  is  the  first  care  of  a  reformer  to  prevent  any  future  ref- 
ormation.    To  maintain  the  text  of  the  Pandects,  the  Insti- 
tutes, and  the  Code,  the  use  of  ciphers  and  abbre- 

Legal  incon-         .  .  '  .._*■__. 

stancy.of  viations  was  rigorously  proscribed;  and  as  Justin- 
ian recollected  that  the  Perpetual  Edict  had  been 
buried  under  the  weight  of  commentators,  he  denounced  the 
punishment  of  forgery  against  the  rash  civilians  who  should 
presume  to  interpret  or  pervert  the  will  of  their  sovereign. 
The  scholars  of  Accursius,  of  Bartolus,  of  Cujacius,  should 

standard  of  Justinian  himself  (p.  407,  408) ;  but  this  paradox  is  refuted  by  the  ab- 
breviations of  the  Florentine  MS.  (1.  ii.  c.  3,  p.  117-130).  It  is  composed  of  two 
quarto  volumes,  with  large  margins,  on  a  thin  parchment,  and  the  Latin  charac- 
ters betray  the  hand  of  a  Greek  scribe. 

88  Brenckman,  at  the  end  of  his  history,  has  inserted  two  dissertations  on  the 
republic  of  Amalphi,  and  the  Pisan  war  in  the  year  1135,  etc. 

89  The  discovery  of  the  Pandects  at  Amalphi  (a.d.  1137)  is  first  noticed  (in 
1501)  by  Ludovicus  Bologninus  (Brenckman,  1.  i.  c.  11,  p.  73,  74  ;  1.  iv.  c.  2,  p.  417- 
425)f  on  the  faith  of  a  Pisan  chronicle  (p.  409,  410)  without  a  name  or  a  date. 
The  whole  story,a  though  unknown  to  the  twelfth  century,  embellished  by  igno- 
rant ages,  and  suspected  by  rigid  criticism,  is  not,  however,  destitute  of  much  in- 
ternal probability  (1.  i.  c.  4-8,  p.  17-50).  The  Liber  Pandectarura  of  Pisa  was  un- 
doubtedly consulted  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  the  great  Bartolus  (p.  406,  407. 
See  1.  i.  c.  9,  p.  50-62). 

90  Pisa  was  taken  by  the  Florentines  in  the  year  1406 ;  and  in  141 1  the  Pan- 
dects were,  transported  to  the  capital.     These  events  are  authentic  and  famous. 

91  They  were  new  bound  in  purple,  deposited  in  a  rich  casket,  and  shown  to 
curious  travellers  by  the  monks  and  magistrates,  bareheaded,  and  with  lighted  ta- 
kers (Brenckman,  1.  i.  c.  10,  11,  12,  p.  62-93). 

92  After  the  collations  of  Politian,  Bologninus,  and  Antoninus  Augnstinus,  and 
the  splendid  edition  of  the  Pandects  by  Taurellus(in  1551), b  Henry  Brenckman,  a 
Dutchman,  undertook  a  pilgrimage  to  Florence,  where  he  employed  several  years 
in  the  study  of  a  single  manuscript.  His  Historia  Pandectarum  Florentinorum 
(Utrecht,  1722,  in  4to),  though  a  monument  of  industry,  is  a  small  portion  of  his 
original  design. 

a  Savigny  (vol.  iii.  p.  83  seq.)  examines  and  rejects  the  whole  story.  See  like- 
wise Hallam,  vol.  iii.  p.  414,  18th  edit. — M. 

b  Two  or  three  mistakes  (perhaps  misprints)  in  this  note  are  pointed  out  by  a 
writer  in  Notes  and  Queries,  vol.  ii.  p.  422.  The  edition  of  the  Pandects  was  ed- 
ited by  Taurellius,  not  Taurellus,  and  in  1553,  not  1551.  In  the  preceding  line 
Antonius  Augustinus  is  falsely  called  Antoninus  Augustiuus ;  in  a  preceding  note 
(76)  he  had  been  erroneously  called  Antoninus  Augustus. — S. 

IY.— 30 


466  THE  NOVELS.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

blush  for  their  accumulated  guilt,  unless  they  dare  to  dispute 
his  right  of  binding  the  authority  of  his  successors  and  the 
native  freedom  of  the  mind.  But  the  emperor  was  unable 
to  fix  his  own  inconstancy ;  and,  while  he  boasted  of  renew* 
ing  the  exchange  of  Diomede,  of  transmuting  brass  into 
gold,93  he  discovered  the  necessity  of  purifying  his  gold  from 
the   mixture   of  baser  alloy.     Six  years   had  not 

Second 

earn.;.]  of       elapsed  from  the  publication  of  the  Code  before  he 

the  Code.  r  . r 

a.d.  5H4,  condemned  the  imperiect  attempt  by  a  new  and 
Nov.  16.  _.  .r        „    ,  r       J  _       ,  .  .    , 

more  accurate  edition  01  the  same  work,  which  he 

enriched  with  two  hundred  of  his  own  laws  and  fifty  deci- 
sions of  the  darkest  and  most  intricate  points  of  jurisprudence. 
Every  year,  or,  according  to  Procopius,  each  day,  of  his  long 
reign  was  marked  by  some  legal  innovation.  Many  of  his 
acts  were  rescinded  by  himself ;  many  were  rejected  by  his 
successors;  many  have  been  obliterated  by  time;  but  the 
The  Novels,  number  of  sixteen  Edicts,  and  one  hundred  and 
a.b.  534-565.  sixty-eight  Novels,94  has  been  admitted  into  the 
authentic  body  of  the  civil  jurisprudence.  In  the  opinion  of 
a  philosopher  superior  to  the  prejudices  of  his  profession, 
these  incessant,  and  for  the  most  part  trifling  alterations,  can 
be  only  explained  by  the  venal  spirit  of  a  prince  who  sold 
without  shame  his  judgments  and  his  laws.95  The  charge  of 
the  secret  historian  is  indeed  explicit  and  vehement ;  but  the 
sole  instance  which  he  produces  may  be  ascribed  to  the  de- 
votion as  well  as  to  the  avarice  of  Justinian.  A  wealthy 
bigot  had  bequeathed  his  inheritance  to  the  Church  of  Eme- 


93  Xpvaea  xa\K£<W,  ticaTofitoi  h>vta€oia)v,  apud  Homerum  patrem  oranis  vir- 
tutis  (1st  Prsefat.  ad  Pandect.).  A  line  of  Milton  or  Tasso  would  surprise  us  in 
an  act  of  parliament.  "  Quae  omnia  obtinere  sancimus  in  omne  gevum."  Of  the 
first  Code  he  says  (2d  Praafat.),  "In  seternum  valiturum."     Man  and  forever! 

94  Novellce  is  a  classic  adjective,  but  a  barbarous  substantive  (Ludewig,  p.  245). 
Justinian  never  collected  them  himself;  the  nine  collations,  the  legal  standard  of 
modern  tribunals,  consist  of  ninety-eight  Novels;  but  the  number  was  increased 
by  the  diligence  of  Julian,  Haloander,  and  Contius  (Ludewig,  p.  249,  258;  Ale- 
man.  Not.  in  Anecdot.  p.  98). 

93  Montesquieu,  Considerations  sur  la  Grandeur  et  la  Decadence  des  Eomains, 
ch.  20,  torn.  iii.  p.  501,  in  4to.  On  this  occasion  he  throws  aside  the  gown  and 
cap  of  a  President  a  Mortier. 


A.D.533.]  THE  INSTITUTES.  467 

sa,  and  its  value  was  enhanced  by  the  dexterity  of  an  artist, 
who  subscribed  confessions  of  debt  and  promises  of  payment 
with  the  names  of  the  richest  Syrians.  They  pleaded  the 
established  prescription  of  thirty  or  forty  years;  but  their 
defence  was  overruled  by  a  retrospective  edict,  which  extend- 
ed the  claims  of  the  Church  to  the  term  of  a  century — an 
edict  so  pregnant  with  injustice  and  disorder,  that,  after  serv- 
ing this  occasional  purpose,  it  was  prudently  abolished  in  the 
same  reign.06  If  candor  will  acquit  the  emperor  himself,  and 
transfer  the  corruption  to  his  wife  and  favorites,  the  suspicion 
of  so  foul  a  vice  must  still  degrade  the  majesty  of  his  laws ; 
and  the  advocates  of  Justinian  may  acknowledge  that  such 
levity,  whatsoever  be  the  motive,  is  unworthy  of  a  legislator 
and  a  man. 

Monarchs  seldom  condescend  to  become  the  preceptors  of 
their  subjects ;  and  some  praise  is  due  to  Justinian,  by  whose 
The  insti-  command  an  ample  system  was  reduced  to  a  short 
lUBe533,  and  elementary  treatise.  Among  the  various  in- 
Nov.21.  stitutes  of  the  Roman  law,97  those  of  Caius98  were 
the  most  popular  in  the  East  and  West ;  and  their  use  may 
be  considered  as  an  evidence  of  their  merit.  They  were  se- 
lected by  the  imperial  delegates,  Tribonian,  Theophilus,  and 
Dorotheus;  and  the  freedom  and  purity  of  the  Antonines 
was  incrusted  with  the  coarser  materials  of  a  degenerate  age. 

96  Procopii: i,  Anccdot  c.  28  [torn.  iii.  p.  155,  edit.  Bonn].  A  similar  privilege 
was  granted  to  t1  j  Church  of  Kome  (Novel,  ix.).  For  the  general  repeal  of  these 
mischievous  indulgences,  see  Novel,  cxi.  and  Edict,  v. 

97  Lactantius,  in  his  Institutes  of  Christianity,  an  elegant  and  specious  work, 
proposes  to  imitate  the  title  and  method  of  the  civilians.  "  Quidam  prudentes  et 
arbitri  sequitatis  Institutiones  Civilis  Juris  compositas  ediderunt"  (Institut.  Divin. 
1.  i.  c.  1).     Such  as  Ulpir",  Paul,  Florentinus,  Marcian. 

93  The  Emperor  Justirran  calls  him  suum,  though  he  died  before  the  end  of  the 
second  century.  His  Institutes  are  quoted  by  Servius,  Boethius,  Priscian,  etc.  ; 
and  the  Epitome  by  Am  .n  is  still  extant.  (See  the  Prolegomena  and  notes  to 
the  edition  of  Schulting,  in  the  Jurisprudentia  Ante- Justinianea,  Lugd.  Bat.  1717; 
Heineccius,  Hist.  J.  It.  No.  313  ;  Ludewig,  in  Vit.  Just.  p.  199.)' 


*  The  Institutes  of  Caius.  or  Gaius,  as  he  is  now  more  generally  called,  were 
discovered  by  Niebuhr  in  1818  in  a  palimpsest  MS.  preserved  in  the  cathedral 
library  of  Verona.  The  work  was  published  for  the  first  time  by  Goeschen  in 
1821.— S. 


468  PERSONS.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

The  same  volume  which  introduced  the  youth  of  Rome, 
Constantinople,  and  Berytus  to  the  gradual  study  of  the  Code 
and  Pandects,  is  still  precious  to  the  historian,  the  philosopher, 
and  the  magistrate.  The  Institutes  of  Justinian  are  divided 
into  four  books :  they  proceed,  with  no  contemptible  method, 
from,  I.  Persons,  to,  II.  Things,  and  from  things  to,  III.  Ac- 
tions;  and  the  article  IV.,  of  Private  Wrongs,  is  terminated 
by  the  principles  of  Criminal  Law.* 

The  distinction  of  ranks  and  persons  is  the  firmest  basis  of 
a  mixed  and  limited  government.  In  France  the  remains  of 
i.  of  peb-  liberty  are  kept  alive  by  the  spirit,  the  honors,  and 
Free'meu  even  tne  prejudices  of  fifty  thousand  nobles."  Two 
and  slaves,  hundred  families1*  supply,  in  lineal  descent,  the  sec- 
ond branch  of  the  English  legislature,  which  maintains,  be- 
tween the  king  and  commons,  the  balance  of  the  constitution. 
A  gradation  of  Patricians  and  Plebeians,  of  strangers  and  sub- 
jects, has  supported  the  aristocracy  of  Genoa,  Venice,  and  an- 
cient Rome.  The  perfect  equality  of  men  is  the  point  in 
which  the  extremes  of  democracy  and  despotism  are  con- 
founded ;  since  the  majesty  of  the  prince  or  people  would  be 
offended  if  any  heads  were  exalted  above  the  level  of  their 
fellow-slaves  or  fellow-citizens.  In  the  decline  of  the  Roman 
empire,  the  proud  distinctions  of  the  republic  were  gradually 
abolished,  and  the  reason  or  instinct  of  Justinian  completed 
the  simple  form  of  an  absolute  monarchy.  The  emperor 
could  not  eradicate  the  popular  reverence  which  always  waits 
on  the  possession  of  hereditary  wealth  or  the  memory  of  fa- 
mous ancestors.     He  delighted  to  honor  with  titles  and  emol- 

99  See  the  Annales  Politiques  de  l'Abbe'  de  St.  Pierre,  torn.  i.  p.  25,  who  dates 
in  the  year  1735.  The  most  ancient  families  claim  the  immemorial  possession  of 
arms  and  fiefs.  Since  the  Crusades,  some,  the  most  truly  respectable,  have  been 
created  by  the  king  for  merit  and  services.  The  recent  and  vulgar  crowd  is  de- 
rived from  the  multitude  of  venal  offices,  without  trust  or  dignity,  which  continu- 
ally ennoble  the  wealthy  Plebeians. 


a  Gibbon4  dividing  the  Institutes  into  four  parts,  considers  the  appendix  of  the 
criminal  law  in  the  last  title  as  a  fourth  part. — W. 

b  Since  the  time  of  Gibbon  the  House  of  Peers  has  been  more  than  doubled  :  it 
is  above  400,  exclusive  of  the  spiritual  peers — a  wise  policy,  to  increase  the  Pa- 
trician order  in  proportion  to  the  funeral  increase  of  the  nation. — M. 


A.D.  533.]  FEEEMEN  AND  SLAVES.  469 

uments  his  generals,  magistrates,  and  senators ;  and  his  pre- 
carious indulgence  communicated  some  rays  of  their  glory  to 
the  persons  of  their  wives  and  children.  But  in  the  eye  of 
the  law  a]l  Roman  citizens  were  equal,  and  all  subjects  of  the 
empire  were  citizens  of  Rome.  That  inestimable  character 
was  degraded  to  an  obsolete  and  empty  name.  The  voice  of 
a  Roman  could  no  longer  enact  his  laws  or  create  the  annual 
ministers  of  his  power:  his  constitutional  rights  might  have 
checked  the  arbitrary  will  era  master ;  and  the  bold  advent- 
urer from  Germany  or  Arabia  was  admitted,  with  equal  fa- 
vor, to  the  civil  and  military  command,  which  the  citizen 
alone  had  been  once  entitled  to  assume  over  the  conquests  of 
his  fathers.  The  first  Caesars  had  scrupulously  guarded  the 
distinction  of  ingenuous  and  servile  birth,  which  was  decided 
by  the  condition  of  the  mother ;  and  the  candor  of  the  laws 
was  satisfied  if  her  freedom  could  be  ascertained,  during  a  sin- 
gle moment,  between  the  conception  and  the  delivery.  The 
slaves  who  were  liberated  by  a  generous  master  immediately 
entered  into  the  middle  class  of  libertines  or  freedmen ;  but 
they  could  never  be  enfranchised  from  the  duties  of  obedi- 
ence and  gratitude :  whatever  were  the  fruits  of  their  indus- 
try, their  patron  and  his  family  inherited  the  third  part ;  or 
even  the  whole  of  their  fortune  if  they  died  without  children 
and  without  a  testament.  Justinian  respected  the  rights  of 
patrons ;  but  his  indulgence  removed  the  badge  of  disgrace 
from  the  two  inferior  orders  of  freedmen:  whoever  ceased 
to  be  a  slave  obtained,  without  reserve  or  delay,  the  station 
of  a  citizen ;  and  at  length  the  dignity  of  an  ingenuous  birth, 
which  nature  had  refused,  was  created,  or  supposed,  by  the 
omnipotence  of  the  emperor.  Whatever  restraints  of  age,  or 
forms,  or  numbers,  had  been  formerly  introduced  to  check  the 
abuse  of  manumissions  and  the  too  rapid  increase  of  vile  and 
indigent  Romans,  he  finally  abolished  ;  and  the  spirit  of  his 
laws  promoted  the  extinction  of  domestic  servitude.  Yet  the 
eastern  provinces  were  filled,  in  the  time  of  Justinian,  with 
multitudes  of  slaves,  either  born  or  purchased  for  the  use  of 
their  masters ;  and  the  price,  from  ten  to  seventy  pieces  of 
gold,  was  determined  by  their  age,  their  strength,  and  their 


4:70  FATHERS  AND  CHILDREN.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

education.100  But  the  hardships  of  this  dependent  state  were 
continually  diminished  by  the  influence  of  government  and 
religion ;  and  the  pride  of  a  subject  was  no  longer  elated 
by  his  absolute  dominion  over  the  life  and  happiness  of  his 
bondsman.1" 

The  law  of  nature  instructs  most  animals  to  cherish  and 
educate  their  infant  progeny.  The  law  of  reason  inculcates 
Fathers  and  to  the  human  species  the  returns  of  filial  piety, 
children.  j>n|.  t]ie  exciusivej  absolute,  and  perpetual  domin- 
ion of  the  father  over  his  children  is  peculiar  to  the  Roman 
jurisprudence,102  and  seems  to  be  coeval  with  the  foundation 
of  the  city.103  The  paternal  power  was  instituted  or  confirm- 
ed by  Romulus  himself ;  and,  after  the  practice  of  three  cen- 
turies, it  was  inscribed  on  the  fourth  table  of  the  Decemvirs. 

100  If  the  option  of  a  slave  was  bequeathed  to  several  legatees,  they  drew  lots, 
and  the  losers  were  entitled  to  their  share  of  his  value :  ten  pieces  of  gold  for  a 
common  servant  or  maid  under  ten  years ;  if  above  that  age,  twenty ;  if  they 
knew  a  trade,  thirty ;  notaries  or  writers,  fifty ;  midwives  or  physicians,  sixty ; 
eunuchs  under  ten  years,  thirty  pieces  ;  above,  fifty ;  if  tradesmen,  seventy  (Cod. 
1.  vi.  tit.  xliii.  leg.  3).     These  legal  prices  are  generally  below  those  of  the  market. 

101  For  the  state  of  slaves  and  freedmen,  see  Institutes,  1.  i.  tit.  iii.-viii.,  1.  ii.  tit. 
ix.,  1.  iii.  tit.  viii.  ix.  [vii.  viii.]  ;  Pandects  or  Digest,  1.  i.  tit.  v.  vi.,  1.  xxxviii.  tit. 
i.-iv.,  ...id  the  whole  of  the  fortieth  book  ;  Code,  1.  vi.  tit.  iv.  v.,  1.  vii.  tit.  i.-xxiii. 
Be  it  henceforward  understood  that,  with  the  original  text  of  the  Institutes  and 
Pandects,  the  correspondent  articles  in  the  Antiquities  and  Elements  of  Heinec- 
eius  m-e  implicitly  quoted  ;  and  with  the  twenty-seven  first  books  of  the  Pandects, 
the  learned  and  rational  Commentaries  of  Gerard  Noodt  (Opera,  torn.  ii.  p.  1-590, 
the  end,  Lugd.  Bat.  1724). 

102  See  the  "patria  potestas"  in  the  Institutes  (1.  i.  tit.  ix.),  the  Pandects  (1.  i. 
tit.  vi.  vii.),  and  the  Code  (1.  viii.  tit.  xlvii.  xlviii.  xlix.  [tit.  xlvi.  xlvii.  xlviii.]). 
"Jus  potestatis  quod  in  liberos  habemus  proprium  est  civium  Romanorum.  Null] 
enim  alii  sunt  homines,  qui  talem  in  liberos  habeant  potestatem  quulem  nos 
habemus.  "a 

103  Dionysius  Hal.  1.  ii.  [c.  26]  p.  94,  95.  Gravina  (Opp.  p.  286)  produces  tha 
words  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  Papinian  (in  Collatione  Legum  Roman,  et  Mosaica- 
rum,  tit.  iv.  p.  204  [edit.  Cannegieter,  1774])  styles  this  "patria  potestas,  lex  re- 
gia."  Ulpian  (ad  Sabin.  1.  xxvi.  in  Pandect.  1.  i.  tit.  vi.  leg.  8)  says,  "Jus  potesta- 
tis moribus  receptum,"  and  "  Furiosus  filium  in  potestate  habebit."  How  sacred 
— or  rather,  how  absurd  !b 


a  The  newly  discovered  Institutes  of  Gaius  name  one  nation  in  which  the  same 
power  was  vested  in  the  parent.  "  Nee  me  preterit  Galatarum  gentem  credere, 
in  potestate  parent mn  liberos  esse." — M. 

b  All  this  is  in  strict  accordance  with  the  Roman  character. — W. 


A.D.  533-565.]  FATHERS  AND  CHILDREN.  471 

In  the  Forum,  the  senate,  or  the  camp,  the  adult  son  of  a  So- 
man citizen  enjoyed  the  public  and  private  rights  of  a  per- 
son: in  his  father's  house  he  was  a  mere  thing ;  confound- 
ed by  the  laws  with  the  movables,  the  cattle,  and  the  slaves, 
whom  the  capricious  master  might  alienate  or  destroy  with- 
out being  responsible  to  any  earthly  tribunal.  The  hand 
which  bestowed  the  daily  sustenance  might  resume  the  vol- 
untary gift,  and  whatever  was  acquired  by  the  labor  or  fort- 
une of  the  son  was  immediately  lost  in  the  property  of  the 
father.  His  stolen  goods  (his  oxen  or  his  children)  might  be 
recovered  by  the  same  action  of  theft;104  and  if  either  had 
been  guilty  of  a  trespass,  it  was  in  his  own  option  to  compem 
sate  the  damage,  or  resign  to  the  injured  party  the  obnoxious 
animal.  At  the  call  of  indigence  or  avarice,  the  master  of  a 
family  could  dispose  of  his  children  or  his  slaves.  But  the 
condition  of  the  slave  was  far  more  advantageous,  since  he  re- 
gained, by  the  first  manumission,  his  alienated  freedom :  the 
son  was  again  restored  to  his  unnatural  father ;  he  might  be 
condemned  to  servitude  a  second  and  a  third  time,  and  it  was 
not  till  after  the  third  sale  and  deliverance105  that  he  was  en- 
franchised from  the  domestic  power  which  had  been  so  re- 
peatedly abused.  According  to  his  discretion,  a  father  might 
chastise  the  real  or  imaginary  faults  of  his  children  by  stripes, 
by  imprisonment,  by  exile,  by  sending  them  to  the  country  to 
work  in  chains  among  the  meanest  of  his  servants.  The 
majesty  of  a  parent  was  armed  with  the  power  of  life  and 
death  ;106  and  the  examples  of  such  bloody  executions,  which 
were  sometimes  praised  and  never  punished,  may  be  traced  in 
the  annals  of  Rome,  beyond  the  times  of  Pompey  and  Au- 
gustus. Neither  age,  nor  rank,  nor  the  consular  office,  nor 
the  honors  of  a  triumph,  could  exempt  the  most  illustrious 

104  Pandect.  1.  xlvii.  tit.  ii.  leg.  14,  No.  13 ;  leg.  38,  No.  1.  Such  was  the  deci- 
sion of  Uipian  and  Paul. 

105  The  "  trina  mancipatio  "  is  most  clearly  defined  by  Uipian  (Fragment,  x.  p. 
591,592,  edit.  Schulring)  ;  and  best  illustrated  in  the  Antiquities  of  Heineccius. 

106  By  Justinian,  the  old  law,  the  "jus  necis"  of  the  Roman  father  (Institute 
1.  iv.  tit.  ix.  [viii.]  No.  7),  is  reported  and  reprobated.  Some  legal  vestiges  are 
left  in  the  Pandects  (1.  xliii.  tit.  xxix.  leg.  3,  No.  4)  and  the  Collatio  Legum  Ro« 
xnanaium  et  Mosaicarum  (tit.  ii.  No.  3,  p.  189). 


472  LIMITATIONS  OF  PARENTAL  AUTHORITY.    [Ch.  XLIV. 

citizen  from  the  bonds  of  filial  subjection  :10T  his  own  descend* 
ants  were  included  in  the  family  of  their  common  ancestor; 
and  the  claims  of  adoption  were  not  less  sacred  or  less  rigor- 
ous than  those  of  nature.  Without  fear,  though  not  without 
danger  of  abuse,  the  Roman  legislators  had  reposed  an  un- 
bounded confidence  in  the  sentiments  of  paternal  love;  and 
the  oppression  was  tempered  by  the  assurance  that  each  gen- 
eration must  succeed  in  its  turn  to  the  awful  dignity  of  par- 
ent and  master. 

The  first  limitation  of  paternal  power  is  ascribed  to  the 
justice  and  humanity  of  ISTuma ;  and  the  maid  who,  with  his 
father's  consent,  had  espoused  a  freeman,  was  pro- 
of the  pater-  tected  from  the  disgrace  of  becoming  the  wife  of  a 
y'  slave.  In  the  first  ages,  when  the  city  was  pressed 
and  often  famished  by  her  Latin  and  Tuscan  neighbors,  the 
sale  of  children  might  be  a  frequent  practice ;  but  as  a  Ro- 
man could  not  legally  purchase  the  liberty  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zen, the  market  must  gradually  fail,  and  the  trade  would  be 
destroyed  by  the  conquests  of  the  republic.  An  imperfect 
right  of  property  was  at  length  communicated  to  sons;  and 
the  threefold  distinction  of  jwqfectitious,  adventitious,  and 
professional  was  ascertained  by  the  jurisprudence  of  the 
Code  and  Pandects.108  Of  all  that  proceeded  from  the  father 
he  imparted  only  the  use,  and  reserved  the  absolute  domin- 
ion ,  yet,  if  his  goods  were  sold,  the  filial  portion  was  accept- 
ed, by  a  favorable  interpretation,  from  the  demands  of  the 
creditors.  In  whatever  accrued  by  marriage,  gift,  or  collateral 
succession,  the  property  was  secured  to  the  son ;  but  the  fa- 
ther, unless  he  had  been  specially  excluded,  enjoyed  the  usu- 

101  Except  on  public  occasions  and  in  the  actual  exercise  of  his  office.  "In 
publicis  locis  atque  muneribus,  atque  actionibus  patrum,  jura  cum  filiorum  qui  in 
magistrate  sunt,  potestatibus  collata  iuterquiescere  paullulum  et  connivere,"  etc. 
(Aul.  Gellius,  Noctes  Attica?,  ii.  2).  The  Lessons  of  the  philosopher  Taurus  were 
justified  by  the  old  and  memorable  example  of  Fabius  ;  and  we  may  contemplate 
the  same  story  in  the  style  of  Livy  (xxiv.  44)  and  the  homely  idiom  of  Claudius 
Quadrigarius  the  annalist. 

108  See  the  gradual  enlargement  and  security  of  the  filial  peculium  in  the  Insti- 
tutes (1.  ii.  tit.  ix.),  the  Pandects  (1.  xv.  tit.  i. ;  1.  xli.  tit.  i.),  and  the  Code  (1.  iv.  tit. 
xxvi.  xxvii.). 


A.D.  533-565.]   LIMITATIONS  OF  PAEENTAL  AUTHORITY.  473 

fruct  during  his  life.  As  a  just  and  prudent  reward  of  mili- 
tary virtue,  the  spoils  of  the  enemy  were  acquired,  possessed, 
and  bequeathed  by  the  soldier  alone  ;  and  the  fair  analogy 
was  extended  to  the  emoluments  of  any  liberal  profession, 
the  salary  of  public  service,  and  the  sacred  liberality  of  the 
emperor  or  the  empress.  The  life  of  a  citizen  was  less  ex- 
posed than  his  fortune  to  the  abuse  of  paternal  power.  Yet 
his  life  might  be  adverse  to  the  interest  or  passions  of  an  un- 
worthy father :  the  same  crimes  that  flowed  from  the  corrup- 
tion were  more  sensibly  felt  by  the  humanity  of  the  Augus- 
tan age;  and  the  cruel  Erixo,  who  whipped  his  son  till  he 
expired,  was  saved  by  the  emperor  from  the  just  fury  of  the 
multitude.109  The  Roman  father,  from  the  license  of  servile 
dominion,  was  reduced  to  the  gravity  and  moderation  of  a 
judge.  The  presence  and  opinion  of  Augustus  confirmed  the 
sentence  of  exile  pronounced  against  an  intentional  parricide 
by  the  domestic  tribunal  of  Arius.  Hadrian  transported  to 
an  island  the  jealous  parent,  who,  like  a  robber,  had  seized  the 
opportunity  of  hunting  to  assassinate  a  youth,  the  incestuous 
lover  of  his  step-mother.110  A  private  jurisdiction  is  repug- 
nant to  the  spirit  of  monarchy  ;  the  parent  was  again  reduced 
from  a  judge  to  an  accuser ;  and  the  magistrates  were  enjoined 
by  Severus  Alexander  to  hear  his  complaints  and  execute  his 
sentence.  He  could  no  longer  take  the  life  of  a  son  without 
incurring  the  guilt  and  punishment  of  murder  ;  and  the  pains 
of  parricide,  from  which  he  had  been  excepted  by  the  Pom- 
peian  law,  were  finally  inflicted  by  the  justice  of  Constan- 
tine.111     The  same  protection  was  due  to  every  period  of  ex- 


109  The  examples  of  Evixo  and  Arius  are  related  by  Seneca  (de  dementia,  i. 
14,  15),  the  former  with  horror,  the  latter  with  applause. 

110  "Quod  latronis  magis  quam  patris  jure  eum  interfecisset, nam  patria  potestag 
in  pietate  debet  non  in  atrocitate  consistere  "  (Marcian,  Institut.  1.  xiv.  in  Pandect. 
1.  xlviii.  tit.  ix.  leg.  5). 

111  The  Pompeian  and  Cornelian  laws  de  sicariis  and  parricidis,  are  repeated, 
or  rather  abridged,  with  the  last  supplements  of  Alexander  Severus,  Constantine, 
and  Valentinian,  in  the  Pandects  (1.  xlviii.  tit.  viii.  ix.),  and  Code  (1.  ix.  tit.  xvi. 
xvii.).  See  likewise  the  Theodosian  Code  (1.  ix.  tit.  xiv.  xv.),  with  Godefroy's 
Commentary  (torn.  iii.  p.  84-113),  who  pours  a  flood  of  ancient  and  modern 
learning  over  these  penal  laws. 


474  HUSBANDS  AND  WIVES.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

istence ;  and  reason  must  applaud  the  humanity  of  Paulus 
for  imputing  the  crime  of  murder  to  the  father  who  strangles, 
or  starves,  or  abandons  his  new-born  infant,  or  exposes  him 
in  a  public  place  to  find  the  mercy  which  he  himself  had  de- 
nied. But  the  exposition  of  children  was  the  prevailing  and 
stubborn  vice  of  antiquity :  it  was  sometimes  prescribed,  of- 
ten permitted,  almost  always  practised  with  impunity  by  the 
nations  who  never  entertained  the  Roman  ideas  of  paternal 
power ;  and  the  dramatic  poets,  who  appeal  to  the  human 
heart,  represent  with  indifference  a  popular  custom  which  was 
palliated  by  the  motives  of  economy  and  compassion.118  If 
the  father  could  subdue  his  own  feelings,  he  might  escape, 
though  not  the  censure,  at  least  the  chastisement,  of  the  laws; 
and  the  Roman  empire  was  stained  with  the  blood  of  infants, 
till  such  murders  were  included  by  Valentinian  and  his  col- 
leagues in  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Cornelian  law.  The 
lessons  of  jurisprudence113  and  Christianity  had  been  insuffi- 
cient to  eradicate  this  inhuman  practice,  till  their  gentle  in- 
fluence was  fortified  by  the  terrors  of  capital  punishment.114 

Experience  has  proved  that  savages  are  the  tyrants  of  the 
female  sex,  and  that  the  condition  of  women  is  usually  soften- 
Husbands  e^  by  the  refinements  of  social  life.  In  the  hope  of 
and  wives.  a  ro^gf;  progeny,  Lycurgus  had  delayed  the  season 
of  marriage :  it  was  fixed  by  Numa  at  the  tender  age  of  twelve 


1,2  When  the  Chremes  of  Terence  reproaches  his  wife  for  not  obeying  his  or- 
ders and  exposing  their  infant,  he  speaks  like  a  father  and  a  master,  and  silences 
the  scruples  of  a  foolish  woman.  See  Apuleius  (Metamorph.  1.  x.  p.  337,  edit. 
Delphin.). 

113  The  opinion  of  the  lawyers,  and  the  discretion  of  the  magistrates  had  intro- 
duced, in  the  time  of  Tacitus,  some  legal  restraints,  which  might  support  his  con- 
trast of  the  boni  mores  of  the  Germans  to  the  bonaj  leges  alibi — that  is  to  say,  at 
Rome  (de  Moribus  Germanorum,  c.  19).  Tertullian  (ad  Nationes,  1.  i.  c.  15)  re- 
futes his  own  charges,  and  those  of  his  brethren,  against  the  heathen  jurisprudence. 

114  The  wise  and  humane  sentence  of  the  civilian  Paul  (1.  ii.  Sententiarum  in 
Pandect.  1.  xxv.  tit.  iii.  leg.  4)  is  represented  as  a  mere  moral  precept  by  Gerard 
Noodt  (Opp.  torn.  i.  in  Julius  Faulus,  p.  567-588,  and  Arnica  Responsio,  p.  591- 
606),  who  maintains  the  opini  on  of  Justus  Lipsius  (Opp.  torn.  ii.  p.  409,  ad  Bel- 
gas,  cent.  i.  epist.  85),  and  as  a  positive  binding  law  by  Bynkershoek  (de  Jure 
occidendi  Liberos,  Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  318-310;  Cura3  Secunda?,  p.  391-127).  In  a 
learned  but  angry  controversy  the  two  friends  deviated  into  the  opposite  extremes. 


A..D.  533-565.]  MARRIAGE.  475 

years,  that  the  Roman  husband  might  educate  to  his  will  a 
pure  and  obedient  virgin.116     According  to  the  custom  of  an- 
tiquity, he  bought  his  bride  of  her  parents,  and  she 
ions  rites        fulfilled  the  coemption  by  purchasing,  with  three 

of  marriage.         .  .  M     .  .,.,., 

pieces  of  copper,  a  just  introduction  to  Jus  house 
and  household  deities.  A  sacrifice  of  fruits  was  offered  by 
the  pontiffs  in  the  presence  of  ten  witnesses :  the  contracting 
parties  were  seated  on  the  same  sheepskin ;  they  tasted  a  salt 
cake  of  far,  or  rice ;  and  this  confarreation,w  which  denoted 
the  ancient  food  of  Italy,  served  as  an  emblem  of  their  mystic 
union  of  mind  and  body.  But  this  union  on  the  side  of  the 
woman  was  rigorous  and  unequal;  and  she  renounced  the 
name  and  worship  of  her  father's  house,  to  embrace  a  new 
servitude,  decorated  only  by  the  title  of  adoption :  a  fiction 
of  the  law,  neither  rational  nor  elegant,  bestowed  on  the  moth- 
er of  a  family117  (her  proper  appellation)  the  strange  characters 
of  sister  to  her  own  children  and  of  daughter  to  her  husband 
or  master,  who  was  invested  with  the  plenitude  of  paternal 
power.  By  his  judgment  or  caprice  her  behavior  was  ap- 
proved, or  censured,  or  chastised ;  he  exercised  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  life  and  death ;  and  it  was  allowed  that  in  the  cases  of 
adultery  or  drunkenness118  the  sentence  might  be  properly  in- 
flicted. She  acquired  and  inherited  for  the  sole  profit  of  her 
lord  ;  and  so  clearly  was  woman  defined,  not  as  &  person,  but 
as  a  thing,  that,  if  the  original  title  were  deficient,  she  might 
be  claimed,  like  other  movables,  by  the  use  and  possession  of 


115  Dionys.  Hal.  1.  ii.  p.  92,  93 ;  Plutarch,  in  Numa,  p.  140,  141.  T6  uS>/ia  ko.1 
to  ijQog  KaQapov  Kai  oBiktov  eirl  rip  yafiovvn  ykveaQai.  [Comp.  Lycurg.  cum 
Numa,  torn.  i.  p.  310,  edit.  Reiske.] 

116  Among  the  winter  frumenta,  the  triticum,  or  bearded  wheat;  the  siligo,  or 
the  unbearded;  the  far,  adorea,  oryza,  whose  description  perfectly  tallies  with  tha 
rice  of  Spain  and  Itidy.  I  adopt  this  identity  on  the  credit  of  M.  Paucton  in  his 
useful  and  laborious  Metrologie  (p.  517-529). 

117  Aulus  Gellius  (Noctes  Atticse,  xviii.  6)  gives  a  ridiculous  definition  of  iElius 
Melissus  :  "  Matronn,  quae  semel,  materfamilias  quae  ssepius  peperit,"  as  porcetra 
and  scropha  in  the  sow  kind.  He  then  adds  the  genuine  meaning,  "  Quae  in  ma- 
trimonium  vel  in  manum  convenisset." 

118  It  was  enough  to  have  tasted  wine,  or  to  have  stolen  the  key  of  the  cellar 
(Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  xiv.  14). 


476  THE  MATRIMONIAL  CONTRACT.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

an  entire  year.  The  inclination  of  the  Roman  husband  dis- 
charged or  withheld  the  conjugal  debt,  so  scrupulously  exact- 
ed by  the  Athenian  and  Jewish  laws  :119  but  as  polygamy  was 
unknown,  he  could  never  admit  to  his  bed  a  fairer  or  more 
favored  partner. 

After  the  Punic  triumphs  the  matrons  of  Rome  aspired  to 

the  common  benefits  of  a  free  and  opulent  republic ;  their 

wishes  were  gratified  by  the  indulgence  of  fathers 

Freedom  of  °  .        J      .  .  & 

the  matrimo-  and  lovers,  and  their  ambition  was  unsuccessfully 

nial  contract.  '  .  ion      rm 

resisted  by  the  gravity  of  Cato  the  Censor.  They 
declined  the  solemnities  of  the  old  nuptials,  defeated  the  an- 
nual prescription  by  an  absence  of  three  days,  and,  without 
losing  their  name  or  independence,  subscribed  the  liberal  and 
definite  terms  of  a  marriage  contract.  Of  their  private  fort- 
unes, they  communicated  the  use  and  secured  the  property : 
the  estates  of  a  wife  could  neither  be  alienated  nor  mortgaged 
by  a  prodigal  husband;  their  mutual  gifts  were  prohibited 
by  the  jealousy  of  the  laws;  and  the  misconduct  of  either 
party  might  afford,  under  another  name,  a  future  subject  for 
an  action  of  theft.  To  this  loose  and  voluntary  compact  re- 
ligious and  civil  rites  were  no  longer  essential,  and  between 
persons  of  a  similar  rank  the  apparent  community  of  life  was 
allowed  as  sufficient  evidence  of  their  nuptials.  The  dignity 
of  marriage  was  restored  by  the  Christians,  who  derived  all 
spiritual  grace  from  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  and  the  bene- 
diction of  the  priest  or  bishop.  The  origin,  validity,  and  du- 
ties of  the  holy  institution  were  regulated  by  the  tradition  of 


119  Solon  requires  three  payments  per  month.  By  the  Misna,  a  daily  debt  was 
imposed  on  an  idle,  vigorous,  young  husband;  twice  a  week  on  a  citizen  ;  once  on 
a  peasant ;  once  in  thirty  days  on  a  camel-driver ;  once  in  six  months  on  a  sea- 
man. But  the  student  or  doctor  was  free  from  tribute ;  and  no  wife,  if  she  re- 
ceived a  weekly  sustenance,  could  sue  for  a  divorce :  for  one  week  a  vow  of  ab- 
stinence was  allowed.  Polygamy  divided,  without  multiplying,  the  duties  of  the 
husband  (Selden,  Uxor  Ebraica,  1.  iii.  c.  6,  in  his  works,  vol.  ii.  p.  717-720). 

120  On  the  Oppian  law  we  may  hear  the  mitigating  speech  of  Valerius  Flaccus 
and  the  severe  censorial  oration  of  the  elder  Cato  (Li v.  xxxiv.  1-8).  But  we  shall 
rather  hear  the  polished  historian  of  the  eighth,  than  the  rough  orators  of  the  sixth 
century  of  Rome.  The  principles,  and  even  the  style,  of  Cato  are  more  accu- 
rately preserved  by  Aulus  Gellius  (x.  23). 


a.d.  533-565.]  DIVORCE.  4?7 

the  synagogue,  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  canons 
of  general  or  provincial  synods  ;131  and  the  conscience  of  the 
Christians  was  awed  by  the  decrees  and  censures  of  their  ec- 
clesiastical rulers.  Yet  the  magistrates  of  Justinian  were  not 
subject  to  the  authority  of  the  Church :  the  emperor  consulted 
the  unbelieving  civilians  of  antiquity ;  and  the  choice  of  mat- 
rimonial laws  in  the  Code  and  Pandects  is  directed  by  the 
earthly  motives  of  justice,  policy,  and  the  natural  freedom  of 
both  sexes.122 

Besides  the  agreement  of  the  parties,  the  essence  of  every 

rational  contract,  the  Roman  marriage  required  the  previous 

,     approbation  of  the  parents.     A  father  mi^ht  be 

Liberty  and         ri  r  °  ■  . 

abuse  of  di-     iorced  bv  some  recent  laws  to  supply  the  wants  of 

vorce.  "  .... 

a  mature  daughter,  but  even  his  insanity  was  not 
generally  allowed  to  supersede  the  necessity  of  his  consent. 
The  causes  of  the  dissolution  of  matrimony  have  varied  among 
the  Romans;123  but  the  most  solemn  sacrament,  the  confarrea- 
tion  itself,  might  always  be  done  away  by  rites  of  a  contrary 
tendency.  In  the  first  ages  the  father  of  a  family  might  sell 
his  children,  and  his  wife  was  reckoned  in  the  number  of  his 
children :  the  domestic  judge  might  pronounce  the  death  of 
the  offender,  or  his  mercy  might  expel  her  from  his  bed  and 
house ;  but  the  slavery  of  the  wretched  female  was  hopeless 

121  For  the  system  of  Jewish  and  Catholic  matrimony,  see  Selden  (Uxor  Ebrai- 
ca,  Opp.  vol.  ii.  p.  529-860),  Bingham  (Christian  Antiquities,  1.  xxii.),  and  Char- 
don  (Hist,  des  Sacremens,  torn.  vi.). 

122  The  civil  laws  of  marriage  are  exposed  in  the  Institutes  (1.  i.  tit.  x.),  the 
Pandects  (1.  xxiii.  xxiv.  xxv.),  and  the  Code  (1.  v.) ;  but  as  the  title  "  De  ritu  nup- 
tiarum"  is  yet  imperfect,  we  are  obliged  to  explore  the  fragments  of  Ulpian  (tit.  ix. 
p.  590,  591),  and  the  Collatio  Legum  Mosaicarum  (tit.  xvi.  p.  790,  791)  with  the 
notes  of  Pithaens  and  Schulting  [Jurispr.  Ante-Justin.].  They  find,  in  the  Com- 
mentary of  Servius  (on  the  first  Georgic  and  the  fourth  iEneid),  two  curious  pas, 
sages. 

123  According  to  Plutarch  (p.  57  [Rom.  c.  22])  Romulus  allowed  only  three 
grounds  of  a  divorce  —  drunkenness,3  adultery,  and  false  keys.  Otherwise,  the 
husband  who  abused  his  supremacy  forfeited  half  his  goods  to  the  wife,  and  half 
to  the  goddess  Ceres,  and  offered  a  sacrifice  (with  the  remainder  ?)  to  the  terres- 
trial deities.     This  strange  law  was  either  imaginary  or  transient. 


*  Plutarch  mentions  poisoning,  not  drunkenness — ktrl  <papna.Kua. — S. 


478  DIVORCE.  tCH.  XLIV. 

and  perpetual,  unless  he  asserted  for  his  own  convenience  the 
manly  prerogative  of  divorce.  The  warmest  applause  has 
been  lavished  on  the  virtue  of  the  Romans,  who  abstained 
from  the  exercise  of  this  tempting  privilege  above  five  hun- 
dred years  ;124  but  the  same  fact  evinces  the  unequal  terms 
of  a  connection  in  which  the  slave  was  unable  to  renounce 
her  tyrant,  and  the  tyrant  was  unwilling  to  relinquish  his 
slave.  When  the  Roman  matrons  became  the  equal  and  vol- 
untary companions  of  their  lords,  a  new  jurisprudence  was  in- 
troduced, that  marriage,  like  other  partnerships,  might  be  dis- 
solved by  the  abdication  of  one  of  the  associates.  In  three 
centuries  of  prosperity  and  corruption,  this  principle  was  en- 
larged to  frequent  practice  and  pernicious  abuse.  Passion,  in- 
terest, or  caprice  suggested  daily  motives  for  the  dissolution 
of  marriage;  a  word, a  sign, a  message, a  letter, the  mandate  of 
a  freed  man,  declared  the  separation ;  the  most  tender  of  hu- 
man connections  was  degraded  to  a  transient  society  of  profit 
or  pleasure.  According  to  the  various  conditions  of  life,  both 
sexes  alternately  felt  the  disgrace  and  injury :  an  inconstant 
spouse  transferred  her  wealth  to  a  new  family,  abandoning  a 
numerous,  perhaps  a  spurious,  progeny  to  the  paternal  author- 
ity and  care  of  her  late  husband;  a  beautiful  virgin  might 
be  dismissed  to  the  world,  old,  indigent,  and  friendless ;  but 
the  reluctance  of  the  Romans,  when  they  were  pressed  to 
marriage  by  Augustus,  sufficiently  marks  that  the  prevailing 
institutions  were  least  favorable  to  the  males.  A  specious 
theory  is  confuted  by  this  free  and  perfect  experiment,  which 
demonstrates  that  the  liberty  of  divorce  does  not  contribute 
to  happiness  and  virtue.  The  facility  of  separation  would 
destroy  all  mutual  confidence  and  inflame  every  trifling  dis- 
pute :  the  minute  difference  between  a  husband  and  a  stran- 
ger, which  might  so  easily  be  removed,  might  still  more  easily 
be  forgotten;  and  the  matron  who  in  five  years  can  submit 

124  In  the  year  of  Rome  523,  Spurius  Carvilius  Ruga  repudiated  a  fair,  a  good, 
but  a  barren  wife  (Dionysius  Hal.  1.  ii.  [c.  25]  p.  93 ;  Plutarch,  in  Numa  [comp. 
Lycurg.  cum  Numa,  c.  3],  p.  141 ;  Valerius  Maximus,  1.  ii.  c.  1  [§  4]  ;  Aulus  Gel- 
lius,  iv.  3).  He  was  questioned  by  the  censors  and  hated  by  the  people ;  but  his 
divorce  stood  unimpeached  in  law. 


ad.  533-565.]  DIVORCE.  479 

to  the  embraces  of  eight  husbands  must  cease  to  reverence 
the  chastity  of  her  own  person.1" 

Insufficient  remedies  followed  with  distant  and  tardy  steps 
the  rapid  progress  of  the  evil.     The  ancient  worship  of  the 

Komans  afforded  a  peculiar  goddess  to  hear  and 
of  the  liberty   reconcile  the  complaints  of  a  married  life;  but  her 

epithet  of  "Viriplaca,"ia8the  appeaser  of  husbands, 
too  clearly  indicates  on  which  side  submission  and  repentance 
were  always  expected.  Every  act  of  a  citizen  was  subject  to 
the  judgment  of  the  censors;  the  first  who  used  the  privi- 
lege of  divorce  assigned  at  their  command  the  motives  of  his 
conduct  ;m  and  a  senator  was  expelled  for  dismissing  his  vir- 
gin spouse  without  the  knowledge  or  advice  of  his  friends. 
Whenever  an  action  was  instituted  for  the  recovery  of  a  mar- 
riage-portion, the  praetor,  as  the  guardian  of  equity,  examined 
the  cause  and  the  characters,  and  gently  inclined  the  scale 
in  favor  of  the  guiltless  and  injured  party.  Augustus,  who 
united  the  powers  of  both  magistrates,  adopted  their  differ- 
ent modes  of  repressing  or  chastising  the  license  of  divorce.188 
The  presence  of  seven  Roman  witnesses  was  required  for  the 
validity  of  this  solemn  and  deliberate  act:  if  any  adequate 
provocation  had  been  given  by  the  husband,  instead  of  the 
delay  of  two  years,  he  was  compelled  to  refund  immediately 
or  in  the  space  of  six  months ;  but  if  he  could  arraign  the 

128  ■ Sic  fiunt  octo  mariti 

Quinque  per  autumnos. — Juvenal,  Satir.  vi.  229. 

A  rapid  succession,  which  may  yet  be  credible,  as  well  as  the  "non  consulum  nu- 
mero,  sed  maritorum  annos  suos  computant,"  of  Seneca  (De  Benefices,  iii.  16). 
Jerom  saw  at  Rome  a  triumphant  husband  bury  his  twenty-first  wife,  who  had 
interred  twenty-two  of  his  less  sturdy  predecessors  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  90,  ad  Geron- 
tiam).  But  the  ten  husbands  in  a  month  of  the  poet  Martial  is  an  extravagant 
hyperbole  (1.  vi.  Epigram  7). 

126  Sacellum  Viriplacse  (Valerius  Maximus,  1.  ii.  c.  1  [§  6]),  in  the  Palatine  re- 
gion, appears  in  the  time  of  Theodosius,  in  the  description  of  Rome  by  Publius 
Victor. 

121  Valerius  Maximus,  1.  ii.  c.  9  [§  2].  With  some  propriety  he  judges  divorce 
more  criminal  than  celibacy:  "Mo  namque  conjugalia  sacra  spreta  tantum,  hoc 
etiam  injuriose  tractata." 

128  See  the  laws  of  Augustus  and  his  successors,  in  Heineccius,  ad  Legem  Papi- 
am-Poppaeam,  c.  19,  in  Opp.  torn.  vi.  pt.  i.  p.  323-333. 


480  DIVORCE.  [Ch.  XUV. 

manners  of  his  wife,  her  guilt  or  levity  was  expiated  by  the 
loss  of  the  sixth  or  eighth  part  of  her  marriage-portion.  The 
Christian  princes  were  the  first  who  specified  the  just  causes 
of  a  private  divorce ;  their  institutions,  from  Constantine  to 
Justinian,  appear  to  fluctuate  between  the  custom  of  the  em- 
pire and  the  wishes  of  the  Church  ;"9  and  the  author  of  the 
Novels  too  frequently  reforms  the  jurisprudence  of  the  Code 
and  Pandects.  In  the  most  rigorous  laws  a  wife  was  con- 
demned to  support  a  gamester,  a  drunkard,  or  a  libertine,  un- 
less he  were  guilty  of  homicide,  poison,  or  sacrilege ;  in  which 
cases  the  marriage,  as  it  should  "seem,  might  have  been  dis- 
solved by  the  hand  of  the  executioner.  But  the  sacred  right 
of  the  husband  was  invariably  maintained  to  deliver  his  name 
and  family  from  the  disgrace  of  adultery ;  the  list  of  mortal 
sins,  either  male  or  female,  was  curtailed  and  enlarged  by  suc- 
cessive regulations,  and  the  obstacles  of  incurable  impotence, 
long  absence,  and  monastic  profession  were  allowed  to  re- 
scind the  matrimonial  obligation.  Whoever  transgressed  the 
permission  of  the  law  was  subject  to  various  and  heavy  pen- 
alties. The  woman  was  stripped  of  her  wealth  and  orna- 
ments, without  excepting  the  bodkin  of  her  hair ;  if  the  man 
introduced  a  new  bride  into  his  bed,  her  fortune  might  be 
lawfully  seized  by  the  vengeance  of  his  exiled  wife.  Forfeit- 
ure was  sometimes  commuted  to  a  fine;  the  fine  was  some- 
times aggravated  by  transportation  to  an  island  or  imprison- 
ment in  a  monastery ;  the  injured  party  was  released  from 
the  bonds  of  marriage,  but  the  offender,  during  life  or  a  term 
of  years,  was  disabled  from  the  repetition  of  nuptials.  The 
successor  of  Justinian  yielded  to  the  prayers  of  his  unhappy 
subjects,  and  restored  the  liberty  of  divorce  by  mutual  con- 
sent ;  the  civilians  were  unanimous,130  the  theologians  were 


129  "Alise  sunt  leges  Caasarum,  alias  Christi;  aliud  Papinianus,  aliud  Paulus 
noster  preecipit"  (Jerom,  torn.  i.  p.  198 ;  Selden,  Uxor  Ebraica,  1.  iii.  c.  31,  p.  817- 
853). 

130  The  Institutes  are  silent;  but  we  may  consult  the  Codes  of  Theodosius  (1. 
iii.  tit.  xvi.  with  Godefroy's  Commentary,  torn.  i.  p.  311-313)  and  Justinian  (1.  v. 
tit.  xvii.),  the  Pandects  (1.  xxiv.  tit.  ii.),  and  the  Novels  (xxii.  cxvii.  cxxvii.  cxxxiv. 
cxlj.    Justinian  fluctuated  to  the  last  between  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law. 


luD.  533-565.]  INCEST.  481 

divided,131  and  the  ambiguous  word  which  contains  the  pre- 
cept of  Christ  is  flexible  to  any  interpretation  that  the  wis- 
dom of  a  legislator  can  demand. 

The  freedom  of  love  and  marriage  was  restrained  among 

the  Romans  bj  natural  and  civil  impediments.     An  instinct, 

almost  innate  and  universal,  appears  to  prohibit  the 

Incest  con- 

engine's,  and  incestuous  commerce132  of  parents  and  children  in 
the  infinite  series  of  ascending  and  descending  gen- 
erations. Concerning  the  oblique  and  collateral  branches  nat- 
ure is  indifferent,  reason  mute,  and  custom  various  and  arbi- 
trary. In  Egypt  the  marriage  of  brothers  and  sisters  was  ad- 
mitted without  scruple  or  exception  :  a  Spartan  might  espouse 
the  daughter  of  his  father ;  an  Athenian,  that  of  his  mother ; 
and  the  nuptials  of  an  uncle  with  his  niece  were  applauded 
at  Athens  as  a  happy  union  of  the  dearest  relations.  The 
profane  law-givers  of  Rome  were  never  tempted  by  interest 
or  superstition  to  multiply  the  forbidden  degrees ;  but  they 
inflexibly  condemned  the  marriage  of  sisters  and  brothers, 
hesitated  whether  first-cousins  should  be  touched  by  the  same 
Interdict,  revered  the  parental  character  of  aunts  and  uncles,8 
and  treated  affinity  and  adoption  as  a  just  imitation  of  the 

*31  In  pure  Greek,  iropveia  is  not  a  common  word ;  nor  can  the  proper  mean- 
ing, fornication,  be  strictly  applied  to  matrimonial  sin.  In  a  figurative  sense,  how- 
far,  and  to  what  offences,  may  it  be  extended?  Did  Christ  speak  the  Eabbinical 
or  Syriac  tongue  ?  Of  what  original  word  is  iropveia  the  translation  ?  How  vari- 
ously is  that  Greek  word  translated  in  the  versions  ancient  and  modern!  There 
are  two  (Mark  x.  11 ;  Luke  xvi.  18)  to  one  (Matthew  xix.  9)  that  such  ground  of 
divorce  was  not  excepted  by  Jesus.  Some  critics  have  presumed  to  think,  by  an 
evasive  answer,  he  avoided  the  giving  offence  either  to  the  school  of  Sammai  or  to 
that  of  Hillel  (Selden,  Uxor  Ebraica,  1.  iii.  c.  18-22,  28,  31>b 

132  The  principles  of  the  Roman  jurisprudence  are  exposed  by  Justinian  (Insti- 
tut.  1.  i.  tit.  x.)  ;  and  the  laws  and  manners  of  the  different  nations  of  antiquity 
concerning  forbidden  degrees,  etc.,  are  copiously  explained  by  Dr.  Taylor  in  hia 
Elements  of  Civil  Law  (p.  108,  314-339),  a  work  of  amusing  though  various  read- 
ing, but  which  cannot  be  praised  for  philosophical  precision. 


*  In  consequence  of  the  marriage  of  the  Emperor  Claudius  with  his  niece  Agrip- 
pina,  the  daughter  of  his  brother  Germanicus,  it  became  lawful  for  a  man  to  mar- 
ry the  daughter  of  his  brother;  but  it  continued  unlawful  for  a  man  to  marry  the 
daughter  of  his  sister.     Gaius,  1.  i.  §  62. — S. 

b  But  these  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of  a  divorce  made  by  judicial 
c  •tthority. — Hugo. 


482  CONCUBINES  AND  BASTARDS.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

ties  of  blood.  According  to  the  proud  maxims  of  the  repub- 
lic, a  legal  marriage  could  only  be  contracted  by  free  citizens ; 
an  honorable,  at  least  an  ingenuous,  birth  was  required  for 
the  spouse  of  a  senator;  but  the  blood  of  kings  could  never 
mingle  in  legitimate  nuptials  with  the  blood  of  a  Roman; 
and  the  name  of  Stranger  degraded  Cleopatra  and  Berenice1" 
to  live  the  concubines  of  Mark  Antony  and  Titus.134  This 
appellation,  indeed,  so  injurious  to  the  majesty,  cannot  with- 
out indulgence  be  applied  to  the  manners,  of  these  Oriental 
queens.  A  concubine,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  civilians,  wa3 
a  woman  of  servile  or  Plebeian  extraction,  the  sole  and  faith- 
ful companion  of  a  Eoman  citizen,  who  continued  in  a  state 
of  celibacy.  Her  modest  station,  below  the  honors  of  a  wife, 
above  the  infamy  of  a  prostitute,  was  acknowledged  and  ap- 
proved by  the  laws :  from  the  age  of  Augustus  to  the  tenth 
century,  the  use  of  this  secondary  marriage  prevailed  both  in 
the  "West  and  East;  and  the  humble  virtues  of  a  concubine 
were  often  preferred  to  the  pomp  and  insolence  of  a  noble 
matron.  In  this  connection  the  two  Antonines,  the  best  of 
princes  and  of  men,  enjoyed  the  comforts  of  domestic  love ; 
the  example  was  imitated  by  many  citizens  impatient  of  celi- 
bacy, but  regardful  of  their  families.  If  at  any  time  they 
desired  to  legitimate  their  natural  children,  the  conversion 
was  instantly  performed  by  the  celebration  of  their  nuptials 
with  a  partner  whose  fruitfulness  and  fidelity  they  had  al- 
ready tried.a  By  this  epithet  of  natural  the  offspring  of  the 
concubine  were  distinguished  from  the  spurious  blood  of 
adultery,  prostitution,  and  incest,  to  whom  Justinian   reluc- 

133  When  her  father  Agrippa  died  (a.d.  44),  Berenice  was  sixteen  years  of  age 
(Joseph,  torn.  i.  Antiquit.  Judaic.  I.  xix.  c.  9,  p.  952,  edit.  Havercamp.).  She  was 
therefore  above  fifty  years  old  when  Titns  (a.d.  79)  ;'invitus  invitam  invisit." 
This  date  would  not  have  adorned  the  tragedy  or  pastoral  of  the  tender  Racine. 

134  The  "JDgyptia  conjnx"  of  Virgil  (iEneid.  viii.  68S)  seems  to  be  numbered 
among  the  monsters  who  warred  with  Mark  Antony  against  Augustus,  the  senate, 
and  the  gods  of  Italy. 

1  The  edict  of  Constantine  first  conferred  this  right :  for  Augustus  had  prohib- 
ited the  taking  as  a  concubine  a  woman  who  might  be  taken  as  a  wife ;  and  if  mar- 
riage took  place  afterwards,  this  marriage  made  no  change  in  the  rights  of  the 
children  born  before  it :  recourse  was  then  had  to  adoption,  properly  called  arro- 
gation. — G. 


A.D.  533-565.]  GUARDIANS  AND  WARDS.  483 

tantly  grants  the  necessary  aliments  of  life ;  and  these  natu- 
ral children  alone  were  capable  of  succeeding  to  a  sixth  part 
of  the  inheritance  of  their  reputed  father.  According  to  the 
rigor  of  law,  bastards  were  entitled  only  to  the  name  and 
condition  of  their  mother,  from  whom  they  might  derive  the 
character  of  a  slave,  a  stranger,  or  a  citizen.  The  outcasts  of 
every  family  were  adopted,  without  reproach,  as  the  children 
of  the  State.135  a 

The  relation  of  guardian  and  ward,  or,  in  Roman  words,  of 
tutor  and  pupil,  which  covers  so  many  titles  of  the  Institutes 
Guardians  an^  Pandects,138  is  of  a  very  simple  and  uniform 
and  wards.  nature.  The  person  and  property  of  an  orphan 
must  always  be  trusted  to  the  custody  of  some  discreet  friend. 
If  the  deceased  father  had  not  signified  his  choice,  the  agnats, 
or  paternal  kindred  of  the  nearest  degree,  were  compelled  to 
act  as  the  natural  guardians :  the  Athenians  were  apprehen- 
sive of  exposing  the  infant  to  the  power  of  those  most  inter- 
ested in  his  death ;  but  an  axiom  of  Roman  jurisprudence  has 
pronounced  that  the  charge  of  tutelage  should  constantly  at- 

135  The  humble  but  legal  rights  of  concubines  and  natural  children  are  stated  in 
the  Institutes  (1.  i.  tit.  x.),  the  Pandects  (1.  i.  tit.  vii.),  the  Code  (1.  v.  tit.  xxv.),  and 
the  Novels  (Ixxiv.  Ixxxix.).  The  researches  of  Heineccius  and  Giannone  (ad  Le- 
gem Juliam  et  Papiam-Poppasam,  c.  iv.  p.  164-175,  Opere  Posthume,  p.  108-158) 
illustrate  this  interesting  and  domestic  subject. 

136  See  the  article  of  guardians  and  wards  in  the  Institutes  (1.  i.  tit.  xiii.-xxvi.}, 
the  Pandects  (1.  xxvi.  xxvii.),  and  the  Code  (1.  v.  tit.  xxviji.-lxx.). 


a  See,  however,  the  two  fragments  of  laws  in  the  newly  discovered  extracts  from 
the  Theodosian  Code,  published  by  M.  A.  Peyron,  at  Turin.  By  the  first  law  of 
Constantine,  the  legitimate  offspring  could  alone  inherit:  where  there  were  no 
near  legitimate  relatives,  the  inheritance  went  to  the  fiscus.  The  son  of  a  certain 
Licinianus,  who  had  inherited  his  father's  property  under  the  supposition  that  he 
was  legitimate,  and  had  been  promoted  to  a  place  of  dignity,  was  to  be  degraded, 
his  property  confiscated,  himself  punished  with  stripes  and  imprisonment.  By 
the  second,  all  persons,  even  of  the  highest  rank,  senators,  perfect issimi,  decemvirs, 
were  to  be  declared  infamous,  and  out  of  the  protection  of  the  Roman  law,  if  born 
"ex  ancilla,  vel  ancillas  filia,  vel  liberta,  vel  libertae  filia\  sive  Romana  facta,  seu 
Latina,  vel  scasnicaj  filia,  vel  ex  tabernaria,  vel  ex  tabernaiiaj  filia,  vel  humili  vel 
abjecta,  vel  lenonis,  aut  arenarii  (ilia,  vel  quaj  mercimoniis  publicis  praefuit."  What- 
ever a  fond  father  had  conferred  on  such  children  was  revoked,  and  either  restored 
to  the  legitimate  children,  or  confiscated  to  the  State ;  the  mothers  who  were  guilty 
of  thus  poisoning  the  minds  of  the  fathers  were  to  be  put  to  the  torture  ("  tormen- 
tis  subjici  jubemus  ").  The  unfortunate  son  of  Licinianus,  it  appears  from  this 
second  law,  having  fled,  had  been  taken,  and  was  ordered  to  be  kept  in  chains  to 
work  in  the  Gynajceum  at  Carthage.     Cod.  Theodos.  ab  A.  Peyron,  87-90. — M. 


484  GUARDIANS  AND  WARDS.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

tend  the  emolument  of  succession.  If  the  choice  of  the  father 
and  the  line  of  consanguinity  afforded  no  efficient  guardian,  the 
failure  was  supplied  by  the  nomination  of  the  prsetor  of  the 
city  or  the  president  of  the  province ;  but  the  person  whom 
they  named  to  this  public  office  might  be  legally  excused  by 
insanity  or  blindness,  by  ignorance  or  inability,  by  previous 
enmity  or  adverse  interest,  by  the  number  of  children  or 
guardianships  with  which  he  was  already  burdened,  and  by 
the  immunities  which  were  granted  to  the  useful  labors  of 
magistrates,  lawyers,  physicians,  and  professors.  Till  the  in- 
fant could  speak  and  think,  he  was  represented  by  the  tutor, 
whose  authority  was  finally  determined  by  the  age  of  puber- 
ty/ "Without  his  consent,  no  act  of  the  pupil  could  bind  him- 
self to  his  own  prejudice,  though  it  might  oblige  others  for 
his  personal  benefit.  It  is  needless  to  observe  that  the  tutor 
often  gave  security,  and  always  rendered  an  account ;  and 
that  the  want  of  diligence  or  integrity  exposed  him  to  a  civil 
and  almost  criminal  action  for  the  violation  of  his  sacred 
trust.  The  age  of  puberty  had  been  rashly  fixed  by  the  ci- 
vilians at  fourteen  ;b  but  as  the  faculties  of  the  mind  ripen 
more  slowly  than  those  of  the  body,  a  curator  was  interposed 
to  guard  the  fortunes  of  a  Roman  youth  from  his  own  inex- 
perience and  headstrong  passions.  Such  a  trustee  had  been 
first  instituted  by  the  praetor  to  save  a  family  from  the  blind 
liavoc  of  a  prodigal  or  madman 


*  Gibbon's  ibeory  of  pupilage  does  not  seem  correct.  The  tutor  certainly  did 
not  "represent "  the  pupillus.  His  office  is  always  described  as  "augere  auctori- 
tatem,  interponere,  anctor  fieri, "  i.  e. ,  to  fill  out  or  complete  the  defective  legal  per- 
sonality of  the  ward.  All  formal  words  essential  to  a  legal  transaction  had  to  be 
pronounced  by  the  ward  himself,  and  then  the  tutor,  by  his  assent,  added  the  ani- 
mus, the  intention,  of  which  the  child  was  not  capable.  Hence  it  is  additionally 
inaccurate  to  describe  the  tutor  as  representing  the  ward  "till  he  could  speak." 
The  infant,  the  child  incapable  of  speech,  could  do  nothing  either  with  or  without 
his  tutor. — S. 

b  It  is  probable  that  the  doctrine  attributed  to  the  civilians  generally  by  Gibbon 
was  quite  unknown  to  the  older  law.  As  the  pupillus  was  in  theory  a  defective 
paterfamilias,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  tutelage  ceased  at  the  epoch  of  actual 
physical  manhood.  We  learn  from  Gaius  (1.  i.  §  198)  and  Ulpian  (Reg.  11,  28) 
that  the  Sabinians  still  maintained  this  view,  while  the  Proculeians  were  in  favor 
of  the  age  of  puberty  being  fixed  at  fourteen.  It  was  not,  however,  till  the  legis- 
lation of  Justinian  that  the  question  was  finally  settled  in  favor  of  the  latter  opin- 
ion. In  the  case  of  females  the  age  of  puberty  was  fixed  at  twelve,  from  the  ear- 
liest times.     Institut.  1.  i.  tit.  22.— S. 


A.D.  533-565.]  THE  INSTITUTES :   OF  THINGS."  485 

pelled  by  the  laws  to  solicit  the  same  protection  to  give  valid- 
ity to  his  acts  till  he  accomplished  the  full  period  of  twen- 
ty-five years.a  "Women  were  condemned  to  the  perpetual  tu- 
telage of  parents,  husbands,  or  guardians ;  a  sex  created  to 
please  and  obey  was  never  supposed  to  have  attained  the  age 
of  reason  and  experience  Such  at  least  was  the  stern  and 
haughty  spirit  of  the  anicent  law,  which  had  been  insensibly 
mollified  before  the  time  of  Justinian. 

II.  The  original  right  of  property  can  only  be  justified  by 
the  accident  or  merit  of  prior  occupancy ;  and  on  this  foun- 
n  0p  dation  it  is  wisely  established  by  the  philosophy  of 

Ri"iu  of  tne  civilians.137  The  savage  who  hollows  a  tree,  in- 
property.  gerf.s  a  gjjarp  gtone  into  a  wooden  handle,  or  applies 
a  string  to  an  elastic  branch,  becomes  in  a  state  of  nature  the 
just  proprietor  of  the  canoe,  the  bow,  or  the  hatchet.  The 
materials  were  common  to  all ;  the  new  form,  the  produce  of 
his  time  and  simple  industry,  belongs  solely  to  himself.  His 
hungry  brethren  cannot,  without  a  sense  of  their  own  injus- 
tice, extort  from  the  hunter  the  game  of  the  forest  overtaken 
or  slain  by  his  personal  strength  and  dexterity.     If  his  provi- 

131  Institut.  1.  ii.  tit.  i.  ii.  Compare  the  pure  and  precise  reasoning  of  Cains  and 
Heineccius  (1.  ii.  tit.  i.  p.  69-91)  with  the  loose  prolixity  of  Theophilus  (p.  207-265). 
The  opinions  of  Ulpian  are  preserved  in  the  Pandects  (1.  i.  tit.  viii.  leg.  41,  No.  1). 

a  There  has  been  considerable  dispute  among  modern  writers  respecting  the 
curator,  but  the  following  seems  the  most  probable  and  consistent  account  of  the 
matter :  The  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  provided  for  the  appointment  of  curators 
in  the  case  of  madmen  and  prodigals,  but  did  not  make  any  provision  for  the  pro- 
tection of  young  persons  who  had  attained  the  age  of  puberty.  The  first  enact- 
ment on  the  subject  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  is  the  lex  Plcetoria  (not 
Lcetoria,  as  it  is  often  written),  passed  before  the  time  of  Plautus  (Pseud,  i.  3,  69), 
which,  fixing  the  age  of  the  perfecta  setas  at  twenty-five  years,  provided  that  any 
one  defrauding  a  person  under  that  age  should  be  liable  to  a  criminal  prosecution 
and  to  infamy  (Cic.  de  Nat.  Deor.  iii.  30 ;  de  Off.  iii.  15) ;  and  probably  permitted 
the  appointment  of  curators  in  cases  where  a  good  reason  for  the  appointment  was 
given.  The  praetor  subsequently  provided  a  remedy,  which  was  a  great  protection 
to  persons  under  twenty-five  years  who  came  before  him,  by  directing,  in  all  cases 
of  fraud,  a  restitutio  in  integrum ;  that  is,  that  the  applicant  should  be  placed  ex- 
actly in  the  position  in  which  he  would  have  been  had  not  the  fraud  been  prac- 
tised against  him.  Finally,  Marcus  Antoninus  ordered  that  curators  should  be 
given  in  all  cases,  without  inquiry,  on  the  application  of  the  pubes.  The  chief 
authority  on  the  subject  is  Julius  Capitolinus,  in  Vita  M.  Aurel.  Anton,  c.  10,  who 
says :  "  De  curatoribus  vero,  quum  ante  non  nisi  ex  lege  Lastoria,  vel  propter  las- 
civiam  vel  propter  dementiam,  darentur  ita  statuit  (M.  Antoninus)  ut  omnes  adul- 
ti  curatorem  acciperent  non  redditis  causis."  Sandars,  The  Institutes  of  Justiu° 
ian,  p.  157 ;  see  also  Smith's  Diet,  of  Antiq.  p.  374  seri.,  2d  edit, — S. 


48G  EIGHT  OF  PROPERTY.  [Ch.  XLIT. 

dent  care  preserves  aad  multiplies  the  tame  animals,  whose 
nature  is  tractable  to  the  arts  of  education,  he  acquires  a  per- 
petual title  to  the  use  and  service  of  their  numerous  progeny, 
which  derives  its  existence  from  him  alone.  If  he  encloses 
and  cultivates  a  field  for  their  sustenance  and  his  own,  a  bar- 
ren waste  is  converted  into  a  fertile  soil ;  the  seed,  the  ma- 
nure, the  labor,  create  a  new  value,  and  the  rewards  of  harvest 
are  painfully  earned  by  the  fatigues  of  the  revolving  year. 
In  the  successive  states  of  society,  the  hunter,  the  shepherd, 
the  husbandman,  may  defend  their  possessions  by  two  reasons 
which  forcibly  appeal  to  the  feelings  of  the  human  mind: 
that  whatever  they  enjoy  is  the  fruit  of  their  own  industry ; 
and  that  every  man  who  envies  their  felicitj-  may  purchase 
similar  acquisitions  by  the  exercise  of  similar  diligence. 
Such,  in  truth,  may  be  the  freedom  and  plenty  of  a  small 
coLny  cast  on  a  fruitful  island.  But  the  colony  multiplies, 
while  the  space  still  continues  the  same  ;  the  common  rights, 
the  equal  inheritance  of  mankind,  are  engrossed  by  the  bold 
and  crafty ;  each  field  and  forest  is  circumscribed  by  the 
landmarks  of  a  jealous  master ;  and  it  is  the  peculiar  praise 
of  the  Roman  jurisprudence  that  it  asserts  the  claim  of  the 
first  occupant  to  the  wild  animals  of  the  earth,  the  air,  and 
the  waters.  In  the  progress  from  primitive  equity  to  final 
injustice,  the  steps  are  silent,  the  shades  are  almost  impercep- 
tible, and  the  absolute  monopoly  is  guarded  by  positive  laws 
and  artificial  reason.  The  active,  insatiate  principle  of  self- 
love  can  alone  supply  the  arts  of  life  and  the  wages  of  indus- 
try ;  and  as  soon  as  civil  government  and  exclusive  property 
have  been  introduced,  they  become  necessary  to  the  existence 
of  the  human  race.  Except  in  the  singular  institutions  of 
Sparta,  the  wisest  legislators  have  disapproved  an  agrarian 
law  as  a  false  and  dangerous  innovation.  Among  the  Ro- 
mans, the  enormous  disproportion  of  wealth  surmounted  the 
ideal  restraints  of  a  doubtful  tradition  and  an  obsolete  statute 
— a  tradition  that  the  poorest  follower  of  Romulus  had  been 
endowed  with  the  perpetual  inheritance  of  two  jugera;iaa  a 

188  The  heredium  of  the  first  Romans  is  defined  by  Varro  (De  Re  Rustic!*  L  L  C. 


*.D.  533-565.]  RIGHT  OF  PROPERTY.  487 

statute  which  confined  the  richest  citizen  to  the  measure  of 
five  hundred  jugera,  or  three  hundred  and  twelve  acres  of 
land.a  The  original  territory  of  Rome  consisted  only  of 
some  miles  of  wood  and  meadow  along  the  banks  of  the  Ti- 
ber; and  domestic  exchange  could  add  nothing  to  the  na- 
tional stock.  But  the  goods  of  an  alien  or  enemy  were  law- 
fully exposed  to  the  first  hostile  occupier ;  the  city  was  en- 
riched by  the  profitable  trade  of  war ;  and  the  blood  of  her 
sons  was  the  only  price  that  was  paid  for  the  Yolscian  sheep, 
the  slaves  of  Britain,  or  the  gems  and  gold  of  Asiatic  king- 
doms. In  the  language  of  ancient  jurisprudence,  which  was 
corrupted  and  forgotten  before  the  age  of  Justinian,  these 
spoils  were  distinguished  by  the  name  of  manc&ps  or  manci- 
jpium,  taken  with  the  hand ;  and  whenever  they  were  sold  or 
emancipated,  the  purchaser  required  some  assurance  that  they 
had  been  the  property  of  an  enemy,  and  not  of  a  fellow-citi- 
zen.138 A  citizen  could  only  forfeit  his  rights  by  apparent 
dereliction,  and  such  dereliction  of  a  valuable  interest  could 
not  easily  be  presumed.  Yet,  according  to  the  Twelve  Ta- 
bles, a  prescription  of  one  year  for  movables,  and  of  two 
years  for  immovables,  abolished  the  claim  of  the  ancient 
master,  if  the  actual  possessor  had  acquired  them  by  a  fair 
transaction  from  the  person  whom  he  believed  to  be  the  law- 
ful proprietor.140    Such  conscientious  injustice,  without  any 

ii.  p.  141,  c.  x.  p.  160, 161,  edit.  Gesner),  an  J  clouded  by  Pliny's  declamation  (Hist. 
Natur.  xviii.  2).  A  just  and  learned  comment  is  given  in  the  Administration  des 
Terres  cliez  les  Romains  (p.  12-66). 

139  <phe  res  mancipi  is  explained  from  faint  and  remote  lights  by  Ulpian  (Frag- 
ment, tit.  xviii.  [xix.]  p.  618,  619)  and  Bynkershoek  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  306-315). 
The  definition  is  somewhat  arbitrary  ;  and  as  none  except  myself  have  assigned 
a  reason,  I  am  diffident  of  my  own. 

140  From  this  short  prescription,  Hume  (Essays,  vol.  i.  p.  423)  infers  that  there 
could  not  then  be  more  order  and  settlement  in  Italy  than  now  amongst  the  Tar- 
tars. By  the  civilian  of  his  adversary  Wallace  he  is  reproached,  and  not  without 
reason,  for  overlooking  the  conditions  (Institut.  1.  ii.  tit.  vi.).b 


4  Since  the  time  of  Gibbon  it  has  been  proved  incontestably  that  the  agrarian 
laws  of  Rome  related  only  to  the  Ager  Publicus,  or  domains  of  the  State,  and 
that  the  laws  of  Licinius  and  Gracchus  limited  a  Roman  citizen  to  the  posses- 
sion of  500  jugera  of  such  land,  but  that  he  might  become  the  proprietor  of  any 
amount  of  private  land. — S. 

b  Gibbon  acknowledges,  in  the  preceding  note,  the  obscurity  of  his  views  with 


488  RIGHT  OF  PROPERTY.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

mixture  of  fraud  or  force,  could  seldom  injure  the  members 
of  a  small  republic ;  but  the  various  periods  of  three,  of  ten, 

regard  to  the  res  mancipi.  The  interpreters,  who  preceded  him,  are  not  agreed 
on  this  point,  one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  ancient  Roman  law.  The  conclu- 
sions of  Hume,  of  which  the  author  here  speaks,  are  grounded  on  false  assump- 
tions. Gibbon  had  conceived  very  inaccurate  notions  of  property  among  the  Ro- 
mans, and  those  of  many  authors  in  the  present  day  are  not  less  erroneous.  We 
think  it  right,  in  this  place,  to  develop  the  system  of  property  among  the  Romans, 
as  the  result  of  the  study  of  the  extant  original  authorities  on  the  ancient  law, 
and  as  it  has  been  demonstrated,  recognized,  and  adopted  by  the  most  learned 
expositors  of  the  Roman  law.  Besides  the  authorities  formerly  known,  such  as 
the  Fragments  of  Ulpian,  t.  xix.  and  t.  i.  §  16,  Theoph.  Paraph,  i.  5,  §  4,  may  be 
consulted  the  Institutes  of  Gains,  i.  §  54,  and  ii.  §  40  et  seq. 

The  Roman  laws  protected  all  property  acquired  in  a  lawful  manner.  They 
imposed  on  those  who  had  invaded  it  the  obligation  of  making  restitution  and 
reparation  of  all  damage  caused  by  that  invasion ;  they  punished  it,  moreover, 
in  many  cases,  by  a  pecuniary  fine.  But  they  did  not  always  grant  a  recovery 
against  the  third  person,  who  had  become  bona  fide  possessed  of  the  property. 
He  who  bad  obtained  possession  of  a  thing  belonging  to  another,  knowing  noth- 
ing of  the  prior  rights  of  that  person,  maintained  the  possession.  The  law  had 
expressly  determined  those  cases  in  which  it  permitted  property  to  be  reclaimed 
from  an  innocent  possessor.  In  these  cases  possession  had  the  characters  of  ab- 
solute proprietorship,  called  "  mancipium,  jus  Quiritium."  To  possess  this  right, 
it  was  not  sufficient  to  have  entered  into  possession  of  the  thing  in  any  manner; 
the  acquisition  was  bound  to  have  that  character  of  publicity  which  was  given  by 
the  observation  of  solemn  forms,  prescribed  by  the  laws,  or  the  uninterrupted  ex- 
ercise of  proprietorship  during  a  certain  time  :  the  Roman  citizen  alone  could 
Acquire  this  proprietorship.  Every  other  kind  of  possession,  which  might  be 
named  imperfect  proprietorship,  was  called  "in  bonis  habere."  It  was  not  till 
after  the  time  of  Cicero  that  the  general  name  of  Dominium  was  given  to  all 
proprietorship. 

It  was  then  the  publicity  which  constituted  the  distinctive  character  of  abso- 
lute dominion.  This  publicity  was  grounded  on  the  mode  of  acquisition,  which 
the  moderns  have  called  Civil  ("Modi  adquirendi  Civiles  ").  These  modes  of  ac- 
quisition were:  1.  Mancipium  or  mancipatio,  which  was  nothing  but  the  solemn 
delivering  over  of  the  thing  in  the  presence  of  a  determinate  number  of  wit- 
nesses and  a  public  officer :  it  was  from  this,  probably,  that  proprietorship  was 
named.  2.  In  jure  cessio,  which  was  a  solemn  delivering  over  before  the  pnetor. 
3.  Adjudicatio,  made  by  a  judge,  in  a  case  of  partition.  4.  Lex,  which  compre- 
hended modes  of  acquiring  in  particular  cases  determined  by  law ;  probably  the 
law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  ;  for  instance,  the  sub  corona  emptio  and  the  legatum. 
5.  Usus,  called  afterwards  usucapio,  and  by  the  moderns  prescription.  This  was 
only  a  year  for  movables ;  two  years  for  things  not  movable.  Its  primary  ob- 
ject was  altogether  different  from  that  of  prescription  in  the  present  day.  It 
was  originally  introduced  in  order  to  transform  the  simple  possession  of  a  tiling 
(in  bonis  habere)  into  Roman  proprietorship.  The  public  and  uninterrupted  pos- 
session of  a  thing,  enjoyed  for  the  space  of  one  or  two  years,  was  sufficient  to 
make  known  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Rome  to  whom  the  thing  belonged. 
This  last  mode  of  acquisition  completed  the  system  of  civil  acquisitions,  by  le- 
galizing, as  it  were,  every  other  kind  of  acquisition  which  was  not  conferred, 
from  the  commencement,  by  the  Jus  Quiritium.  V.  Ulpian.  Fragm.  i.  §  16; 
Gaius,  ii.  §  14.  We  believe,  according  to  Gaius,  §  43,  that  this  usncaption  was 
extended  to  the  case  where  a  thing  had  been  acquired  from  a  person  not  the 
real  proprietor;  and  that,  according  to  the  time  prescribed,  it  gave  to  the  pos- 
sessor the  Roman  proprietorship.  But  this  does  not  appear  to  have  been  the 
original  design   of  this  Institution.     "Casterum  etiam  earum  rerum  usucapio 


Air. 533-565.]  EIGHT  OF  PEOPERTY.  489 

or  of  twenty  years,  determined  by  Justinian,  are  more  suita- 
ble to  the  latitude  of  a  great  empire.  It  is  only  in  the  term 
of  prescription  that  the  distinction  of  real  and  personal  fort- 
une has  been  remarked  by  the  civilians ;  and  their  general 


nobis  competit,  quae  non  a  dominc  nobis  tradita  fuerint,  si  modo  eas  bona  fide 
acceperimus."    Gains,  1.  ii.  §  43. 

As  to  things  of  smaller  value,  or  those  which  it  was  difficult  to  distinguish 
from  each  other,  the  solemnities  of  which  we  speak  were  not  requisite  to  obtain 
legal  proprietorship.     In  this  case  simple  delivery  was  sufficient. 

In  proportion  to  the  aggrandizement  of  the  republic,  this  latter  principle  be- 
came more  important  from  the  increase  of  the  commerce  and  wealth  of  the  State. 
It  was  necessary  to  know  what  were  those  things  of  which  absolute  property 
might  be  acquired  by  simple  delivery,  and  what,  on  the  contrary,  those,  the  ac- 
quisition of  which  must  be  sanctioned  by  these  solemnities.  This  question  was 
necessarily  to  be  decided  by  a  general  rule;  and  it  is  this  rule  which  estab- 
lishes the  distinction  between  "res  mancipi"  and  "nee  mancipi,"  a  distinction 
about  which  the  opinions  of  modern  civilians  differ  so  much  that  there  are  above 
ten  conflicting  systems  on  the  subject.  The  system  which  accords  best  with  a 
sound  interpretation  of  the  Roman  laws  is  that  proposed  by  M.  Trekel  of  Ham- 
burg, and  still  further  developed  by  M.  Hugo,  who  has  extracted  it  in  the  Maga- 
zine of  Civil  Law,  vol.  ii.  p.  7.  This  is  the  system  now  almost  universally  adopt- 
ed. Res  mancipi  (by  contraction  for  mancipii)  were  things  of  which  the  absolute 
property  (Jus  Quiritium)  might  be  acquired  only  by  the  solemnities  mentioned 
above,  at  least  by  that  of  mancipation,  which  was,  without  doubt,  the  most  easy 
and  the  most  usual.  Gaius,  ii.  §  25.  As  for  other  things,  the  acquisition  of 
which  was  not  subject  to  these  forms  in  order  to  confer  absolute  right,  they  were 
called  "res  nee  mancipi."     See  Ulpian,  Fragm.  xix.  §  1,  3,  7. 

Ulpian  and  Varro  enumerate  the  different  kinds  of  res  mancipi.  Their  enu- 
merations do  not  quite  agree;  and  various  methods  of  reconciling  them  have 
been  attempted.  The  authority  of  Ulpian,  however,  who  wrote  as  a  civilian, 
ought  to  have  the  greater  weight  on  this  subject. 

But  why  are  these  things  alone  res  mancipi  ?  This  is  one  of  the  questions 
which  have  been  most  frequently  agitated,  and  on  which  the  opinions  of  civilians 
are  most  divided.  M.  Hugo  has  resolved  it  in  the  most  natural  and  satisfactory 
manner.  "All  things  which  were  easily  known  individually,  which  were  of  great 
value,  with  which  the  Romans  were  acquainted,  and  which  they  highly  appre- 
ciated, were  res  mancipi.  Of  old,  mancipation  or  some  other  solemn  form  was 
required  for  the  acquisition  of  these  things,  on  account  of  their  importance. 
Mancipation  served  to  prove  their  acquisition,  because  they  were  easily  distin- 
guished one  from  the  other."  On  this  great  historical  discussion  consult  the 
Magazine  of  Civil  Law  by  M.  Hugo,  vol.  ii.  p.  37,  38 ;  the  Dissertation  of  M.  J. 
M.  Zacharise,  De  Rebus  Mancipi  et  nee  Mancipi  Conjectural,  p.  11,  Lipsias,  1807; 
the  History  of  Civil  Law  by  M.  Hugo ;  and  my  Institutiones  Juris  Romani  Pri- 
vati,  p.  108, 110. 

As  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  said  that  all  things  are  res  nee  mancipi ;  the  res 
mancipi  are  the  exception  to  this  principle. 

The  prators  changed  the  system  of  property  by  allowing  a  person  who  had  a 
thing  in  bonis  the  right  to  recover  before  the  prescribed  term  of  usucaption  had 
conferred  absolute  proprietorship.  ("Pauliana  in  rem  actio.")  Justinian  went 
still  farther,  in  times  when  there  was  no  longer  any  distinction  between  a  Roman 
citizen  and  a  stranger.  He  granted  the  right  of  recovering  all  things  which  had 
been  acquired,  whether  by  what  were  called  civil  or  natural  modes  of  acquisition, 
Cod.  1.  vii.  t.  25,  31.  And  he  so  altered  the  theory  of  Gaius  in  his  Iustitutes,  ii.  2, 
that  no  trace  remains  of  the  doctriue  taught  by  that  civilian. — W. 


490  INHERITANCE  AND  SUCCESSION.  [Ch.XLIV. 

idea  of  property  is  that  of  simple,  uniform,  and  absolute  do- 
minion. The  subordinate  exceptions  of  use,  of  usufruct,™  of 
servitudes,1™  imposed  for  the  benefit  of  a  neighbor  on  lands 
and  houses,  are  abundantly  explained  by  the  professors  of 
jurisprudence.  The  claims  of  property,  as  far  as  they  are  al- 
tered by  the  mixture,  the  division,  or  the  transformation  of 
substances,  are  investigated  with  metaphysical  subtlety  by  the 
same  civilians. 

The  personal  title  of  the  first  proprietor  must  be  deter- 
mined by  his  death ;  but  the  possession,  without  any  appear- 
.        ance  of  change,  is  peaceably  continued  in  his  ch.il- 
tanceand       dren,  the  associates  of  his  toil  and  the  partners  of 

succession.  .  mi  •  •  ii 

his  wealth,  lhis  natural  inheritance  has  been  pro- 
tected by  the  legislators  of  every  climate  and  age,  and  the 
father  is  encouraged  to  persevere  in  slow  and  distant  im- 
provements, by  the  tender  hope  that  a  long  posterity  will  en- 
joy the  fruits  of  his  labor.  The  principle  of  hereditary  suc- 
cession is  universal ;  but  the  order  has  been  variously  estab- 
lished by  convenience  or  caprice,  by  the  spirit  of  national 
institutions,  or  by  some  partial  example  which  was  originally 
decided  by  fraud  or  violence.  The  jurisprudence  of  the  Ro- 
mans appears  to  have  deviated  from  the  equality  of  nature 
much  less  than  the  Jewish,1"  the  Athenian,144  or  the  English 
institutions.146     On  the  death  of  a  citizen,  all  his  descendants, 


141  See  the  Institutes  (1.  i.  [ii.]  tit.  iv.  v.)  and  the  Pandects  (1.  vii.).  Noodt  has 
composed  a  learned  and  distinct  treatise  de  Usufructu  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  387-478). 

142  The  questions  de  Servitutibus  are  discussed  in  the  Institutes  (1.  ii.  tit.  iii.) 
and  Pandects  (1.  viii.).  Cicero  (pro  Murena,  c.  9)  and  Lactantius  (Institut.  Divin. 
1.  i.  c.  i.)  affect  to  laugh  at  the  insignificant  doctrine,  "De  aqua  pluvia  arcenda," 
etc.  Yet  it  might  be  of  frequent  use  among  litigious  neighbors,  both  in  town 
and  country. 

143  Among  the  patriarchs,  the  first-born  enjoyed  a  mystic  and  spiritual  pri- 
mogeniture (Genesis  xxv.  31).  In  the  land  of  Canaan  he  was  entitled  to  a  dou- 
ble portion  of  inheritance  (Deuteronomy  xxi.  17,  with  Le  Clerc's  judicious  Com- 
mentary). 

144  At  Athens  the  sons  were  equal;  but  the  poor  daughters  were  endowed  at 
the  discretion  of  their  brothers.  See  the  K\r]piKoi  pleadings  of  Isasus  (in  the  sev- 
enth volume  of  the  Greek  Orators),  illustrated  by  the  version  and  comment  of 
Sir  William  Jones,  a  scholar,  a  lawyer,  and  a  man  of  genius. 

145  In  England,  the  eldest  son  alone  inherits  all  the  land  j  a  law,  says  th»  or- 


a.d.  533-565.]  CIVIL  DEGREES  OF  KINDRED.  491 

unless  they  were  already  freed  from  bis  paternal  power,  were 
called  to  the  inheritance  of  his  possessions.  The  insolent 
prerogative  of  primogeniture  was  unknown ;  the  two  sexes 
were  placed  on  a  just  level ;  all  the  sons  and  daughters  were 
entitled  to  an  equal  portion  of  the  patrimonial  estate ;  and  if 
any  of  the  sons  had  been  intercepted  by  a  premature  death, 
his  person  was  represented,  and  his  share  was  divided,  by 
his  surviving  children.  On  the  failure  of  the  direct  line,  the 
right  of  succession  must  diverge  to  the  collateral  branches, 
civil  degrees  The  degrees  of  kindred143  are  numbered  by  the  ci- 
of  kindred,  yilians,  ascending  from  the  last  possessor  to  a  com« 
mon  parent,  and  descending  from  the  common  parent  to  the 
next  heir :  my  father  stands  in  the  first  degree,  my  brother 
in  the  second,  his  children  in  the  third,  and  the  remainder  of 
the  series  may  be  conceived  by  fancy,  or  pictured  in  a  gene- 
alogical table.  In  this  computation  a  distinction  was  made, 
essential  to  the  laws  and  even  the  constitution  of  Rome :  the 
agnats,  or  persons  connected  by  a  line  of  males,  were  called, 
as  they  stood  in  the  nearest  degree,  to  an  equal  partition ;  but 
a  female  was  incapable  of  transmitting  any  legal  claims ;  and 
the  cognats  of  every  rank,  without  excepting  the  dear  relation 
of  a  mother  and  a  son,  were  disinherited  by  the  Twelve  Ta- 
bles, as  strangers  and  aliens.  Among  the  Romans  a  gens  or 
lineage  was  united  by  a  common  name  and  domestic  rites; 
the  various  cognomens  or  surnames  of  Scipio  or  Marcellus 
distinguished  from  each  other  the  subordinate  branches  or 
families  of  the  Cornelian  or  Claudian  race :  the  default  of 
the  agnats  of  the  same  surname  was  supplied  by  the  larger 
denomination  of  gentiles;  and  the  vigilance  of  the  laws 
maintained,  in  the  same  name,  the  perpetual  descent  of  re- 
ligion and  property.     A  similar  principle  dictated  the  Voco- 

thodox  Judge  Blackstone  (Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  215), 
unjust  only  in  the  opinion  of  younger  brothers.  It  may  be  of  some  political  use 
in  sharpening  their  industry. 

146  Blackstone's  Tables  (vol.  ii.  p.  202)  represent  and  compare  the  decrees  of 
the  civil  with  those  of  the  canon  and  common  law.  A  separate  tract  of  Julius 
Prulus,  "De  gradibus  et  affinibus,"  is  inserted  or  abridged  in  the  Pandects  (I. 
xxxviii.  tit.  x.  [leg.  10]).     In  the  seventh  degrees  he   computes  (No.  18)  1024 


492  INTRODUCTION  AND  LIBERTY  [Ch.  XLIV, 

nian  law/4*  vhich  abolished  the  right  of  female  inheritance. 
As  long  as  virgins  were  given  or  sold  in  marriage,  the  adop- 
tion of  the  wife  extinguished  the  hopes  of  the  daughter. 
But  the  equal  succession  of  independent  matrons  support- 
ed their  pride  and  luxury,  and  might  transport  into  a  for- 
eign house  the  riches  of  their  fathers.  While  the  maxims 
of  Cato148  were  revered,  thej  tended  to  perpetuate  in  each 
family  a  just  and  virtuous  mediocrity:  till  female  blandish- 
ments insensibly  triumphed,  and  every  salutary  restraint  was 
lost  in  the  dissolute  greatness  of  the  republic.  The  rigor  of 
the  decemvirs  was  tempered  by  the  equity  of  the  praetors. 
Their  edicts  restored  emancipated  and  posthumous  children 
to  the  rights  of  nature ;  and  upon  the  failure  of  the  agnats, 
they  preferred  the  blood  of  the  cognats  to  the  name  of  the 
gentiles,  whose  title  and  character  were  insensibly  covered 
with  oblivion.  The  reciprocal  inheritance  of  mothers  and 
sons  was  established  in  the  Tertullian  and  Orphitian  decrees 
by  the  humanity  of  the  senate.  A  new  and  more  impartial 
order  was  introduced  by  the  novels  of  Justinian,  who  affected 
to  revive  the  jurisprudence  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  The  lines 
of  masculine  and  female  kindred  were  confounded :  the  de- 
scending, ascending,  and  collateral  series  was  accurately  de- 
fined ;  and  each  degree,  according  to  the  proximity  of  blood 
and  affection,  succeeded  to  the  vacant  possessions  of  a  Eoman 
citizen.149 

The  order  of  succession  is  regulated  by  nature,  or  at  least 
by  the  general  and  permanent  reason  of  the  law-giver;  but 


147  The  Voconian  law  was  enacted  in  the  year  of  Rome  584.  The  younger 
Scipio,  who  was  then  seventeen  years  of  age  (Freinsheimius,  Supplement.  Livian. 
xlvi.  41),  found  an  occasion  of  exercising  his  generosity  to  his  mother,  sisters, 
etc.  (Polybius,  torn.  ii.  1.  xxxi.  p.  1453-1464,  edit.  Gronov.  [xxxii.  12],  a  domes- 
tic witness.) 

148  "  Legem  Voconiam  (Ernesti,  Claris  Ciceroniana)  voce  magna  bonis  lateri- 
bus  "  (at  sixty-five  years  of  age)  "  suasissem,"  says  old  Cato  (De  Senectute,  c.  5). 
Anlus  Gellius  (vii.  1 3 ;  xvii.  6)  has  saved  some  passages. 

149  See  the  law  of  succession  in  the  Institutes  of  Caius  (1.  ii.  tit.  viii.  p.  130-144 
[Schulting.  Jurispr.  Ante-Justin.  Lips.  1737])  and  Justinian  (1.  iii.  tit.  i.-vi.  with 
the  Greek  version  of  Theophilus,  p.  515-575,  588-600),  the  Pandects  (1.  xxxviii, 
tit.  vi.-xvii.),  the  Code  (1.  vi.  tit.  lv.-lx.),  and  the  Novels  (cxviii.). 


*.D.  533-565.]  OF  TESTAMENTS.  493 

this  order  is  frequently  violated  by  the  arbitrary  and  partial 
wills,  which  prolong  the  dominion  of  the  testator 

Introduction  *  ,         *  iS      t        t  •         i  c 

and  liberty  of  beyond  the  grave.  In  the  simple  state  oi  soci- 
ety this  last  use  or  abuse  of  the  right  of  property 
is  seldom  indulged ;  it  was  introduced  at  Athens  by  the  laws 
of  Solon,  and  the  private  testaments  of  the  father  of  a  family 
are  authorized  by  the  Twelve  Tables.  Before  the  time  of  the 
decemvirs,161  a  Roman  citizen  exposed  his  wishes  and  motives 
to  the  assembly  of  the  thirty  curise  or  parishes,  and  the  gen- 
eral law  of  inheritance  was  suspended  by  an  occasional  act  of 
the  legislature.  After  the  permission  of  the  decemvirs,  each 
private  law-giver  promulgated  his  verbal  or  written  testament 
in  the  presence  of  five  citizens,  who  represented  the  five  class- 
es of  the  Roman  people ;  a  sixth  witness  attested  their  con- 
currence ;  a  seventh  weighed  the  copper  money,  which  was 
paid  by  an  imaginary  purchaser,  and  the  estate  was  emanci- 
pated by  a  fictitious  sale  and  immediate  release.  This  singu- 
lar ceremony,152  which  excited  the  wonder  of  the  Greeks,  was 
still  practised  in  the  age  of  Severus ;  but  the  praetors  had  al- 
ready approved  a  more  simple  testament,  for  which  they  re- 
quired the  seals  and  signatures  of  seven  witnesses,  free  from 
all  legal  exception,  and  purposely  summoned  for  the  execu- 
tion of  that  important  act.  A  domestic  monarch,  who  reign- 
ed over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  his  children,  might  distrib- 
ute their  respective  shares  according  to  the  degrees  of  their 

150  That  succession  was  the  rule,  testament  the  exception,  is  proved  by  Taylor 
(Elements  of  Civil  Law,  p.  519-527),  a  learned,  rambling,  spirited  writer.  In  the 
second  and  third  books  the  method  of  the  Institutes  is  doubtless  preposterous ; 
and  the  chancellor  Daguesseau  (CEuvres,  torn.  i.  p.  275)  wishes  his  countryman 
Domat  in  the  place  of  Tiibonian.  Yet  covenants  before  successions  is  not  surely 
the  natural  order  of  the  civil  laws. 

lot  prior  examples  of  testaments  are  perhaps  fabulous.  At  Athens  a  childless 
father  only  could  make  a  will  (Plutarch,  in  Solone,  torn.  i.  [c.  21]  p.  164.  See 
Issbus  and  Jones). 

Ui  The  testament  of  Augustus  is  specified  by  Suetonius  (in  August,  c.  101,  in 
Neron.  c.  4),  who  may  be  studied  as  a  code  of  Roman  antiquities.  Plutarch 
(Opuscul.  torn.  ii.  p.  976)  is  surprised  orav  Be  BiaQrjicac.  ypdfaxnv,  krtpovg  fiiv  airo- 
\t'nrovvi  k\k)()ov6iiovq,  erepoi  Be  irwXovai  rag  ovmag.  The  language  of  Ulpian 
(Fragment,  tit.  xx.  [§  2]  p.  627,  edit.  Schulting)  is  almost  too  exclusive — "  Solum 
in  usft  est." 


494:  LEGACIES.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

merit  or  his  affection ;  his  arbitrary  displeasure  chastised  an 
unworthy  son  by  the  loss  of  his  inheritance,  and  the  mortify- 
ing preference  of  a  stranger.  But  the  experience  of  unnat- 
ural parents  recommended  some  limitations  of  their  testa- 
mentary powers.  A  son,  or,  by  the  laws  of  Justinian,  even  a 
daughter,  could  no  longer  be  disinherited  by  their  silence : 
they  were  compelled  to  name  the  criminal  and  to  specify  the 
offence ;  and  the  justice  of  the  emperor  enumerated  the  sole 
causes  that  could  justify  such  a  violation  of  the  first  princi- 
ples of  nature  and  society.153  Unless  a  legitimate  portion,  a 
fourth  part,  had  been  reserved  for  the  children,  they  were  en- 
titled to  institute  an  action  or  complaint  of  inofficious  testa- 
ment— to  suppose  that  their  father's  understanding  was  im- 
paired by  sickness  or  age,  and  respectfully  to  appeal  from  his 
rigorous  sentence  to  the  deliberate  wisdom  of  the  magistrate. 
In  the  Roman  jurisprudence  an  essential  distinction  was  ad- 
mitted between  the  inheritance  and  the  legacies. 
The  heirs  who  succeeded  to  the  entire  unity,  or  to 
any  of  the  twelve  fractions  of  the  substance  of  the  testa- 
tor, represented  his  civil  and  religious  character,  asserted  his 
rights,  fulfilled  his  obligations,  and  discharged  the  gifts  of 
friendship  or  liberality  which  his  last  will  had  bequeathed 
under  the  name  of  legacies.  But  as  the  imprudence  or  prod- 
igality of  a  dying  man  might  exhaust  the  inheritance,  and 
leave  only  risk  and  labor  to  his  successor,  he  was  empowered 
to  retain  the  Falcidian  portion  ;  to  deduct,  before  the  pay- 
ment of  the  legacies,  a  clear  fourth  for  his  own  emolument. 
A  reasonable  time  was  allowed  to  examine  the  proportion  be- 
tween the  debts  and  the  estate,  to  decide  whether  he  should 
accept  or  refuse  the  testament ;  and  if  he  used  the  benefit  of 
an  inventory,  the  demands  of  the  creditors  could  not  exceed 
the  valuation  of  the  effects.  The  last  will  of  a  citizen  might 
be  altered  during  his  life,  or  rescinded  after  his  death :  the 

153  Justinian  (Novell,  cxv.  c.  3, 4)  enumerates  only  the  public  and  private  crimes, 
for  which  a  son  might  likewise  disinherit  his  father.* 


*  Gibbon  has  singular  notions  on  the  provisions  of  Novell,  cxv.  c.  3,  4,  which 
probably  he  did  not  clearly  understand. — W. 


a.d.  533-565.]  CODICILS  AND  TRUSTS.  495 

persons  whom  he  named  might  die  before  him,  or  reject  the 
inheritance,  or  be  exposed  to  some  legal  disqualification.  In 
the  contemplation  of  these  events,  he  was  permitted  to  sub- 
stitute second  and  third  heirs,  to  replace  each  other  according 
to  the  order  of  the  testament ;  and  the  incapacity  of  a  mad- 
man or  an  infant  to  bequeath  his  property  might  be  supplied 
by  a  similar  substitution.154  But  the  power  of  the  testatof 
expired  with  the  acceptance  of  the  testament:  each  Roman 
of  mature  age  and  discretion  acquired  the  absolute  dominion 
of  his  inheritance,  and  the  simplicity  of  the  civil  law  was  nev- 
er clouded  by  the  long  and  intricate  entails  which  confine  the 
happiness  and  freedom  of  unborn  generations. 

Conquest  and  the  formalities  of  law  established  the  use  of 
codicils.  If  a  Roman  was  surprised  by  death  in  a  remote 
codicils  province  of  the  empire,  he  addressed  a  short  epistle 
and  trusts.  j.Q  njg  legitimate  or  testamentary  heir,  who  fulfill- 
ed with  honor,  or  neglected  with  impunity,  this  last  request, 
which  the  judges  before  the  age  of  Augustus  were  not  au- 
thorized to  enforce.  A  codicil  might  be  expressed  in  any 
mode  or  in  any  language,  but  the  subscription  of  five  witness- 
es must  declare  that  it  was  the  genuine  composition  of  the 
author.  His  intention,  however  laudable,  was  sometimes  ille- 
gal, and  the  invention  of  fidei-commissa,  or  trusts,  arose  from 
the  struggle  between  natural  justice  and  positive  jurispru- 
dence. A  stranger  of  Greece  or  Africa  might  be  the  friend 
or  benefactor  of  a  childless  Roman,  but  none,  except  a  fellow- 
citizen,  could  act  as  his  heir.  The  Yoconian  law,  which  abol- 
ished female  succession,  restrained  the  legacy  or  inheritance 
of  a  woman  to  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  sesterces  ;"5 
and  an  only  daughter  was  condemned  almost  as  an  alien  in 
her  father's  house.     The  zeal  of  friendship  and  parental  af- 

154  The  substitutions  Jidei-commissaires  of  the  modern  civil  law  is  a  feudal  idea 
grafted  on  the  Roman  jurisprudence,  and  bears  scarcely  any  resemblance  to  the 
ancient  fidei-commissa  (Institutions  du  Droit  Francois,  torn.  i.  p.  347-383 ;  De- 
nissart,  Decisions  de  Jurisprudence,  torn.  iv.  p.  577-604).  They  were  stretched 
to  the  fourth  degree  by  an  abuse  of  the  hundred  and  fifty-ninth  Novel ;  a  partial, 
perplexed,  declamatory  law. 

165  Dion  Cassius  (torn.  ii.  1.  lvi.  [c.  10]  p.  814,  with  Reimar's  Notes)  specifies  ia 
Greek  money  the  sum  of  25,000  drachms- 


496  THE  INSTITUTES:  OF  ACTIONS.  [CH.XLIV. 

fection  suggested  a  liberal  artifice:  a  qualified  citizen  was 
named  in  the  testament,  with  a  prayer  or  injunction  that  he 
would  restore  the  inheritance  to  the  person  for  whom  it  was 
truly  intended.  Various  was  the  conduct  of  the  trustees  in 
this  painful  situation ;  they  had  sworn  to  observe  the  laws  of 
their  country, but  honor  prompted  them  to  violate  their  oath; 
and,  if  they  preferred  their  interest  under  the  mask  of  patri- 
otism, they  forfeited  the  esteem  of  every  virtuous  mind.  The 
declaration  of  Augustus  relieved  their  doubts,  gave  a  legal 
sanction  to  confidential  testaments  and  codicils,  and  gently 
unravelled  the  forms  and  restraints  of  the  republican  juris- 
prudence.166 But  as  the  new  practice  of  trusts  degenerated 
into  some  abuse,  the  trustee  was  enabled,  by  the  Trebellian 
and  Pegasian  decrees,  to  reserve  one  fourth  of  the  estate,  or 
to  transfer  on  the  head  of  the  real  heir  all  the  debts  and  ac- 
tions of  the  succession.  The  interpretation  of  testaments  was 
strict  and  literal ;  but  the  language  of  trusts  and  codicils  was 
delivered  from  the  minute  and  technical  accuracy  of  the  ci- 
vilians.1" 

III.  The  general  duties  of  mankind  are  imposed  by  their 
public  and  private  relations,  but  their  specific  obligations  to 
in.  op  each  other  can  only  be  the  effect  of — 1,  a  promise ; 

Aotions.  25  a  benefit ;  or,  3,  an  injury ;  and  when  these  ob- 
ligations are  ratified  by  law,  the  interested  party  may  com- 
pel the  performance  by  a  judicial  action.  On  this  principle 
the  civilians  of  every  country  have  erected  a  similar  jurispru- 
dence, the  fair  conclusion  of  universal  reason  and  justice.158 

156  The  revolutions  of  the  Eoman  laws  of  inheritance  are  finely,  though  some- 
times fancifully,  deduced  by  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxvii.). 

351  Of  the  civil  jurisprudence  of  successions,  testaments,  codicils,  legacies,  and 
trusts,  the  principles  are  ascertained  in  the  Institutes  of  Caius  (1.  ii.  tit.  ii.-viii.  p. 
91-144),  Justinian  (1.  ii.  tit.  x.-xxv.),  and  Theophilus  (p.  328-514) ;  and  the  im- 
mense detail  occupies  twelve  books  (xxviii.-xxxix.)  of  the  Pandects. 

158  The  Institutes  of  Caius  (1.  ii.  tit.  ix.  x.  p.  144-214),  of  Justinian  (1.  iii.  tit. 
xiv.-xxx.  [xiii.-xxix.]  1.  iv.  tit.  i.-vi.),  and  of  Theophilus  (p.  616-837),  distin- 
guish four  sorts  of  obligations — aut  re,  aut  verbis,  aut  Uteris,  aut  consensu:  but  I 
confess  myself  partial  to  my  own  division.* 


8  It  is  not  at  all  applicable  to  the  Roman  system  of  contracts,  even  if  it  were 
allowed  to  be  good. — M. 


A.D.  533-565.]  PROMISES.  497 

1.  The  goddess  of  faith  (of  human  and  social  faith)  was 
worshipped,  not  only  in  hev  temples,  but  in  the  lives  of  the 
Romans ;  and  if  that  nation  was  deficient  in  the 
more  amiable  qualities  of  benevolence  and  gener- 
osity, they  astonished  the  Greeks  by  their  sincere  and  simple 
performance  of  the  most  burdensome  engagements.160  Yet 
among  the  same  people,  according  to  the  rigid  maxims  of  the 
Datricians  and  decemvirs,  a  naked  pact,  a  promise,  or  even  an 
oath,  did  not  create  any  civil  obligation,  unless  it  was  con- 
firmed by  the  legal  form  of  a  stipulation.  Whatevei  might 
be  the  etymology  of  the  Latin  word,  it  conveyed  the  idea  of 
a  firm  and  irrevocable  contract,  which  was  always  expressed 
in  the  mode  of  a  question  and  answer.  "  Do  you  promise  to 
pay  me  one  hundred  pieces  of  gold  ?"  was  the  solemn  interro- 
gation of  Seius.  "  I  do  promise,"  was  the  reply  of  Sempro- 
nius.  The  friends  of  Sempronius,  who  answered  for  his  abil- 
ity and  inclination,  might  be  separately  sued  at  the  option  of 
Seius ;  and  the  benefit  of  partition,  or  order  of  reciprocal  ac- 
tions, insensibly  deviated  from  the  strict  theory  of  stipulation. 
The  most  cautious  and  deliberate  consent  was  justly  required 
to  sustain  the  validity  of  a  gratuitous  promise,  and  the  citizen 
who  might  have  obtained  a  legal  security  incurred  the  suspi- 
cion of  fraud,  and  paid  the  forfeit  of  his  neglect.  But  the  in- 
genuity of  the  civilians  successfully  labored  to  convert  simple 
engagements  into  the  form  of  solemn  stipulations.  The  prae- 
tors, as  the  guardians  of  social  faith,  admitted  every  rational 
evidence  of  a  voluntary  and  deliberate  act,  which  in  their  tri- 
bunal produced  an  equitable  obligation,  and  for  which  they 
gave  an  action  and  a  remedy.160 

159  How  much  is  the  cool,  rational  evidence  of  Polybius  (1.  vi.  [c.  56]  p.  693, 1. 
xxxi.  p.  1459, 1460)  superior  to  vague,  indiscriminate  applause — ';  Omnium  max. 
ime  et  praecipue  fidem  coluit!"    (A.  Gellius,  xx.  1  [torn.  ii.  p.  289,  edit.  Bipont.]). 

igo  'pjjg  jus  Pnetorium  de  Pactis  et  Transactionibus  is  a  separate  and  satisfac- 
tory treatise  of  Gerard  Noodt  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  483^564).  And  I  will  here  observe 
that  the  universities  of  Holland  and  Brandenburg,  in  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent century,  appear  to  have  studied  the  civil  law  on  the  most  just  and  liberal 
principles.* 

*  The  oldest  Roman  law  does  not  seem  to  have  admitted  the  obligatory  forca 
of  pacta.     A  pact  is  necessarily  the  foundation  of  a  contract,  but  at  first  it  was 

IV.— 32 


498  BENEFITS.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

2.  The  obligations  of  the  second  class,  as  they  were  con- 
tracted by  the  delivery  of  a  thing,  are  marked  by  the  civil- 
ians with  the  epithet  of  real.161     A  grateful  return 

Benefits.  r  ° 

is  due  to  the  author  of  a  benefit ;  and  whoever  is 
intrusted  with  the  property  of  another  has  bound  himself  to 
the  sacred  duty  of  restitution.  In  the  case  of  a  friendly  loan, 
the  merit  of  generosity  is  on  the  side  of  the  lender  only ;  in 
a  deposit,  on  the  side  of  the  receiver ;  but  in  a  pledge,  and 
the  rest  of  the  selfish  commerce  of  ordinary  life,  the  benefit 
is  compensated  by  an  equivalent,  and  the  obligation  to  restore 
is  variously  modified  by  the  nature  of  the  transaction.  The 
Latin  language  very  happily  expresses  the  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  the  commodatwm  and  the  mutuum,  which 
our  poverty  is  reduced  to  confound  under  the  vague  and 
common  appellation  of  a  loan.  In  the  former,  the  borrower 
was  obliged  to  restore  the  same  individual  thing  with  which 
he  had  been  accommodated  for  the  temporary  supply  of  his 
wants ;  in  the  latter,  it  was  destined  for  his  use  and  consump- 
tion, and  he  discharged  this  mutual  engagement  by  substitut- 
ing the  same  specific  value  according  to  a  just  estimation  of 
number,  of  weight,  and  of  measure.  In  the  contract  of  sale, 
the  absolute  dominion  is  transferred  to  the  purchaser,  and  he 
repays  the  benefit  with  an  adequate  sum  of  gold  or  silver,  the 
price  and  universal  standard  of  all  earthly  possessions.  The 
obligation  of  another  contract,  that  of  location,  is  of  a  more 
complicated  kind.  Lands  or  houses,  labor  or  talents,  may  be 
hired  for  a  definite  term ;  at  the  expiration  of  the  time,  the 

"  161  The  nice  and  various  subject  of  contracts  by  consent  is  spread  over  four 
books  (xvji.-xx.)  of  the  Pandects,  and  is  one  of  the  parts  best  deserving  of  the 
attention  of  an  English  student.* 


not  in  se  binding  unless  matured  into  contract  by  going  through  certain  forms. 
It  was  the  particular  form  resorted  to  which  gave  the  name  to  the  contract  and 
caused  it  to  be  classed  with  the  real,  the  verbal,  or  the  literal  contracts.  The  con- 
sensual contracts  required  no  form,  and  were  in  fact  only  a  special  kind  of  pact. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  consensual  contracts  furnished  the  hint  for  the  later 
doctrine — introduced  apparently  by  die  edict — that  all  pacts,  founded  on  consid- 
eration, are  in  as  obligatory.  It  seems  that  a  pact  might  always  have  been 
pleaded  by  exceptio  to  rebut  a  claim. — S. 

a  This  is  erroneously  called  "benefits."     Gibbon  enumerates  various  kinds  o< 
contracts,  of  which  some  alone  are  properly  called  benefits. — W. 


a.d.  533-565.]  BENEFITS.  499 

tiling  itself  must  be  restored  to  the  owner  with  an  additional 
reward  for  the  beneficial  occupation  and  employment.  In 
these  lucrative  contracts,  to  which  may  be  added  those  of 
partnership  and  commissions,  the  civilians  sometimes  imagine 
the  delivery  of  the  object,  and  sometimes  presume  the  con- 
sent of  the  parties.  The  substantial  pledge  has  been  refined 
into  the  invisible  rights  of  a  mortgage  or  hypotheca ;  and  the 
agreement  of  sale  for  a  certain  price  imputes,  from  that  mo- 
ment, the  chances  of  gain  or  loss  to  the  account  of  the  pur- 
chaser. It  may  be  fairly  supposed  that  every  man  will  obey 
the  dictates  of  his  interest;  and  if  he  accepts  the  benefit,  lie 
is  obliged  to  sustain  the  expense,  of  the  transaction.  In  this 
boundless  subject,  the  historian  will  observe  the  location  of 
land  and  money,  the  rent  of  the  one  and  the  interest  of  the 
other,  as  they  materially  affect  the  prosperity  of  agriculture 
and  commerce.  The  landlord  was  often  obliged  to  advance 
the  stock  and  instruments  of  husbandry,  and  to  content  him- 
self with  a  partition  of  the  fruits.  If  the  feeble  tenant  was 
oppressed  by  accident,  contagion,  or  hostile  violence,  he  claim- 
ed a  proportionable  relief  from  the  equity  of  the  laws :  five 
years  were  the  customary  term,  and  no  solid  or  costly  im- 
provements could  be  expected  from  a  farmer  who,  at  each 
moment,  might  be  ejected  by  the  sale  of  the  estate.168  Usu- 
ry,163 the  inveterate  grievance  of  the  city,  had  been  discour- 


162  The  covenants  of  rent  are  defined  in  the  Pandects  (1.  xix.)  and  the  Code 
(I.  iv.  tit.  lxv.).  The  quinquennium,  or  term  of  five  years,  appears  to  have  been 
a  custom  rather  than  a  law ;  but  in  France  all  leases  of  land  were  determined  in 
mine  years.  This  limitation  was  removed  only  in  the  year  1775  (Encyclopedic 
M&hodique,  torn.  i.  de  la  Jurisprudence,  p.  668,  669) ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  observe  that 
it  yet  prevails  in  the  beauteous  and  happy  country  where  I  am  permitted  to  reside. 

163  j  might  implicitly  acquiesce  in  the  sense  and  learning  of  the  three  books  of 
G.  Noodt,  "De  foenore  et  usuris"  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  175-268).  The  interpretation 
of  the  asses  or  centesimce  usurce  at  twelve,  the  unciarics  at  one  per  cent.,  is  main- 
tained by  the  best  critics  and  civilians :  Noodt  (1.  ii.  c.  2,  p.  207),  Gravina  (Opp. 
p.  205,  etc.,  210),  Heineccius  (Antiquitat.  ad  Institut.  1.  iii.  tit.  xv.),  Montesquieu 
(Esprit  de.s  Loix,  1.  xxii.  ch.  22,  torn.  ii.  p.  36 ;  De'fense  de  l'Esprit  des  Loix,  torn, 
iii.  p.  478,  etc.),  and  above  all  John  Frederic  Gronovius  (De  Pecunia  Veteri,  1.  iii. 
c.  13,  p.  213-227,  and  his  three  Antexegeses,  p.  455-655),  the  founder,  or  at  least 
the  champion,  of  this  probable  opinion,  which  is,  however,  perplexed  with  some 
difficulties. 


500  INTEREST  OE  MONEY,  [Ch.XLIV. 

aged  by  the  Twelve  Tables,164  and  abolished  by  the  clamors 
interest  of  °f  tne  people.  It  was  revived  by  their  wants  and 
money.  idleness,  tolerated  by  the  discretion  of  the  praetors, 

and  finally  determined  by  the  Code  of  Justinian.  Persons  of 
illustrious  rank  were  confined  to  the  moderate  profit  of  four 
jper  cent;  six  was  pronounced  to  be  the  ordinary  and  lega. 
standard  of  interest ;  eight  was  allowed  for  the  convenience 
of  manufacturers  and  merchants ;  twelve  was  granted  to  nau- 
tical insurance,  which  the  wiser  ancients  had  not  attempted 
to  define ;  but,  except  in  this  perilous  adventure,  the  practice 
of  exorbitant  usury  was  severely  restrained. ,65  The  most 
simple  interest  was  condemned  by  the  clergy  of  the  East  and 
West  ;168  but  the  sense  of  mutual  benefit,  which  had  triumph- 
ed over  the  laws  of  the  republic,  has  resisted  with  equal  firm- 
ness the  decrees  of  the  Church,  and  even  the  prejudices  of 
mankind.167 

3.  Nature  and  society  impose  the  strict  obligation  of  re- 
pairing an  injury;  and  the  sufferer  by  private  injustice  ae- 

164  "Primo  xii  Tabulis  sancitnm  est  Tie  quis  unciario  foenore  amplius  exerceret" 
(Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  16).  "  Pour  peu  "  (says  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxii. 
ch.  22)  "qu'on  soit  verse  dans  l'histoire  de  Rome,  on  verra  qu'une  pareille  loi  ne 
devoit  pas  etre  l'ouvrage  des  decemvirs."  Was  Tacitus  ignorant — or  stupid  ?  But 
the  wiser  and  more  virtuous  Patricians  might  sacrifice  their  avarice  to  their  ambi- 
tion, and  might  attempt  to  check  the  odious  practice  by  such  interest  as  no  lender 
would  accept,  and  such  penalties  as  no  debtor  would  incur." 

165  Justinian  has  not  condescended  to  give  usury  a  place  in  his  Institutes ;  but 
the  necessary  rules  and  restrictions  are  inserted  in  the  Pandects  (1.  xxii.  tit.  i.  ii.) 
and  the  Code  (1.  iv.  tit.  xxxii.  xxxiii.). 

166  i>he  fathers  are  unanimous  (Barbeyrac,  Morale  des  Peres, p.  144, etc.):  Cyp- 
rian, Lactantius,  Basil,  Chrysostom  (see  his  frivolous  arguments  in  Noodt,  1.  i.  c.  7, 
p.  188),  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Ambrose,  Jerom,  Augustin,  and  a  host  of  councils  and 
casuists. 

167  Cato,  Seneca,  Plutarch,  have  loudly  condemned  the  practice  or  abuse  of  usu- 
ry. According  to  the  etymology  of  fcenus  and  tokoq,  the  principal  is  supposed  to 
generate  the  interest :  a  breed  of  barren  metal,  exclaims  Shakspeare  —  and  tha 
stage  is  the  echo  of  the  public  voice. 


a  The  real  nature  of  the  fcenus  unciarium  has  been  proved  :  it  amounted  in  a 
year  of  twelve  months  to  ten  per  cent.  See,  in  the  Magazine  for  Civil  Law  by  M. 
Hugo,  vol.  v.  p.  180,  184,  an  article  of  M.  Schrader,  following  up  the  conjectures 
of  Niebuhr,  Hist.  Rom.  torn.  ii.  p.  431.— W. 

Compare  a  very  clear  account  of  this  question  in  the  appendix  to  Mr.  Travera 
Twiss's  Epitome  of  Niebuhr,  vol.  ii.  p.  257. — M. 


a.d.  533-565.]  INJUEIES.  501 

quires  a  personal  right  and  a  legitimate  action.  If  the  prop- 
erty of  another  be  intrusted  to  our  care,  the  requi' 
site  degree  of  care  may  rise  and  fall  according  to 
the  benefit  which  we  derive  from  such  temporary  possession ; 
we  are  seldom  made  responsible  for  inevitable  accident,  but 
the  consequences  of  a  voluntary  fault  must  always  be  imputed 
to  the  author.108  A  Roman  pursued  and  recovered  his  stolen 
goods  by  a  civil  action  of  theft;  they  might  pass  through  a 
succession  of  pure  and  innocent  hands,  but  nothing  less  than 
a  prescription  of  thirty  years  could  extinguish  his  original 
claim.  They  were  restored  by  the  sentence  of  the  praetor, 
and  the  injury  was  compensated  by  double,  or  threefold,  or 
even  quadruple  damages,  as  the  deed  had  been  perpetrated  by 
secret  fraud  or  open  rapine,  as  the  robber  had  been  surprised 
in  the  fact,  or  detected  by  a  subsequent  research.  The  Aqui- 
lian  law169  defended  the  living  property  of  a  citizen,  his  slaves 
and  cattle,  from  the  stroke  of  malice  or  negligence :  the  high- 
est price  was  allowed  that  could  be  ascribed  to  the  domes- 
tic animal  at  any  moment  of  the  year  preceding  his  death ;  a 
similar  latitude  of  thirty  days  was  granted  on  the  destruction 
of  any  other  valuable  effects.  A  personal  injury  is  blunted 
or  sharpened  by  the  manners  of  the  times  and  the  sensibility 
of  the  individual :  the  pain  or  the  disgrace  of  a  word  or  blow 
cannot  easily  be  appreciated  by  a  pecuniary  equivalent.  The 
rude  jurisprudence  of  the  decemvirs  had  confounded  all  hasty 
insults,  which  did  not  amount  to  the  fracture  of  a  limb,  by 
condemning  the  aggressor  to  the  common  penalty  of  twenty- 
five  asses.  But  the  same  denomination  of  money  was  re- 
duced, in  three  centuries,  from  a  pound  to  the  weight  of  half 
an  ounce ;  and  the  insolence  of  a  wealthy  Roman  indulged 
liimself  in  the  cheap  amusement  of  breaking  and  satisfying 
i  the  law  of  the  Twelve   Tables.     Veratius  ran  through  the 

;  

168  Sir  William  Jones  has  given  an  ingenious  and  rational  Essay  on  the  Law  of: 
Bailment  (London,  1781,  p.  127,  in  8vo).  He  is  perhaps  the  only  lawyer  equal 
]y  conversant  with  the  year-books  of  Westminster,  the  Commentaries  of  Ulpian, 
the  Attic  pleadings  of  Isaeus,  and  the  sentences  of  Arabian  and  Persian  cadhis. 

169  Noodt  (Opp.  torn.  i.  p.  137-172)  has  composed  s  separate  treatise,  ad  L» 
gem  Aquiliam  (Pandect.  1.  ix.  tit.  iL). 


502  SEVERITY  OF  THE  TWELVE  TABLES.       [Ch.  XLTV. 

streets  striking  on  the  face  the  inoffensive  passengers,  and  hia 
attendant  purse-bearer  immediately  silenced  their  clamors  by 
the  legal  tender  of  twenty -five  pieces  of  copper,  about  the 
value  of  one  shilling.170  The  equity  of  the  praetors  examined 
and  estimated  the  distinct  merits  of  each  particular  complaint. 
In  the  adjudication  of  civil  damages,  the  magistrate  assumed 
a  right  to  consider  the  various  circumstances  of  time  and 
place,  of  age  and  dignity,  which  may  aggravate  the  shame  and 
sufferings  of  the  injured  person ;  but  if  h@  admitted  the  idea 
of  a  fine,  a  punishment,  an  example,  he  invaded  the  province, 
though  perhaps  he  supplied  the  defects,  of  the  criminal  law. 

The  execution   of  the  Alban  dictator,  who  was  dismem- 
bered by  eight  horses,  is  represented  by  Livy  as  the  first  and 
the  last  instance  of  Roman  cruelty  in  the  punish- 

Punishments.  .  •_      _        ' 

ment  of  the  most  atrocious  crimes.  ±sut  this  act 
of  justice  or  revenge  was  inflicted  on  a  foreign  enemy  in  the 
heat  of  victory,  and  at  the  command  of  a  single  man.     The 

Twelve  Tables  afford  a  more  decisive  proof  of  the 

Seventy  of  .-,...  ,  „  ,     .  , 

the  Twelve  national  spirit,  since  they  were  framed  by  the 
wisest  of  the  senate  and  accepted  by  the  free  voices 
of  the  people ;  yet  these  laws,  like  the  statutes  of  Draco,"* 
are  written  in  characters  of  blood.1"  They  approve  the  in- 
human and  unequal  principle  of  retaliation ;  and  the  forfeit 
of  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  a  limb  for  a  limb,  is 
rigorously  exacted,  unless  the  offender  can  redeem  his  pardon 
by  a  fine  of  three  hundred  pounds  of  copper.  The  decem- 
virs distributed  with  much  liberality  the   slighter  chastise- 


170  Aulns  Gellius  (Noct.  Attic,  xx.  1  [torn.  ii.  p.  284])  borrowed  this  story  from 
the  Commentaries  of  Q.  Labeo  on  the  Twelve  Tables. 

111  The  narrative  of  Livy  (i.  28)  is  weighty  and  solemn.  "  At  tu  dictis,  Al- 
bane,  maneres,"  is  a  harsh  reflection,  unworthy  of  Virgil's  humanity  (iEneid.  viii. 
643).  Heyne,  with  his  usual  good  taste,  observes  that  the  subject  was  too  horrid 
for  the  shield  of  iEneas  (torn.  iii.  p.  229). 

172  The  age  of  Draco  (Olympiad  xxxix.  1)  is  fixed  by  Sir  John  Marsham  (Ca- 
non Chronicus,  p.  593-596)  and  Corsini  (Fasti  Attici,  torn.  iii.  p.  62).  Eor  his 
laws,  see  the  writers  on  the  government  of  Athens,  Sigonius,  Meursius,  Potter,  etc. 

178  The  seventh,  "  de  delictis,"  of  the  Twelve  Tables  is  delineated  by  Gravina 
(Opp.  p.  292,  293,  with  a  commentary,  p.  214-230).  Aulus  Gellius  (xx.  1)  and 
the  Collatio  Legum  Mosaicarum  et  Komanarum  afford  much  original  information. 


a.d.  533-565.]    SEVERITY  OF  THE  TWELVE  TABLES.  503 

ments  of  flagellation  and  servitude ;  and  nine  crimes  of  a 
very  different    complexion   are  adjudged  worthy   of  death. 

1.  Any  act  of  treason  against  the  State,  or  of  correspondence 
with  the  public  enemy.  The  mode  of  execution  was  pain- 
ful and  ignominious :  the  head  of  the  degenerate  Roman  was 
shrouded  in  a  veil,  his  hands  were  tied  behind  his  back,  and, 
after  he  had  been  scourged  by  the  lictor,  he  was  suspended 
in  the  midst  of  the  Forum  on  a  cross,  or  inauspicious  tree. 

2.  Nocturnal  meetings  in  the  city,  whatever  might  be  the  pre- 
tence— of  pleasure,  or  religion,  or  the  public  good.  3.  The 
murder  of  a  citizen  ;  for  which  the  common  feelings  of  man- 
kind demand  the  blood  of  the  murderer.  Poison  is  still  more 
odious  than  the  sword  or  dagger;  and  we  are  surprised  to 
discover,  in  two  flagitious  events,  how  early  such  subtle  wick- 
edness had  infected  the  simplicity  of  the  republic  and  the 
chaste  virtues  of  the  Roman  matrons.174  The  parricide,  who 
violated  the  duties  of  nature  and  gratitude,  was  cast  into  the 
river  or  the  sea,  inclosed  in  a  sack ;  and  a  cock,  a  viper,  a 
dog,  and  a  monkey  were  successively  added  as  the  most  suit- 
able companions.175  Italy  produces  no  monkeys ;  but  the  want 
could  never  be  felt  till  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  first 
revealed  the  guilt  of  a  parricide.178  4.  The  malice  of  an  in- 
cendiary.   After  the  previous  ceremony  of  whipping,  he  him- 

m  Livy  mentions  two  remarkable  and  flagitious  eras,  of  3000  persons  accused, 
and  of  190  noble  matrons  convicted,  of  the  crime  of  poisoning  (xl.  43 ;  viii.  18). 
Mr.  Hume  discriminates  the  ages  of  private  and  public  virtue  (Essays,  vol.  i.  p. 
22,  23).  I  would  rather  say  that  such  ebullitions  of  mischief  (as  in  France  in 
the  year  1680)  are  accidents  and  prodigies  which  leave  no  marks  on  the  manners 
of  a  nation. 

115  The  Twelve  Tables  and  Cicero  (pro  Roscio  Amerino,  c.  25,  26)  are  content 
with  the  sack;  Seneca  (Excerpt.  Controvers.  v.  4)  adorns  it  with  serpents  ;  Juve- 
nal pities  the  guiltless  monkey  (innoxia  simia — Satir.  xiii.  156).  Adrian  (apud 
Dositheum  Magistrum,  1.  iii.  c.  16,  p.  874-876,  with  Schulting's  Note),  Modestinus 
(Pandect,  xlviii.  tit.  ix.  leg.  9),  Constantine  (Cod.  1.  ix.  tit.  xvii.),  and  Justinian 

]  (Institut.  1.  iv.  tit.  xviii.),  enumerate  all  the  companions  of  the  parricide.  But  this 
fanciful  execution  was  simplified  in  practice.  "Hodie  tamen  vivi  exuruntur  vel 
ad  bestias  dantur "  (Paul.  Sentent.  Recept.  1.  v.  tit.  xxiv.  p.  512,  edit.  Schulting 
[Jurispr.  Ante-Justin]). 

1,6  The  first  parricide  at  Rome  was  L.  Ostius,  after  the  second  Punic  war 

I    (Plutarch  in  Romulo  [c.  22],  torn.  i.  p.  57).     During  the  Ciinbric,  P.  Malleolus 

'■■    was  guilty  of  the  first  matricide  (Liv.  Epitom.  1.  lxviii.). 


504  SEVERITY  OF  THE  TWELVE  TABLES.       [Ch.  XLTV. 

self  was  delivered  to  the  flames ;  and  in  this  example  alone 
our  reason  is  tempted  to  applaud  the  justice  of  retaliation. 

5,  Judicial  perjury.  The  corrupt  or  malicious  witness  was 
thrown  headlong  from  the  Tarpeian  rock  to  expiate  his  false- 
hood, which  was  rendered  still  more  fatal  by  the  severity 
of  the  penal  laws  and  the  deficiency  of  written  evidence. 

6.  The  corruption  of  a  judge,  who  accepted  bribes  to  pro- 
nounce an  iniquitous  sentence.  7.  Libels  and  satires,  whose 
rude  strains  sometimes  disturbed  the  peace  of  an  illiterate 
city.  The  author  was  beaten  with  clubs,  a  worthy  chastise- 
ment ;  but  it  is  not  certain  that  he  was  left  to  expire  under 
the  blows  of  the  executioner.177  8.  The  nocturnal  mischief 
of  damaging  or  destroying  a  neighbor's  corn.  The  criminal 
was  suspended  as  a  grateful  victim  to  Ceres.  But  the  syl- 
van deities  were  less  implacable,  and  the  extirpation  of  a  more 
valuable  tree  was  compensated  by  the  moderate  fine  of  twen- 
ty-five pounds  of  copper.  9.  Magical  incantations;  which 
had  power,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Latian  shepherds,  to  exhaust 
the  strength  of  an  enemy,  to  extinguish  his  life,  and  to  re- 
move from  their  seats  his  deep-rooted  plantations.  The  cru- 
elty of  the  Twelve  Tables  against  insolvent  debtors  still  re- 
mains to  be  told ;  and  I  shall  dare  to  prefer  the  literal  sense 
of  antiquity  to  the  specious  refinements  of  modern  criti- 
cism.178* After  the  judicial  proof  or  confession  of  the  debt, 
thirty  days  of  grace  were  allowed  before  a  Roman  was  deliv- 
ered into  the  power  of  his  fellow -citizen.  In  this  private 
prison  twelve  ounces  of  rice  were  his  daily  food ;  he  might 
be  bound  with  a  chain  of  fifteen  pounds'  weight;  and  his 

m  Horace  talks  of  the  formidine  fustis  (1.  ii.  Epist.  i.  154),  but  Cicero  (De  Re- 
publica,  1.  iv.  apud  Augustin.  de  Civitat.  Dei,  ix.  6,  in  Fragment.  Philosoph.  torn, 
iii.  p.  393,  edit.  Olivet)  affirms  that  the  decemvirs  made  libels  a  capital  offence : 
"Cum  perpaucas  res  cnpite  sanxissent— perpaucas /" 

118  Bynkershoek  (Observat.  Juris  Rom.  1.  i.  c.  1,  in  Opp.  torn.  5.  p.  9, 10, 11)  laborg 
to  prove  that  the  creditors  divided  not  the  body,  but  the  price,  of  the  insolvent 
debtor.  Yet  his  interpretation  is  one  perpetual  harsh  metaphor ;  nor  can  he  sur- 
mount the  Koman  authorities  of  Quintilian,  Caacilius,  Favonius,  and  Tertullian. 
See  Aulus  Geliius,  Noct.  Attic,  xx.  1  [torn.  ii.  p.  285], 


*  Hugo  (Histoire  du  Droit  Romain,  torn.  i.  p.  234)  concurs  with  Gibbon.    Sea 
Niebuhr,  vol.  ii.  p.  313.— Ms 


A.D.533-5G5.]    ABOLITION  OH  OBLIVION  OF  PENAL  LAWS.      505 

misery  was  thrice  exposed  in  the  market-place,  to  solicit  the 
compassion  of  his  friends  and  countrymen.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  sixty  days  the  debt  was  discharged  by  the  loss  of  lib- 
erty or  life ;  the  insolvent  debtor  was  either  put  to  death,  or 
sold  in  foreign  slavery  beyond  the  Tiber :  but  if  several  cred- 
itors were  alike  obstinate  and  unrelenting,  they  might  legally 
dismember  his  body,  and  satiate  their  revenge  by  this  horrid 
partition.  The  advocates  for  this  savage  law  have  insisted 
that  it  must  strongly  operate  in  deterring  idleness  and  fraud 
from  contracting  debts  which  they  were  unable  to  discharge; 
but  experience  would  dissipate  this  salutary  terror,  by  prov- 
ing that  no  creditor  could  be  found  to  exact  this  unprofita- 
ble penalty  of  life  or  limb.  As  the  manners  of  Rome  were 
insensibly  polished,  the  criminal  code  of  the  decemvirs  was 
abolished  by  the  humanity  of  accusers,  witnesses,  and  judges ; 
and  impunity  became  the  consequence  of  immoderate  rigor. 
The  Porcian  and  Yalerian  laws  prohibited  the  magistrates 
from  inflicting  on  a  free  citizen  any  capital,  or  even  corporal, 
punishment ;  and  the  obsolete  statutes  of  blood  were  artfully, 
and  perhaps  truly,  ascribed  to  the  spirit,  not  of  patrician,  but 
of  regal,  tyranny. 

In  the  absence  of  penal  laws  and  the  insufficiency  of  civil 
actions,  the  peace  and  justice  of  the  city  were  imperfectly 

maintained  by  the  private  jurisdiction  of  the  citi- 
obiivion  of     zens.     The  malefactors  who  replenish  our  jails  are 

the  outcasts  of  society,  and  the  crimes  for  which 
they  suffer  may  be  commonly  ascribed  to  ignorance,  poverty, 
and  brutal  appetite.  For  the  perpetration  of  similar  enormi- 
ties, a  vile  Plebeian  might  claim  and  abuse  the  sacred  charac- 
ter of  a  member  of  the  republic ;  but  on  the  proof  or  suspi- 
cion of  guilt  the  slave  or  the  stranger  was  nailed  to  a  cross, 
and  this  strict  and  summary  justice  might  be  exercised  with- 
out restraint  over  the  greatest  part  of  the  populace  of  Rome. 
Each  family  contained  a  domestic  tribunal,  which  was  not 
confined,  like  that  of  the  prgetor,  to  the  cognizance  of  exter- 
nal actions:  virtuous  principles  and  habits  were  inculcated 
by  the  discipline  of  education,  and  the  Roman  father  was  ac- 
countable to  the  State  for  the  manners  of  his  children,  since 


506         ABOLITION  OR  OBLIVION  OF  PENAL  LAWS.     [Ch.  XLIV. 

lie  disposed  without  appeal  of  their  life,  their  liberty,  and 
their  inheritance.  In  some  pressing  emergencies,  the  citizen 
was  authorized  to  avenge  his  private  or  public  wrongs.  The 
consent  of  the  Jewish,  the  Athenian,  and  the  Eoman  laws  ap- 
proved the  slaughter  of  the  nocturnal  thief ;  though  in  open 
daylight  a  robber  could  not  be  slain  without  some  previous 
evidence  of  danger  and  complaint.  Whoever  surprised  an 
adulterer  in  his  nuptial  bed  might  freely  exercise  his  re- 
venge ;179  the  most  bloody  or  wanton  outrage  was  excused  by 
the  provocation  ;180  nor  was  it  before  the  reign  of  Augustus 
that  the  husband  was  reduced  to  weigh  the  rank  of  the  of- 
fender, or  that  the  parent  was  condemned  to  sacrifice  his 
daughter  with  her  guilty  seducer.  After  the  expulsion  of  the 
kings,  the  ambitious  Roman  who  should  dare  to  assume  their 
title  or  imitate  their  tyranny  was  devoted  to  the  infernal 
gods :  each  of  his  fellow-citizens  was  armed  with  the  sword 
of  justice ;  and  the  act  of  Brutus,  however  repugnant  to  grati- 
tude or  prudence,  had  been  already  sanctified  by  the  judg- 
ment of  his  country.181  The  barbarous  practice  of  wearing 
arms  in  the  midst  of  peace,182  and  the  bloody  maxims  of  honor, 
were  unknown  to  the  Romans ;  and  during  the  two  purest 
ages,  from  the  establishment  of  equal  freedom  to  the  end  of 
the  Punic  wars,  the  city  was  never  disturbed  by  sedition,  and 


179  The  first  speech  of  Lysias  (Eeiske,  Orator.  Graec.  torn.  v.  p.  2-48)  is  in  de- 
fence of  a  husband  who  had  killed  the  adulterer.  The  rights  of  husbands  and  fa- 
thers at  Rome  and  Athens  are  discussed  with  much  learning  by  Dr.  Taylor  (Lec- 
tiones  Lysiacae,  c.  xi.  in  Reiske,  torn.  vi.  p.  301-308). 

180  See  Casaubon  ad  Athenaeum,  1.  i.  c.  5,  p.  19.  "Percurrent  raphanique  mu- 
gilesque  "  (Catull.  [xv.  18]  p.  41,  42,  edit.  Vossian.).  "  Hunc  mugilis  intrat "  (Ju- 
venal. Satir.  x.  317).  "Hunc.  perminxere  calones"  (Horat.  1.  i.  Satir.  ii.  44). 
' '  Familiae  stuprandum  dedit  [objecit]  *  *  *  fraudi  non  fuit "  (Val.  Maxim.  1.  vi.  c.  1, 
No.  13). 

181  This  law  is  noticed  by  Livy  (ii.  8)  and  Plutarch  (in  Publicola  [c.  12],  torn.  i. 
p.  187),  and  it  fully  justifies  the  public  opinion  on  the  death  of  Caesar, which  Sue- 
tonius could  publish  under  the  imperial  government.  "Jure  caesus  existimatur" 
(in  Julio,  c.  76).  Read  the  letters  that  passed  between  Cicero  and  Matius  a  few 
months  after  the  ides  of  March  (ad  Fam.  xi.  27,  28). 

183  Ilpwroi  Si  AQqvaioi  tov  te  ffifypov  KarkQivTO.  Thucydid.  1.  i.  c.  6.  The  his- 
torian who  considers  this  circumstance  as  the  test  of  civilization  would  disdain  tha 
barbarism  of  a  European  court. 


a.d.  533-565.]  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENTS.  507 

rarely  polluted  with  atrocious  crimes.  The  failure  of  penal 
laws  was  more  sensibly  felt  when  every  vice  was  inflamed  by 
faction  at  home  and  dominion  abroad.  In  the  time  of  Cicero 
each  private  citizen  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  anarchy — each 
minister  of  the  republic  was  exalted  to  the  temptations  of 
regal  power,  and  their  virtues  are  entitled  to  the  warmest 
praise  as  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  nature  or  philosophy.  Af- 
ter a  triennial  indulgence  of  lust,  rapine,  and  cruelty,  Yerres, 
the  tyrant  of  Sicily,  could  only  be  sued  for  the  pecuniary 
restitution  of  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling ;  and 
such  was  the  temper  of  the  laws,  the  judges,  and  perhaps 
the  accuser  himself,183  that,  on  refunding  a  thirteenth  part 
of  his  plunder,  Yerres  could  retire  to  an  easy  and  luxurious 
exile.184 

The  first  imperfect  attempt  to  restore  the  proportion  of 
crimes  and  punishments  was  made  by  the  dictator  Sylla,  who, 
in  the  midst  of  his  sanguinary  triumph,  aspired  to 
capital  pun-  restrain  the  license  rather  than  to  oppress  the  lib- 
erty of  the  Romans.  He  gloried  in  the  arbitrary 
proscription  of  four  thousand  seven  hundred  citizens.186  But, 
in  the  character  of  a  legislator,  he  respected  the  prejudices  of 
the  times ;  and  instead  of  pronouncing  a  sentence  of  death 
against  the  robber  or  assassin,  the  general  who  betrayed  an 
army  or  the  magistrate  who  ruined  a  province,  Sylla  was  con- 
tent to  aggravate  the  pecuniary  damages  by  the  penalty  of 
exile,  or,  in  more  constitutional  language,  by  the  interdiction 
of  fire  and  water.     The  Cornelian,  and  afterwards  the  Pom- 


183  He  first  rated  at  millies  (£800,000)  the  damages  of  Sicily  (Divinatio  in 
Csecilium,  c.  5),  which  he  afterwards  reduced  to  quadringenties  (£320,000 — 1 
Actio  in  Verrem,  c.  18),  and  was  finally  content  with  tricies  (£24,000).  Plutarch 
(in  Ciceron.  [c.  8]  torn.  iii.  p.  1584)  has  not  dissembled  the  popular  suspicion  and 
report. 

184  Verres  lived  near  thirty  years  after  his  trial,  till  the  second  triumvirate,  when 
he  was  proscribed  by  the  taste  of  Mark  Antony  for  the  sake  of  his  Corinthian 
plate  (Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xxxiv.  3). 

185  Such  is  the  number  assigned  by  Valerius  Maximus  (1.  ix.  c.  2,  No.  1).  Flo- 
ras (iii.  21)  distinguishes  2000  senators  and  knights.  Appian  (De  Bell.  Civil.  1.  i. 
c.  95,  torn.  ii.  p.  133,  edit.  Schweighiiiiser)  more  accurately  computes  forty  victims 
of  the  senatorian  rank  and  1600  of  the  equestrian  census  or  order. 


508  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENTS.  [Ch.  XLTV. 

peian  and  Julian  laws,  introduced  a  new  system  of  criminal 
jurisprudence  ;188  and  the  emperors,  from  Augustus  to  Justin- 
ian, disguised  their  increasing  rigor  under  the  names  of  the 
original  authors.  But  the  invention  and  frequent  use  of  ex- 
traordinary jpains  proceeded  from  the  desire  to  extend  and 
conceal  the  progress  of  despotism.  In  the  condemnation  of 
illustrious  Romans,  the  senate  was  always  prepared  to  con- 
found, at  the  will  of  their  masters,  the  judicial  and  legislative 
powers.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  governors  to  maintain  the 
peace  of  their  province  by  the  arbitrary  and  rigid  administra- 
tion of  justice ;  the  freedom  of  the  city  evaporated  in  the  ex- 
tent of  empire,  and  the  Spanish  malefactor  who  claimed  the 
privilege  of  a  Roman  was  elevated  by  the  command  of  Galba 
on  a  fairer  and  more  lofty  cross.187  Occasional  rescripts  issued 
from  the  throne  to  decide  the  questions  which,  by  their  nov- 
elty or  importance,  appeared  to  surpass  the  authority  and  dis- 
cernment of  a  proconsul.  Transportation  and  beheading  were 
reserved  for  honorable  persons ;  meaner  criminals  were  either 
hanged,  or  burned,  or  buried  in  the  mines,  or  exposed  to  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  amphitheatre.  Armed  robbers  were  pur- 
sued and  extirpated  as  the  enemies  of  society;  the  driving 
away  horses  or  cattle  was  made  a  capital  offence  ;188  but  simple 
theft  was  uniformly  considered  as  a  mere  civil  and  private 
injury.  The  degrees  of  guilt  and  the  modes  of  punishment 
were  too  often  determined  by  the  discretion  of  the  rulers,  and 

186  For  the  penal  laws  (Leges  Cornelise,  Pompeias,  Juliae,  of  Sylla,  Pompey,  and 
the  Cajsars),  see  the  sentences  of  Paulus  (I.  iv.  tit.  xviii. -xxx.  p.  497-528,  edit. 
Schulting),  the  Gregorian  Code  (Fragment.  1.  xix.  p.  705,  706,  in  Schulting),  the 
Collatio  Legum  Mosaicarura  et  Romanarum  (tit.  i.-xv.),  the  Theodosian  Code 
(1.  ix.),  the  Code  of  Justinian  (1.  ix.),  the  Pandects  (xlviii.),  the  Institutes  (1.  m 
tit.  xviii.),  and  the  Greek  version  of  Theophilus  (p.  917-926). 

181  It  was  a  guardian  who  had  poisoned  his  ward.  The  crime  was  atrocious : 
yet  the  punishment  is  reckoned  by  Suetonius  (c.  9)  among  the  acts  in  which  Galba 
showed  himself  "acer,  vehemens,  et  in  delictis  coercendis  immodicus." 

188  The  abactores  or  abigeatores,  who  drove  one  horse,  or  two  mares  or  oxen, 
or  five  hogs,  or  ten  goats,  were  subject  to  capital  punishment  (Paul.  Sentent.  Re- 
cept.  1.  iv.  tit.  xviii.  p. 497,  498).  Hadrian  (ad  Concil.  Baeticse),  most  severe  where 
the  offence  was  most  frequent,  condensns  the  criminals,  "ad  gladium, ludi  damna- 
tionem  "  (Ulpian,  de  Officio  Proconsulis,  1.  viii.  in  Collatione  Legum  Mosaic,  et 
Rom.  tit.  xi.  p.  236  [edit.  Cannegieter,  1774]). 


A.D.  533-565.]  MEASURE  OF  GUILT.  509 

the  subject  was  left  in  ignorance  of  the  legal  danger  which  he 
might  incur  bj  every  action  of  his  life. 

A  sin,  a  vice,  a  crime,  are  the  objects  of  theology,  ethics, 
and  jurisprudence.  Whenever  their  judgments  agree,  they 
Measure  corroborate  each  other;  but  as  often  as  they  differ, 
of  guiic  a  prucjent  legislator  appreciates  the  guilt  and  pun- 
ishment according  to  the  measure  of  social  injury.  On  this 
principle  the  most  daring  attack  on  the  life  and  property  of 
a  private  citizen  is  judged  less  atrocious  than  the  crime  of 
treason  or  rebellion,  which  invades  the  majesty  of  the  repub- 
lic: the  obsequious  civilians  unanimously  pronounced  that 
the  republic  is  contained  in  the  person  of  its  chief,  and  the 
edge  of  the  Julian  law  was  sharpened  by  the  incessant  dil- 
igence of  the  emperors.  The  licentious  commerce  of  the 
sexes  may  be  tolerated  as  an  impulse  of  nature,  or  forbidden 
as  a  source  of  disorder  and  corruption ;  but  the  fame,  the  fort- 
unes, the  family  of  the  husband,  are  seriously  injured  by  the 
adultery  of  the  wife.  The  wisdom  of  Augustus,  after  curb- 
ing the  freedom  of  revenge,  applied  to  this  domestic  offence 
the  animadversion  of  the  laws ;  and  the  guilty  parties,  after 
the  payment  of  heavy  forfeitures  and  fines,  were  condemned 
to  long  or  perpetual  exile  in  two  separate  islands.189  Religion 
pronounces  an  equal  censure  against  the  infidelity  of  the  hus- 
band, but,  as  it  is  not  accompanied  by  the  same  civil  effects, 
the  wife  was  never  permitted  to  vindicate  her  wrongs  ;190  and 
the  distinction  of  simple  or  double  adultery,  so  familiar  and 
so  important  in  the  canon  law,  is  unknown  to  the  jurispru- 
Unnatn-  dence  of  the  Code  and  Pandects.  I  touch  with 
raivice.  reluctance,  and  despatch  with  impatience,  a  more 
odious  vice,  of  which  modesty  rejects  the  name,  and  nature 

189  "pill  the  publication  of  the  Julius  Paulus  of  Schulting  (1.  ii.  tit.  xxvi.  p.  317- 
323),  it  was  affirmed  and  believed  that  the  Julian  laws  punished  adultery  with 
death ;  and  the  mistake  arose  from  the  fraud  or  error  of  Tribonian.  Yet  Lipsius 
had  suspected  the  truth  from  the  narratives  of  Tacitus  (Annal.  ii.  50 ;  iii.  24 ;  iv. 
42),  and  even  from  the  practice  of  Augustus,  who  distinguished  the  treasonable 
frailties  of  his  female  kindred. 

190  In  cases  of  adultery  Severus  confined  to  the  husband  the  right  of  public  ac- 
cusation (Cod.  Justinian.  1.  ix.  tit.  ix.  leg.  1).  Nor  is  this  privilege  unjust,  so  dif* 
ferent  are  the  effects  of  male  or  female  infidelity. 


510  UNNATUEAL  VICE.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

abominates  the  idea.  The  primitive  Romans  were  infected 
by  the  example  of  the  Etruscans191  and  Greeks  ;1M  in  the  mad 
abuse  of  prosperity  and  power  every  pleasure  that  is  innocent 
was  deemed  insipid ;  and  the  Scatinian  law,193  which  had  been 
extorted  by  an  act  of  violence,  was  insensibly  abolished  by 
the  lapse  of  time  and  the  multitude  of  criminals.  By  this 
law  the  rape,  perhaps  the  seduction,  of  an  ingenuous  youth 
was  compensated  as  a  personal  injury  by  the  poor  damagea 
of  ten  thousand  sesterces,  or  fourscore  pounds ;  the  ravisher* 
might  be  slain  by  the  resistance  or  revenge  of  chastity ;  and  I 
wish  to  believe  that  at  Rome,  as  in  Athens,  the  voluntary  and 
effeminate  deserter  of  his  sex  was  degraded  from  the  honors 
and  the  rights  of  a  citizen.194  But  the  practice  of  vice  was  not 
discouraged  by  the  severity  of  opinion :  the  indelible  stain  of 
manhood  was  confounded  with  the  more  venial  transgressions 
of  fornication  and  adultery ;  nor  was  the  licentious  lover  ex- 
posed to  the  same  dishonor  which  he  impressed  on  the  male 
or  female  partner  of  his  guilt.  From  Catullus  to  Juvenal,18' 
the  poets  accuse  and  celebrate  the  degeneracy  of  the  times; 
and  the  reformation  of  manners  was  feebly  attempted  by 


191  Timon  [Timaeus]  (1.  i.)  and  Theopompus  (L  xliii.  apud  Athenaeum,  I.  xii. 
p.  517  [c.  14,  torn.  iv.  p.  422,  edit.  Schweigh.])  describe  the  luxury  and  lust  of  the 
Etruscans :  iroXv  (itv  rot  ye  xa^P0V(Tl  avvovrtg  Tolg  natal  icai  toIq  fiEipaKioiQ. 
About  the  same  period  (a.u.c.  445)  the  Koman  youth  studied  in  Etruria  (liv. 
ix.  36). 

192  The  Persians  had  been  corrupted  in  the  same  school :  an  'EWjjvwv  fiaOovne 
iraioi  filayovrai  (Herodot.  1.  i.  c.  135).  A  curious  dissertation  might  be  formed  on 
the  introduction  of  paederasty  after  the  time  of  Homer,  its  progress  among  the 
Greeks  of  Asia  and  Europe,  the  vehemence  of  their  passions,  and  the  thin  device 
of  virtue  and  friendship  which  amused  the  philosophers  of  Athens.  But,  "Scelera 
ostendi  oportet  dum  puniuntur,  abscondi  flagitia." 

193  The  name,  the  date,  and  the  provisions  of  this  law  are  equally  doubtful  (Gra- 
vina,  Opp.  p.  432,  433 ;  Heineccius,  Hist.  Jur.  Eom.  No.  108  ;  Ernesti,  Clav.  Cice- 
ron.  in  Indice  Legum).  But  I  will  observe  that  the  nefanda  Venus  of  the  hones* 
German  is  styled  aversa  by  the  more  polite  Italian. 

194  See  the  oration  of  iEschines  against  the  catamite  Timarchus  (in  Eeiske,  Ora- 
tor. Grsec.  torn.  iii.  p.  21-184). 

195  A  crowd  of  disgraceful  passages  will  force  themselves  on  the  memory  of  the 
classic  reader ;  I  will  only  remind  him  of  the  cool  declaration  of  Ovid : 

"Odi  concubitus  qui  non  utrumque  resolvunt. 
Hoc  est  quod  puerum  tangar  amore  minus." 


A.D.  533-565.]     RIGOR  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  EMPERORS.  511 

the  reason  and  authority  of  the  civilians,  till  the  most  virtu- 
ous of  the  Caesars  proscribed  the  sin  against  nature  as  a  crime 
against  society.'99 

A  new  spirit  of  legislation,  respectable  even  in  its  error, 
arose  in  the  empire  with  the  religion  of  Constantine.197     The 

laws  of  Moses  were  received  as  the  divine  original 
chffetian  e    of  justice,  and  the  Christian  princes  adapted  their 

penal  statutes  to  the  degrees  of  moral  and  relig- 
ious turpitude.  Adultery  was  first  declared  to  be  a  capital 
offence :  the  frailty  of  the  sexes  was  assimilated  to  poison  or 
assassination,  to  sorcery  or  parricide ;  the  same  penalties  were 
inflicted  on  the  passive  and  active  guilt  of  paederasty;  and  all 
criminals,  of  free  or  servile  condition,  were  either  drowned, 
or  beheaded,  or  cast  alive  into  the  avenging  flames.  The 
adulterers  were  spared  by  the  common  sympathy  of  mankind ; 
but  the  lovers  of  their  own  sex  were  pursued  by  general  and 
pious  indignation:  the  impure  manners  of  Greece  still  pre- 
vailed in  the  cities  of  Asia,  and  every  vice  was  fomented  by 
the  celibacy  of  the  monks  and  clergy.  Justinian  relaxed  the 
punishment  at  least  of  female  infidelity :  the  guilty  spouse 
was  only  condemned  to  solitude  and  penance,  and  at  the  end 
of  two  years  she  might  be  recalled  to  the  arms  of  a  forgiving 
husband.  But  the  same  emperor  declared  himself  the  im- 
placable enemy  of  unmanly  lust,  and  the  cruelty  of  his  perse- 
cution can  scarcely  be  excused  by  the  purity  of  his  motives.198 
In  defiance  of  every  principle  of  justice,  he  stretched  to  past 
as  well  as  future  offences  the  operations  of  his  edicts,  with 


198  iElius  Lampridius,  in  Vit.  Heliogabal.  in  Hist.  August,  p.  1 1 2.  Aurelius  Vic- 
tor, in  Philippo  [De  Caesar,  c.  28],  Codex.  Theodos.  1.  ix.  tit.  vii.  leg.  6,  and  Gode- 
froy's  Commentary,  torn.  iii.  p.  63.  Theodosius  abolished  the  subterraneous  broth- 
els of  Rome,  in  which  ihe  prostitution  of  both  sexes  was  acted  with  impunity. 

197  See  the  laws  of  Constantine  and  his  successors  against  adultery,  sodomy,  etc., 
in  the  Theodosian  (1.  ix.  tit.  vii.  leg.  7 ;  1.  xi.  tit.  xxxvi.  leg.  1,  4)  and  Justinian 
Codes  (1,  ix.  tit.  ix.  leg.  30,  31).  These  princes  speak  the  language  of  passion  as 
well  as  of  justice,  and  fraudulently  ascribe  their  own  severity  to  the  first  Caesars. 

198  Justinian,  Novel.  Ixxvii.  cxxxiv.  cxli. ,  Frocopius  in  Anecdot.  c.  11, 16  [torn. 
iii.  p.  76,  99,  edit.  Bonn],  with  the  notes  of  Alemannus ;  Theophanes,  p.  151 
[edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  271,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Cedrenus,  p.  368  [edit.  Far.  ;  torn.  i.  p, 
645,  edit.  Bonn] ,  Zonaras,  1.  xiv.  [c.  7]  p.  6  A. 


512  JUDGMENTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  [Ch.XLIV. 

the  previous  allowance  of  a  short  respite  for  confession  and 
pardon.  A  painful  death  was  inflicted  by  the  amputation  of 
the  sinful  instrument,  or  the  insertion  of  sharp  reeds  into  the 
pores  and  tubes  of  most  exquisite  sensibility ;  and  Justinian 
defended  the  propriety  of  the  execution,  since  the  criminals 
would  have  lost  their  hands  had  they  been  convicted  of  sac- 
rilege. In  this  state  of  disgrace  and  agony  two  bishops,  Isaiah 
of  Rhodes  and  Alexander  of  Diospolis,  were  dragged  through 
the  streets  of  Constantinople,  while  their  brethren  were  ad- 
monished by  the  voice  of  a  crier  to  observe  this  awful  lesson, 
and  not  to  pollute  the  sanctity  of  their  character.  Perhaps 
these  prelates  were  innocent.  A  sentence  of  death  and  in- 
famy was  often  founded  on  the  slight  and  suspicious  evi- 
dence of  a  child  or  a  servant :  the  guilt  of  the  green  faction, 
of  the  rich,  and  of  the  enemies  of  Theodora,  was  presumed 
by  the  judges,  and  paederasty  became  the  crime  of  those  to 
whom  no  crime  could  be  imputed.  A  French  philosopher199 
has  dared  to  remark  that  whatever  is  secret  must  be  doubtful, 
and  that  our  natural  horror  of  vice  may  be  abused  as  an  en- 
gine of  tyranny.  But  the  favorable  persuasion  of  the  same 
writer,  that  a  legislator  may  confide  in  the  taste  and  reason 
of  mankind,  is  impeached  by  the  unwelcome  discovery  of  the 
antiquity  and  extent  of  the  disease.800 

The  free  citizens  of  Athens  and  Rome  enjoyed  in  all  crim- 
judgmeuts  inal  cases  the  invaluable  privilege  of  being  tried  by 
of  the  people.  their  country.m  1.  The  administration  of  justice  is 
the  most  ancient  office  of  a  prince :  it  was  exercised  by  the 

199  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xii.  ch.  6.  That  eloquent  philosopher  con- 
ciliates the  rights  of  liberty  and  of  nature,  which  should  never  be  placed  in  oppo- 
sition to  each  other. 

soo  jor  tne  corruption  of  Palestine,  2000  years  before  the  Christian  era,  see  the 
history  and  laws  of  Moses.  Ancient  Gaul  is  stigmatized  by  Diodorus  Siculua 
(torn.  i.  1.  v.  [c.  32]  p.  356),  China  by  the  Mahometan  and  Christian  travellers 
(Ancient  Relations  of  India  and  China,  p.  34,  translated  by  Renaudot,  and  his  bitter 
critic  the  Pere  Premare,  Lettres  Edifiantes,  torn.  xix.  p.  435),  and  native  Amer- 
ica by  the  Spanish  historians  (Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  1.  iii.  c.  13,  Rycaut's  transla- 
tion ;  and  Dictionnaire  de  Bayle,  torn.  iii.  p.  88).  I  believe,  and  hope,  that  the 
negroes,  in  their  own  country,  were  exempt  from  this  moral  pestilence. 

201  The  important  subject  of  the  public  questions  and  judgments  at  Rome  is  ex- 
plained with  much  learning,  and  in  a  classic  style,  by  Charles  Sigonius  (1.  iii  da 


AJ>.  533-565.]  JUDGMENTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  613 

Koman  kings,  and  abused  by  Tarquin,  who  alone,  without 
law  or  council,  pronounced  his  arbitrary  judgments.  The 
first  consuls  succeeded  to  this  regal  prerogative ;  but  the  sa- 
cred right  of  appeal  soon  abolished  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
magistrates,  and  all  public  causes  were  decided  by  the  su- 
preme tribunal  of  the  people.  But  a  wild  democracy,  supe- 
rior to  the  forms,  too  often  disdains  the  essential  principles, 
of  justice;  the  pride  of  despotism  was  envenomed  by  Plebeian 
envy;  and  the  heroes  of  Athens  might  sometimes  applaud 
the  happiness  of  the  Persian,  whose  fate  depended  on  the  ca- 
price of  a  single  tyrant.  Some  salutary  restraints,  imposed  by 
the  people  on  their  own  passions,  were  at  once  the  cause  and 
effect  of  the  gravity  and  temperance  of  the  Romans.  The 
right  of  accusation  was  confined  to  the  magistrates.  A  vote  of 
the  thirty-five  tribes  could  inflict  a  fine;  but  the  cognizance 
of  all  capital  crimes  was  reserved  by  a  fundamental  law  to 
the  assembly  of  the  centuries,  in  which  the  weight  of  influ- 
ence and  property  was  sure  to  preponderate.  Eepeated  proc- 
lamations and  adjournments  were  interposed,  to  allow  time 
for  prejudice  and  resentment  to  subside ;  the  whole  proceed- 
ing might  be  annulled  by  a  seasonable  omen  or  the  opposition 
of  a  tribune,  and  such  popular  trials  were  commonly  less  for- 
midable to  innocence  than  they  were  favorable  to  guilt.  But 
this  union  of  the  judicial  and  legislative  powers  left  it  doubt- 
ful whether  the  accused  party  was  pardoned  or  acquitted ; 
and,  in  the  defence  of  an  illustrious  client,  the  orators  of 
Rome  and  Athens  address  their  arguments  to  the  policy  and 
benevolence,  as  well  as  to  the  justice,  of  their  sovereign.  2. 
The  task  of  convening  the  citizens  for  the  trial  of  each  of- 
fender became  more  difficult,  as  the  citizens  and  the  offend- 

Judiciis,  in  Opp.  torn.  iii.  p.  679-864);  and  a  good  abridgment  may  be  found  in 
the  Republique  Romaine  of  Beaufort  (torn.  ii.  1.  v.  p.  1-121).  Those  who  wisk 
for  more  abstruse  law  may  study  Noodt  (De  Jurisdictione  et  Imperio  Libri  duo, 
torn.  i.  p.  93-134),  Heineccius  (ad  Pandect.  1.  i.  et  ii.  ad  Institut.  1.  iv.  tit.  xvii. 
Element,  ad  Antiquitat.),  and  Gravina  (Opp.  230-25  l).a 


a  The  best  modern  works  on  the  Roman  Criminal  Jurisprudence  are  Rein,  daa 
Ciiminalrecht  der  Romer ;  and  Laboulaye,  Essai  sur  les  Loix  Criminelles  des  Ro 
mains.— S. 

IV.— 33 


514  SELECT  JUDGES.  [Ch.  XLIV. 

ers  continually  multiplied,  and  the  ready  expedient  was  adopt- 
ed of  delegating  the  jurisdiction  of  the  people  to  the  ordinary 
magistrates  or  to  extraordinary  inquisitors.  In  the  first  ages 
these  questions  were  rare  and  occasional.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh  century  of  Koine  they  were  made  perpetual; 
four  praetors  were  annually  empowered  to  sit  in  judgment  on 
the  State  offences  of  treason,  extortion,  peculation,  and  bri- 
bery; and  Sylla  added  new  praetors  and  new  questions  for 
those  crimes  which  more  directly  injure  the  safety  of  individ- 
uals. By  these  inquisitors  the  trial  was  prepared  and  direct- 
ed ;  but  they  could  only  pronounce  the  sentence  of 
the  majority  of  judges,  who,  with  some  truth  and 
more  prejudice,  have  been  compared  to  the  English  juries.208 
To  discharge  this  important  though  burdensome  office,  an 
annual  list  of  ancient  and  respectable  citizens  was  formed  by 
the  praetor.  After  many  constitutional  struggles,  they  were 
chosen  in  equal  numbers  from  the  senate,  the  equestrian  or- 
der, and  the  people ;  four  hundred  and  fifty  were  appointed 
for  single  questions,  and  the  various  rolls  or  decuries  of  judges 
must  have  contained  the  names  of  some  thousand  Komans, 
who  represented  the  judicial  authority  of  the  State.  In  each 
particular  cause  a  sufficient  number  was  drawn  from  the  urn ; 
their  integrity  was  guarded  by  an  oath ;  the  mode  of  ballot 
secured  their  independence;  the  suspicion  of  partiality  was 
removed  by  the  mutual  challenges  of  the  accuser  and  defend- 
ant; and  the  judges  of  Milo,  by  the  retrenchment  of  fifteen 
on  each  side,  were  reduced  to  fifty-one  voices  or  tablets,  of  ac- 
quittal, of  condemnation,  or  of  favorable  doubt.203  3.  In  his 
civil  jurisdiction  the  praetor  of  the  city  was  truly  a  judge,  and 
almost  a  legislator ;  but,  as  soon  as  he  had  prescribed  the  ac- 
tion of  law,  he  often  referred  to  a  delegate  the  determination 

802  The  office,  both  at  Kome  and  in  England,  must  be  considered  as  an  occa. 
sional  duty,  and  not  a  magistracy  or  profession.  But  the  obligation  of  a  unani- 
mous verdict  is  peculiar  to  our  laws,  which  condemn  the  juryman  to  undergo  the 
torture  from  whence  they  have  exempted  the  criminal. 

203  -^re  are  indebted  for  this  interesting  fact  to  a  fragment  of  Asconius  Pedia- 
nus,  who  flourished  under  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  The  loss  of  his  Commentaries  on 
the  Orations  of  Cicero  has  deprived  us  of  a  valuable  fund  of  historical  and  legal 
knowledge. 


a.d.  533-565.]        VOLUNTARY  EXILE  AND  DEATH.  515 

of  the  fact.  AVith  the  increase  of  legal  proceedings,  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  centumvirs,  in  which  he  presided,  acquired  more 
weight  and  reputation.  But  whether  he  acted  alone  or  with 
the  advice  of  his  council,  the  most  absolute  powers  might  be 
trusted  to  a  magistrate  who  was  annually  chosen  by  the  votes 
of  the  people.  The  rules  and  precautions  of  freedom  have 
required  some  explanation ;  the  order  of  despotism  is  simple 
and  inanimate.  Before  the  age  of  Justinian,  or  perhaps  of 
Diocletian,  the  decuries  of  Roman  judges  had  sunk 
to  an  empty  title;  the  humble  advice  of  the  assessors 
might  be  accepted  or  despised  ;  and  in  each  tribunal  the  civil 
and  criminal  jurisdiction  was  administered  by  a  single  magis- 
trate, who  was  raised  and  disgraced  by  the  will  of  the  emperor. 
A  Roman  accused  of  any  capital  crime  might  prevent  the 
sentence  of  the  law  by  voluntary  exile  or  death.  Till  his 
voluntary  ex-  gin^  na^  Deen  legally  proved,  his  innocence  was 
iie  and  death.  pre8ume(j  an(j  his  person  was  free;  till  the  votes 
of  the  last  century  had  been  counted  and  declared,  he  might 
peaceably  secede  to  any  of  the  allied  cities  of  Italy,  or  Greece, 
or  Asia.804  His  fame  and  fortunes  were  preserved,  at  least  to 
his  children,  by  this  civil  death  ;  and  he  might  still  be  happy 
in  every  rational  and  sensual  enjoyment,  if  a  mind  accustom- 
ed to  the  ambitious  tumult  of  Rome  could  support  the  uni- 
formity and  silence  of  Rhodes  or  Athens.  A  bolder  effort 
was  required  to  escape  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Caesars ;  but 
this  effort  was  rendered  familiar  by  the  maxims  of  the  Stoics, 
the  example  of  the  bravest  Romans,  and  the  legal  encourage- 
ments of  suicide.  The  bodies  of  condemned  criminals  were 
exposed  to  public  ignominy,  and  their  children,  a  more  seri- 
ous evil,  were  reduced  to  poverty  by  the  confiscation  of  their 
fortunes.  But,  if  the  victims  of  Tiberius  and  Nero  anticipa- 
ted the  decree  of  the  prince  or  senate,  their  courage  and  de- 
spatch were  recompensed  by  the  applause  of  the  public,  the 
decent  honors  of  burial,  and  the  validity  of  their  testaments.505 

204  p0iyb.  1.  vi.  [c.  14]  p.  643.     The  extension  of  the  empire  and  city  of  Rome 
obliged  the  exile  to  seek  a  more  distant  place  of  retirement. 

205  "Quicle  se  statuebant,  humabantur  corpora,  manebant  testamenta ;  pratium 
festinandi "  (Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  29,  with  the  Notes  of  Lipsius). 


516  ABUSES  OF  CIVIL  JURISPRUDENCE.        [Ch.  XLIV. 

The  exquisite  avarice  and  cruelty  of  Domitian  appears  to 
have  deprived  the  unfortunate  of  this  last  consolation,  and 
it  was  still  denied  even  by  the  clemency  of  the  Antonines. 
A  voluntary  death,  which,  in  the  case  of  a  capital  offence,  in- 
tervened between  the  accusation  and  the  sentence,  was  ad- 
mitted as  a  confession  of  guilt,  and  the  spoils  of  the  deceased 
were  seized  by  the  inhuman  claims  of  the  treasury.208  Yet 
the  civilians  have  always  respected  the  natural  right  of  a  cit- 
izen to  dispose  of  his  life ;  and  the  posthumous  disgrace  in- 
vented by  Tarquin207  to  check  the  despair  of  his  subjects  was 
never  revived  or  imitated  by  succeeding  tyrants.  The  pow- 
ers of  this  world  have  indeed  lost  their  dominion  over  him 
who  is  resolved  on  death,  and  his  arm  can  only  be  restrained 
by  the  religious  apprehension  of  a  future  state.  Suicides  are 
enumerated  by  Yirgil  among  the  unfortunate,  rather  than  the 
guilty  ,c°8  and  the  poetical  fables  of  the  infernal  shades  could 
not  seriously  influence  the  faith  or  practice  of  mankind.  But 
the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  or  the  Church  have  at  length  im- 
posed a  pious  servitude  on  the  minds  of  Christians,  and  con- 
demn them  to  expect,  without  a  murmur,  the  last  stroke  of 
disease  or  the  executioner. 

The  penal  statutes  form  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  six- 
ty-two books  of  the  Code  and  Pandects,  and  in  all  judicial 
proceeding  the  life  or  death  of  a  citizen  is  deter- 
civii juris-       mined  with  less  caution  and  delay  than  the  most 

prudence.  .  .    ,       .  m. 

ordinary  question  01  covenant  or  inheritance.    This 
singular  distinction,  though  something  may  be  allowed  for  the 


206  Julius  Paulus  (Sentent.  Recept.  1.  v.  tit.  xii.  p.  476),  the  Pandects  (1.  xlvjji. 
tit.  xxi.),  the  Code  (1.  ix.  tit.  l.),  Bynkershoek  (torn.  i.  p.  59  ;  Observat.  J.  C.  R.  iv. 
4),  and  Montesquieu  (Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxix.  ch.  9),  define  the  civil  limitations  of 
the  liberty  and  privileges  of  suicide.  The  criminal  penalties  are  the  production  of 
a  later  and  darker  age. 

207  Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  xxxvi.  24.  When  he  fatigued  his  subjects  in  building  the 
Capitol,  many  of  the  laborers  were  provoked  to  despatch  themselves:  he  nailed 
their  dead  bodies  to  crosses. 

208  The  sole  resemblance  of  a  violent  and  premature  death  has  engaged  Virgil 
(iEneid.  vi.  434-439)  to  confound  suicides  with  infants,  lovers,  and  persons  un. 
justly  condemned.  Heyne,  the  best  of  his  editors,  is  at  a  loss  to  deduce  the  idea, 
or  ascertain  the  jurisprudence,  of  the  Roman  poet. 


A.D.  533-565.]      ABUSES  OF  CIVIL  JURISPRUDENCE.  517 

urgent  necessity  of  defending  the  peace  of  society,  is  derived 
from  the  nature  of  criminal  and  civil  jurisprudence.  Our 
duties  to  the  State  are  simple  and  uniform ;  the  law  by  which 
he  is  condemned  is  inscribed  not  only  on  brass  or  marble,  but 
on  the  conscience  of  the  offender,  and  his  guilt  is  commonly 
proved  by  the  testimony  of  a  single  fact.  But  our  relations 
to  each  other  are  various  and  infinite;  our  obligations  are 
created,  annulled,  and  modified  by  injuries,  benefits,  and  prom- 
ises ;  and  the  interpretation  of  voluntary  contracts  and  testa- 
ments, which  are  often  dictated  by  fraud  or  ignorance,  affords 
a  long  and  laborious  exercise  to  the  sagacity  of  the  judge. 
The  business  of  life  is  multiplied  by  the  extent  of  commerce 
and  dominion,  and  the  residence  of  the  parties  in  the  distant 
provinces  of  an  empire  is  productive  of  doubt,  delay,  and  in- 
evitable appeals  from  the  local  to  the  supreme  magistrate. 
Justinian,  the  Greek  emperor  of  Constantinople  and  the  East, 
was  the  legal  successor  of  the  Latian  shepherd  who  had  plant- 
ed a  colony  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber.  In  a  period  of  thir- 
teen hundred  years  the  laws  had  reluctantly  followed  the 
changes  of  government  and  manners;  and  the  laudable  desire 
of  conciliating  ancient  names  with  recent  institutions  destroy- 
ed the  harmony,  and  swelled  the  magnitude,  of  the  obscure 
and  irregular  system.  The  laws  which  excuse  on  any  occa- 
sions the  ignorance  of  their  subjects,  confess  their  own  imper- 
fections ;  the  civil  jurisprudence,  as  it  was  abridged  by  Jus- 
tinian, still  continued  a  mysterious  science  and  a  profitable 
trade,  and  the  innate  perplexity  of  the  study  was  involved  in 
tenfold  darkness  by  the  private  industry  of  the  practitioners. 
The  expense  of  the  pursuit  sometimes  exceeded  the  value  of 
the  prize,  and  the  fairest  rights  were  abandoned  by  the  pov- 
erty or  prudence  of  the  claimants.  Such  costly  justice  might 
tend  to  abate  the  spirit  of  litigation,  but  the  unequal  pressure 
serves  only  to  increase  the  influence  of  the  rich  and  to  aggra- 
vate the  misery  of  the  poor.  By  these  dilatory  and  expen- 
sive proceedings  the  wealthy  pleader  obtains  a  more  certain 
advantage  than  he  could  hope  from  the  accidental  corrup- 
tion of  his  judge.  The  experience  of  an  abuse  from  which 
our  own  age  and  country  are  not  perfectly  exempt  may  some- 


518  ABUSES  OF  CIVIL  JURISPRUDENCE.         [Cu.  XLIV. 

times  provoke  a  generous  indignation,  and  extort  the  hasty 
wish  of  exchanging  our  elaborate  jurisprudence  for  the  sim- 
ple and  summary  decrees  of  a  Turkish  cadi.  Our  calmer  re- 
flection will  suggest  that  such  forms  and  delays  are  necessary 
to  guard  the  person  and  property  of  the  citizen ;  that  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  judge  is  the  first  engine  of  tyranny;  and  that 
the  laws  of  a  free  people  should  foresee  and  determine  every 
question  that  may  probably  arise  in  the  exercise  of  power  and 
the  transactions  of  industry.  But  the  government  of  Justin- 
ian united  the  evils  of  liberty  and  servitude,  and  the  Eomans 
were  oppressed  at  the  same  time  by  the  multiplicity  of  their 
laws  and  the  arbitrary  will  of  their  master. 


a.d.  5650  DEATH  OF  JUSTINIAN.  519 


CHAPTER  XLY. 

Reign  of  the  younger  Justin. — Embassy  of  the  Avars. — Their  Settlement  on  the 
Danube. — Conquest  of  Italy  by  the  Lombards. — Adoption  and  Reign  of  Ti- 
berius.— Of  Maurice. — State  of  Italy  under  the  Lombards  and  the  Exarchs 
of  Ravenna. — Distress  of  Rome. — Character  and  Pontificate  of  Gregory  the 
First. 

Dtjking  the  last  years  of  Justinian,  his  infirm  mind  was  de- 
voted to  heavenly  contemplation,  and  he  neglected  the  busi- 
Deathof  ness  of  the  lower  world.  His  subjects  were  impa- 
SSSJ0,  tient  of  the  long  continuance  of  his  life  and  reign : 
Nov.  14.  ye£  arj  wh0  were  capable  of  reflection  apprehended 
the  moment  of  his  death,  which  might  involve  the  capital  in 
tumult  and  the  empire  in  civil  war.  Seven  nephews1  of  the 
childless  monarch,  the  sons  or  grandsons  of  his  brother  and 
sister,  had  been  educated  in  the  splendor  of  a  princely  fort- 
une ;  they  had  been  shown  in  high  commands  to  the  prov- 
inces and  armies ;  their  characters  were  known,  their  follow- 
ers were  zealous,  and,  as  the  jealousy  of  age  postponed  the 
declaration  of  a  successor,  they  might  expect  with  equal  hopes 
the  inheritance  of  their  uncle.  He  expired  in  his  palace,  af- 
ter a  reign  of  thirty-eight  years ;  and  the  decisive  opportunity 
was  embraced  by  the  friends  of  Justin,  the  son  of  Yigilantia.2 
At  the  hour  of  midnight  his  domestics  were  awakened  by  an 
importunate  crowd,  who  thundered  at  his  door,  and  obtained 
admittance  by  revealing  themselves  to  be  the  principal  mem- 


1  See  the  family  of  Justin  and  Justinian  in  the  Familiae  Byzantinse  of  Ducange, 
p.  89-101.  The  devout  civilians,  Ludewig  (in  Vit.  Justinian,  p.  131)  and  Heinec- 
cius  (Hist.  Juris  Roman,  p.  374)  have  since  illustrated  the  genealogy  of  their  fa- 
vorite prince. 

9  In  the  story  of  Justin's  elevation  I  have  translated  into  simple  and  concise 
prose  the  eight  hundred  verses  of  the  two  first  books  of  Corippus,  De  Laudibus 
Justini,  Appendix  Hist.  Byzaut.  p.  401-416,  Rome,  1777  [p.  166-187,  edit.  Bonn]. 


520  EEIGN  OF  JUSTIN  H  [Cil  XLV, 

bers  of  the  senate.  These  welcome  deputies  announced  the 
recent  and  momentous  secret  of  the  emperor's  decease;  re- 
ported, or  perhaps  invented,  his  dying  choice  of  the  best  be- 
loved and  most  deserving  of  his  nephews ;  and  conjured  Jus- 
tin to  prevent  the  disorders  of  the  multitude,  if  they  should 
perceive,  with  the  return  of  light,  that  they  were  left  without 
a  master.  After  composing  his  countenance  to  surprise,  sor- 
row, and  decent  modesty,  Justin,  by  the  advice  of  his  wife 
Sophia,  submitted  to  the  authority  of  the  senate.  He  was 
conducted  with  speed  and  silence  to  the  palace ;  the  guards 
saluted  their  new  sovereign ;  and  the  martial  and  religious 
rites  of  his  coronation  were  diligently  accomplished.  By  the 
hands  of  the  proper  officers  he  was  invested  with  the  impe- 
rial garments,  the  red  buskins,  white  tunic,  and  purple  robe. 
A  fortunate  soldier,  whom  he  instantly  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  tribune,  encircled  his  neck  with  a  military  collar ;  four  ro- 
bust youths  exalted  him  on  a  shield ;  he  stood  firm  and  erect 
to  receive  the  adoration  of  his  subjects ;  and  their  choice  was 
sanctified  by  the  benediction  of  the  patriarch,  who  imposed 
the  diadem  on  the  head  of  an  orthodox  prince, 
tin  n.,  or  the   The  hippodrome  was  already  filled  with  innumer- 

Tounger.  T  •       i  t 

a.i). 565,         able  multitudes;  and  no  sooner  did  the  emperor 
Nov.  15-  .       '  .  -    ,      , , 

a.d.574,         appear  on  his  throne  than  the  voices  of  the  blue 

December.  *  L  . 

and  the  green  tactions  were  confounded  in  the 
same  loyal  acclamations.  In  the  speeches  which  Justin  ad- 
dressed to  the  senate  and  people  he  promised  to  correct  the 
abuses  which  had  disgraced  the  age  of  his  predecessor,  dis- 
played the  maxims  of  a  just  and  beneficent  government,  and 
declared  that,  on  the   approaching  calends  of  January,8  he 

8  It  is  surprising  how  Pagi  (Critica,  in  Annal.  Baron,  torn.  ii.  p.  639)  could  ba 
tempted  by  any  chronicles  to  contradict  the  plain  and  decisive  text  of  Corippus 
("vicina  dona,"  1.  ii.  354;  "vicina  dies,"  1.  iv.  1),  and  to  postpone  till  a.d. 567 
the  consulship  of  Justin.* 


*  Gibbon  justly  censures  Pagi  for  placing  the  consulship  at  the  second  year  of 
Justin,  but  he  has  not  adverted  to  the  true  point  of  the  difficulty.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Justin's  consulship  immediately  followed  his  accession,  but  the  acces- 
sion was  placed  by  some  authors  (as  by  Marius  and  Victor)  in  566,  and  this  was 
the  fRuse  of  assigning  the  consulship  to  567.  The  accession  is  rightly  placed  bf 
Gibbon  in  565.     Clinton,  Fasti  Komani,  vol.  i.  p.  822.— S. 


A.D.566.]  EMBASSY  OF  THE  AVAES.  521 

would  revive  in  his  own  person  the  name  and  liberality  of  a 
His  con-  lioinan  consul.  The  immediate  discharge  of  his 
SK',  uncle's  debts  exhibited  a  solid  pledge  of  his  faith 
January  1.  an(j  generosity :  a  train  of  porters,  laden  with  bags 
of  gold,  advanced  into  the  midst  of  the  hippodrome,  and 
the  hopeless  creditors  of  Justinian  accepted  this  equitable 
payment  as  a  voluntary  gift.  Before  the  end  of  three  years 
his  example  was  imitated  and  surpassed  by  the  Empress  So- 
phia, who  delivered  many  indigent  citizens  from  the  weight 
of  debt  and  usury :  an  act  of  benevolence  the  best  entitled  to 
gratitude,  since  it  relieves  the  most  intolerable  distress ;  but 
in  which  the  bounty  of  a  prince  is  the  most  liable  to  be  abused 
by  the  claims  of  prodigality  and  fraud.4 

On  the  seventh  day  of  his  reign  Justin  gave  audienee  to 

the  ambassadors  of  the  Avars,  and  the  scene  was  decorated  to 

impress  the  barbarians  with  astonishment,  venera- 

Embassy  of         ,    A  '  7 

the  Avars.  tion,  and  terror,  it  rom  the  palace  gate,  the  spa- 
A.D.566.  .      '  .    r  ,.       t        .  , 

cious  courts  and  long  porticoes  were  lined  with 

the  lofty  crests  and  gilt  bucklers  of  the  guards,  who  presented 
their  spears  and  axes  with  more  confidence  than  they  would 
have  shown  in  a  field  of  battle.  The  officers  who  exercised 
the  power,  or  attended  the  person,  of  the  prince,  were  attired 
in  their  richest  habits,  and  arranged  according  to  the  military 
and  civil  order  of  the  hierarchy.  When  the  veil  of  the  sanct- 
uary was  withdrawn,  the  ambassadors  beheld  the  Emperor  of 
the  East  on  his  throne,  beneath  a  canopy,  or  dome,  which  was 
supported  by  four  columns,  and  crowned  with  a  winged  fig- 
ure of  Victory.  In  the  first  emotions  of  surprise,  they  sub- 
mitted to  the  servile  adoration  of  the  Byzantine  court ;  but, 
as  soon  as  they  rose  from  the  ground,  Targetius,  the  chief  of 
the  embassy,  expressed  the  freedom  and  pride  of  a  barbarian. 
He  extolled,^y  the  tongue  of  his  interpreter,  the  greatness 
of  the  chagah,  by  whose  clemency  the  kingdoms  of  the  South 
were  permitted  to  exist,  whose  victorious  subjects  had  trav- 
ersed the  frozen  rivers  of  Seythia,  and  who  now  covered  the 


4  Theophan.  Chronograph,  p.  205  [torn.  i.  p.  374,  edit.  Bonn].      Whenever  Ce« 
drenus  or  Zonaras  are  mere  transcribers,  it  is  superfluous  to  allege  their  testimony. 


522  EMBASSY  OF  THE  AVAKS.  [Ch.  XLV. 

banks  of  the  Danube  with  innumerable  tents.  The  late  em< 
peror  had  cultivated,  with  annual  and  costly  gifts,  the  friend- 
ship of  a  grateful  monarch,  and  the  enemies  of  Rome  had  re- 
spected the  allies  of  the  Avars.  The  same  prudence  would 
instruct  the  nephew  of  Justinian  to  imitate  the  liberality  of 
his  uncle,  and  to  purchase  the  blessings  of  peace  from  an  in- 
vincible people,  who  delighted  and  excelled  in  the  exercise 
of  war.  The  reply  of  the  emperor  was  delivered  in  the  same 
strain  of  haughty  defiance,  and  he  derived  his  confidence  from 
the  God  of  the  Christians,  the  ancient  glory  of  Rome,  and 
the  recent  triumphs  of  Justinian.  "  The  empire,"  said  he, 
"  abounds  with  men  and  horses,  and  arms  sufficient  to  defend 
our  frontiers  and  to  chastise  the  barbarians.  You  offer  aid, 
you  threaten  hostilities:  we  despise  your  enmity  and  your 
aid.  The  conquerors  of  the  Avars  solicit  our  alliance ;  shal} 
we  dread  their  fugitives  and  exiles?5  The  bounty  of  our 
uncle  was  granted  to  your  misery,  to  your  humble  prayers- 
From  ns  you  shall  receive  a  more  important  obligation,  the 
knowledge  of  your  own  weakness.  Retire  from  our  pres- 
ence ;  the  lives  of  ambassadors  are  safe ;  and,  if  you  return 
to  implore  our  pardon,  perhaps  you  will  taste  of  our  benevo- 
lence.'58 On  the  report  of  his  ambassadors,  the  chagan  was 
awed  by  the  apparent  firmness  of  a  Roman  emperor  of  whose 
character  and  resources  he  was  ignorant.  Instead  of  execut- 
ing his  threats  against  the  Eastern  empire,  he  marched  into 
the  poor  and  savage  countries  of  Germany,  which  were  sub- 

6  Corippus,  1.  iii.  390.  The  unquestionable  sense  relates  to  the  Turks,  the  con- 
querors of  the  Avars ;  but  the  word  scultor  has  no  apparent  meaning,  and  the  sole 
MS.  of  Corippus,  from  whence  the  first  edition  (1581,  apud  Plantin)  was  printed, 
is  no  longer  visible.  The  last  editor,  Foggini  of  Rome,  has  inserted  the  conject- 
ural emendation  of  soldan ;  but  the  proofs  of  Ducange  (Joinville,  Dissert,  xvi.  p. 
238-240),  for  the  early  use  of  this  title  among  the  Turks  and  Persians,  are  weak 
or  ambiguous.  And  I  must  incline  to  the  authority  of  D'Herbelot  (Bibliotheque 
Orient,  p.  825),  who  ascribes  the  word  to  the  Arabic  and  Chaldaean  tongues,  and 
the  date  to  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  when  it  was  bestowed  by  the 
Caliph  of  Bagdad  on  Mahmud,  Prince  of  Gazna,  and  conqueror  of  India. 

a  For  these  characteristic  speeches,  compare  the  verse  of  Corippus  (1.  iii.  266- 
401)  with  the  prose  of  Menander  (Excerpt.  Legation,  p.  102,  103  [edit.  Par.  ; 
p.  287  seq.,edit.  Bonn]).  Their  diversity  proves  that  they  did  not  copy  each 
other ;  their  resemblance,  that  they  drew  from  a  common  original. 


a.d.566.]  ALBOIN,  KING  OF  TOE  LOMBARDS.  523 

ject  to  the  dominion  of  the  Franks.  After  two  doubtful  bat- 
tles he  consented  to  retire,  and  the  Austrasian  king  relieved 
the  distress  of  his  camp  with  an  immediate  supply  of  corn 
and  cattle.7  Such  repeated  disappointments  had  chilled  the 
spirit  of  the  Avars,  and  their  power  would  have  dissolved 
away  in  the  Sarmatian  desert,  if  the  alliance  of  Alboin,  king 
of  the  Lombards,  had  not  given  a  new  object  to  their  arms, 
and  a  lasting  settlement  to  their  wearied  fortunes. 

While  Alboin  served  under  his  father's  standard,  he  en- 
countered in  battle,  and  transpierced  with  his  lance,  the  rival 

prince  of  the  Gepidoe.  The  Lombards,  who  ap- 
of  the  tom-  plauded  such  early  prowess,  requested  his  father, 
valor,  love,      with  unanimous  acclamations,  that  the  heroic  youth, 

who  had  shared  the  dangers  of  the  field,  might  be 
admitted  to  the  feast  of  victory.  "  You  are  not  unmindful," 
replied  the  inflexible  Audoin,  "  of  the  wise  customs  of  our 
ancestors.  "Whatever  may  be  his  merit,  a  prince  is  incapable 
of  sitting  at  table  with  his  father  till  he  has  received  his  arms 
from  a  foreign  and  royal  hand."  Alboin  bowed  with  rever- 
ence to  the  institutions  of  his  country,  selected  forty  compan- 
ions, and  boldly  visited  the  court  of  Turisund,  king  of  the 
Gepidse,  who  embraced  and  entertained,  according  to  the  laws 
of  hospitality,  the  murderer  of  his  son.  At  the  banquet, 
whilst  Alboin  occupied  the  seat  of  the  youth  whom  he  had 
slain,  a  tender  remembrance  arose  in  the  mind  of  Turisund. 
"  How  dear  is  that  place — how  hateful  is  that  person  !"  were 
the  words  that  escaped,  with  a  sigh,  from  the  indignant  father. 
His  grief  exasperated  the  national  resentment  of  the  Gepidse ; 
and  Cunimund,  his  surviving  son,  was  provoked  by  wine,  or 
fraternal  affection,  to  the  desire  of  vengeance.  "  The  Lom- 
bards," said  the  rude  barbarian,  "  resemble,  in  figure  and  in 
smell,  the  mares  of  our  Sarmatian  plains."  And  this  insult 
was  a  coarse  allusion  to  the  white  bands  which  enveloped 
their  legs.  "Add  another  resemblance,"  replied  an  audacious 
Lombard ;  "  you  have  felt  how  strongly  they  kick.     Yisit  the 

'  For  the  Austrasian  war,  see  Menander  (Excerpt.  Legat,  p.  110  [c.  11,  p.  303, 
edit.  Bonn]),  Gregory  of  Tours  (Hist.  Franc.  1.  iv.  ch.  29),  and  Paul  the  Deacon 
(De  Gest.  Langobard.  1.  ii.  c.  10). 


524  ALBOIN,  KING  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  [Ch.  XLT. 

plain  of  Asfeld,  and  seek  for  the  bones  of  thy  brother :  they 
are  mingled  with  those  of  the  vilest  animals."  The  Gepidse, 
a  nation  of  warriors,  started  from  their  seats,  and  the  fearless 
Alboin,  with  his  forty  companions,  laid  their  hands  on  their 
swords.  The  tumult  was  appeased  by  the  venerable  interpo- 
sition of  Turisund.  He  sav«d  his  own  honor,  and  the  life  of 
his  guest ;  and,  after  the  solemn  rites  of  investiture,  dismissed 
the  stranger  in  the  bloody  arms  of  his  son,  the  gift  of  a  weep- 
ing parent.  Alboin  returned  in  triumph ;  and  the  Lombards, 
who  celebrated  his  matchless  intrepidity,  were  compelled. to 
praise  the  virtues  of  an  enemy.8  In  this  extraordinary  visit 
he  had  probably  seen  the  daughter  of  Cunimund,  who  soon 
after  ascended  the  throne  of  the  Gepidse.  Her  name  was 
Rosamond,  an  appellation  expressive  of  female  beauty,  and 
which  our  own  history  or  romance  has  consecrated  to  amorous 
tales.  The  king  of  the  Lombards  (the  father  of  Alboin  no 
longer  lived)  was  contracted  to  the  granddaughter  of  Clovis ; 
but  the  restraints  of  faith  and  policy  soon  yielded  to  the  hope 
of  possessing  the  fair  Rosamond,  and  of  insulting  her  family 
and  nation.  The  arts  of  persuasion  were  tried  without  suc- 
cess ;  and  the  impatient  lover,  by  force  and  stratagem,  ob- 
tained the  object  of  his  desires.  War  was  the  consequence 
which  he  foresaw  and  solicited ;  but  the  Lombards  could  not 
long  withstand  the  furious  assault  of  the  Gepidse,  who  were 
sustained  by  a  Roman  army.  And,  as  the  offer  of  marriage 
was  rejected  with  contempt,  Alboin  was  compelled  to  relin- 
quish his  prey,  and  to  partake  of  the  disgrace  which  he  had 
inflicted  on  the  House  of  Cunimund.9 

When  a  public  quarrel  is  envenomed  by  private  injuries, 
a  blow  that  is  not  mortal  or  decisive  pan  be  productive  only 
of  a  short  truce,  which  allows  the  unsuccessful  combatant  to 
sharpen  his  arms  for  a  new  encounter.     The  strength  of  Al- 

8  Paul  Wamefrid,  the  Deacon  of  Friuli,  De  Gest.  Langobard.  1.  i.  c.  23,  24. 
His  pictures  of  national  manners,  though  rudely  sketched,  are  more  lively  and 
faithful  than  those  of  Bede  or  Gregory  of  Tours. 

9  The  story  is  told  by  an  impostor  (Theophylact.  Simocat.  1.  vi.  c„  10  [p.  261, 
edit.  Bonn})  j  but  he  had  art  enough  to  build  his  fictions  on  public  and  notorious 
facts. 


AJJ.566.]  FALL  OF  THE  GEPHXffl.  525 

boin  had  been  found  unequal  to  the  gratification  of  his  love, 
The Lom-  ambition, and  revenge:  he  condescended  to  implore 
Avars  de-  *ne  formidable  aid  of  the  chagan ;  and  the  arguments 
king  and  tna^  ne  employed  are  expressive  of  the  art  and  pol- 
ffifiKuf  ic7  of  the  barbarians.  In  the  attack  of  the  Gepidse 
a.d.566.  ^g  j^  keen  prompted  by  the  just  desire  of  extir- 
pating a  people  whom  their  alliance  with  the  Koman  em- 
pire had  rendered  the  common  enemies  of  the  nations,  and 
the  personal  adversaries  of  the  chagan.  If  the  forces  of  the 
Avars  and  the  Lombards  should  unite  in  this  glorious  quar- 
rel, the  victory  was  secure,  and  the  reward  inestimable :  the 
Danube,  the  Hebrus,  Italy,  and  Constantinople  would  be  ex- 
posed, without  a  barrier,  to  their  invincible  arms.  But,  if 
they  hesitated  or  delayed  to  prevent  the  malice  of  the  Ro- 
mans, the  same  spirit  which  had  insulted  would  pursue  the 
Avars  to  the  extremity  of  the  earth.  These  specious  reasons 
were  heard  by  the  chagan  with  coldness  and  disdain  :  he  de- 
tained the  Lombard  ambassadors  in  his  camp,  protracted  the 
negotiation,  and  by  turns  alleged  his  want  of  inclination,  or 
his  want  of  ability,  to  undertake  this  important  enterprise. 
At  length  he  signified  the  ultimate  price  of  his  alliance,  that 
the  Lombards  should  immediately  present  him  with  the  tithe 
of  their  cattle ;  that  the  spoils  and  captives  should  be  equally 
divided ;  but  that  the  lands  of  the  Gepidse  should  become 
the  sole  patrimony  of  the  Avars.  Such  hard  conditions  were 
eagerly  accepted  by  the  passions  of  Alboin  ;  and,  as  the  Ro- 
mans were  dissatisfied  with  the  ingratitude  and  perfidy  of  the 
Gepidse,  Justin  abandoned  that  incorrigible  people  to  their 
fate,  and  remained  the  tranquil  spectator  of  this  unequal  con- 
flict. The  despair  of  Cunimund  was  active  and  dangerous. 
He  was  informed  that  the  Avars  had  entered  his  confines ; 
but,  on  the  strong  assurance  that  after  the  defeat  of  the  Lom- 
bards these  foreign  invaders  would  easily  be  repelled,  he  rush- 
ed forward  to  encounter  the  implacable  enemy  of  his  name 
and  family.  But  the  courage  of  the  Gepidss  could  secure 
them  no  more  than  an  honorable  death.  The  bravest  of  the 
nation  fell  in  the  field  of  battle :  the  king  of  the  Lombards 
contemplated  with  delight  the  head  of  Cunimund,  and  his 


526  ALBOIN  UNDERTAKES  [Ch.XLV. 

skull  was  fashioned  into  a  cup  to  satiate  the  hatred  of  the 
conqueror,  or  perhaps  to  comply  with  the  savage  custom  of 
his  country.10  After  this  victory  no  farther  obstacle  could 
impede  the  progress  of  the  confederates,  and  they  faithfully 
executed  the  terms  of  their  agreement.11  The  fair  countries 
of  Wallachia,  Moldavia,  Transylvania,  and  the  parts  of  Hun- 
gary beyond  the  Danube,  were  occupied  without  resistance 
by  a  new  colony  of  Scythians ;  and  the  Dacian  empire  of  the 
chagans  subsisted  with  splendor  above  two  hundred  and  thir- 
ty years.  The  nation  of  the  Gepidse  was  dissolved ;  but,  in 
the  distribution  of  the  captives,  the  slaves  of  the  Avars  were 
less  fortunate  than  the  companions  of  the  Lombards,  whose 
generosity  adopted  a  valiant  foe,  and  whose  freedom  was  in- 
compatible with  cool  and  deliberate  tyranny.  One  moiety  of 
the  spoil  introduced  into  the  camp  of  Alboin  more  wealth 
than  a  barbarian  could  readily  compute.  The  fair  Rosamond 
was  persuaded  or  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  rights  of  her 
victorious  lover ;  and  the  daughter  of  Cunimund  appeared  to 
forgive  those  crimes  which  might  be  imputed  to  her  own 
irresistible  charms. 

The  destruction  of  a  mighty  kingdom  established  the  fame 

of  Alboin.     In  the  days  of  Charlemagne  the  Ba- 

dertakesthe    vanans,  the  Saxons,  and  the  other  tribes  of  the 

conquest  of  .  .-n  i  . 

Italy.  leutonic  language,  still  repeated  the  songs  which 

described  the  heroic  virtues,  the  valor,  liberality, 

and  fortune  of  the  king  of  the  Lombards.12    But  his  ambition 

10  It  appears  from  Strabo  [1.  viL],  Pliny  [1.  vii.  c.  11],  and  Ammianus  MarceT- 
linus  [1.  xxvii.],  that  the  same  practice  was  common  among  the  Scythian  tribes 
(Muratori,  Scriptores  Rer.  Italic,  torn.  i.  p.  424).  The  scalps  of  North  America 
are  likewise  trophies  of  valor.  The  skull  of  Cunimund  was  preserved  above  two 
hundred  years  among  the  Lombards ;  and  Paul  himself  was  one  of  the  guests  to 
whom  Duke  Ratchis  exhibited  this  cup  on  a  high  festival  (1.  ii.  c.  28). 

11  Paul,  1.  i.  c.  27.  Menander,  in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  110,  111  [p.  303, 304,  edit. 
Bonn]o 

12  "  Ut  hactenus  etiam  tam  apud  Bajoariorum  gentem,  quam  et  Saxonum,  sed 
et  alios  ejusdem  linguas  homines  *  *  *  in  eorum  carminibus  celebretur  "  (Paul, 
1.  i.  c.  27).  He  died  a.d.  799  (Muratori,  in  Prasfat.  torn.  i.  p.  397).  These  Ger- 
man songs,  some  of  which  might  be  as  old  as  Tacitus  (De  Moribus  Germ.  c.  2), 
were  compiled  and  transcribed  by  Charlemagne.  "  Barbara  et  antiquissima  car- 
mina,  quibus  veterum  regum  actus  et  bella  canebantur  scripsit  memorieeque  man- 


a.d.567.]  THE  CONQUEST  OF  ITALY.  527 

was  yet  unsatisfied ;  and  the  conqueror  of  the  Gepidse  turn- 
ed his  eyes  from  the  Danube  to  the  richer  banks  of  the  Po 
and  the  Tiber.  Fifteen  years  had  not  elapsed  since  his  sub- 
jects, the  confederates  of  Narses,  had  visited  the  pleasant  cli- 
mate of  Italy  ;  the  mountains,  the  rivers,  the  highways,  were 
familiar  to  their  memory ;  the  report  of  their  success,  perhaps 
the  view  of  their  spoils,  had  kindled  in  the  rising  generation 
the  flame  of  emulation  and  enterprise.  Their  hopes  were  en- 
couraged by  the  spirit  and  eloquence  of  Alboin  ;  and  it  is  af- 
firmed that  he  spoke  to  their  senses  by  producing  at  the  royal 
feast  the  fairest  and  most  exquisite  fruits  that  grew  spontane- 
ously in  the  garden  of  the  world.  No  sooner  had  he  erected 
his  standard  than  the  native  strength  of  the  Lombards  was 
multiplied  by  the  adventurous  youth  of  Germany  and  Scythia. 
The  robust  peasantry  of  Noricum  and  Pannonia  had  resumed 
the  manners  of  barbarians ;  and  the  names  of  the  Gepidse, 
Bulgarians,  Sarmatians,  and  Bavarians  may  be  distinctly  traced 
in  the  provinces  of  Italy.13  Of  the  Saxons,  the  old  allies  of 
the  Lombards,  twenty  thousand  warriors,  with  their  wives  and 
children,  accepted  the  invitation  of  Alboin.  Their  bravery 
contributed  to  his  success ;  but  the  accession  or  the  absence  of 
their  numbers  was  not  sensibly  felt  in  the  magnitude  of  his 
host.  Every  mode  of  religion  was  freely  practised  by  its  re- 
spective votaries.  The  king  of  the  Lombards  had  been  edu- 
cated in  the  Arian  heresy,  but  the  Catholics  in  their  public 
worship  were  allowed  to  pray  for  his  conversion  ;  while  the 
more  stubborn  barbarians  sacrificed  a  she-goat,  or  perhaps  a 
captive,  to  the  gods  of  their  fathers.14  The  Lombards  and 
their  confederates  were  united  by  their  common  attachment 
to  a  chief  who  excelled  in  all  the  virtues  and  vices  of  a  sav- 

davit "  (Eginard,  in  Vit.  Carol.  Magn.  c.  29,  p.  130,  131).  The  poems,  which 
Goldast  commends  (Animadvers.  ad  Eginard.  p.  207),  appear  to  be  recent  and 
contemptible  romances. 

13  The  other  nations  are  rehearsed  by  Paul  (1.  ii.  c.  6,  26).  Muratori  (Anti- 
chita  Italiane,  torn.  i.  dissert,  i.  p.  4)  has  discovered  the  village  of  the  Bavarians, 
three  miles  from  Modena. 

14  Gregory  the  Koman  (Dialog.  1.  iii.  c.  27,  28,  apud  Baron.  Annal.  Eccles. 
a.d.  579,  No.  10)  supposes  that  they  likewise  adored  this  she-goat.  I  know  but 
of  one  religion  in  which  the  god  and  the  victim  are  the  same. 


528  DISAFFECTION  AND  DEATH  OF  NARSES.     [Ch,  XLV. 

age  hero ;  and  the  vigilance  of  Alboin,  provided  an  ample 
magazine  of  offensive  and  defensive  arms  for  the  use  of  the 
expedition.  The  portable  wealth  of  the  Lombards  attended 
the  march;  their  lands  they  cheerfully  relinquished  to  the 
Avars,  on  the  solemn  promise,  which  was  made  and  accepted 
without  a  smile,  that  if  they  failed  in  the  conquest  of  Italy 
these  voluntary  exiles  should  be  reinstated  in  their  former 
possessions. 

They  might  have  failed  if  Narses  had  been  the  antagonist 
of  the  Lombards ;  and  the  veteran  warriors,  the  associates  of 
.     „    .       his  Gothic  victory,  would  have  encountered  with 

Disaffection  \ 

and  death  of  reluctance  an  enemy  whom  they  dreaded  and  es- 
teemed. But  the  weakness  of  the  Byzantine  court 
was  subservient  to  the  barbarian  cause;  and  it  was  for  the 
ruin  of  Italy  that  the  emperor  once  listened  to  the  complaints 
of  his  subjects.  The  virtues  of  Narses  were  stained  with  av- 
arice ;  and  in  his  provincial  reign  of  fifteen  years  he  accumu- 
lated a  treasure  of  gold  and  silver  which  surpassed  the  mod- 
esty of  a  private  fortune.  His  government  was  oppressive 
or  unpopular,  and  the  general  discontent  was  expressed  with 
freedom  by  the  deputies  of  Eome.  Before  the  throne  of  Jus- 
tin they  boldly  declared  that  their  Gothic  servitude  had  been 
more  tolerable  than  the  despotism  of  a  Greek  eunuch ;  and 
that,  unless  their  tyrant  were  instantly  removed,  they  would 
consult  their  own  happiness  in  the  choice  of  a  master.  The 
apprehension  of  a  revolt  was  urged  by  the  voice  of  envy  and 
detraction,  which  had  so  recently  triumphed  over  the  merit 
of  Belisarius.  A  new  exarch,  Longinus,  was  appointed  to  su- 
persede the  conqueror  of  Italy ;  and  the  base  motives  of  his 
recall  were  revealed  in  the  insulting  mandate  of  the  Empress 
Sophia, "  that  he  should  leave  to  men  the  exercise  of  arms, 
and  return  to  his  proper  station  among  the  maidens  of  the 
palace,  where  a  distaff  should  be  again  placed  in  the  hand  of 
the  eunuch."  "  I  will  spin  her  such  a  thread  as  she  shall  not 
easily  unravel !"  is  said  to  have  been  the  reply  which  indig- 
nation and  conscious  virtue  extorted  from  the  hero.  Instead 
of  attending,  a  slave  and  a  victim,  at  the  gate  of  the  Byzan- 
tine palace,  he  retired  to  Naples,  from  whence  (if  any  credit 


A.D.  5G6-570.]    CONQUESTS  OF  THE  LOMBAKDS  IN  ITALY.         529 

is  due  to  the  belief  of  the  times)  Narses  invited  the  Lombards 
to  chastise  the  ingratitude  of  the  prince  and  people.1*  But 
the  passions  of  the  people  are  furious  and  changeable,  and  the 
Romans  soon  recollected  the  merits,  or  dreaded  the  resent- 
ment, of  their  victorious  general.  By  the  mediation  of  the 
pope,  who  undertook  a  special  pilgrimage  to  Naples,  their  re- 
pentance was  accepted ;  and  Narses,  assuming  a  milder  aspect 
and  a  more  dutiful  language,  consented  to  fix  his  residence  in 
the  Capitol.  His  death,16  though  in  the  extreme  period  of  old 
age,  was  unseasonable  and  premature,  since  his  genius  alone 
could  have  repaired  the  last  and  fatal  error  of  his  life.  The 
reality,  or  the  suspicion,  of  a  conspiracy  disarmed  and  dis- 
united the  Italians.  The  soldiers  resented  the  disgrace,  and 
bewailed  the  loss,  of  their  general.  They  were  ignorant  of 
their  new  exarch ;  and  Longinus  was  himself  ignorant  of  the 
state  of  the  army  and  the  province.  In  the  preceding  years 
Italy  had  been  desolated  by  pestilence  and  famine,  and  a  dis- 
affected people  ascribed  the  calamities  of  nature  to  the  guilt 
or  folly  of  their  rulers.17 

Whatever  might  be  the  grounds  of  his  security,  Alboin 
„    neither  expected  nor  encountered  a  Roman  army  in 

Conquest  of  a  _ 

great  part  of   the  field.     He  ascended  the  Julian  Alps,  and  look- 

Italy  by  the  .  r  ■ '  . 

Lombards.      ed  down  with  contempt  and  desire  on  the  fruitful 

a.d.  568-5T0.  ,.,,.. 

plains  to  which  his  victory  communicated  the  per- 
petual appellation  of  Lombaedt.     A  faithful  chieftain  and  a 

16  The  charge  of  the  deacon  against  Narses  (1.  ii.  c.  5)  may  be  groundless ;  but 
the  weak  apology  of  the  cardinal  (Baron.  Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  567,  No.  8-12)  is 
rejected  by  the  best  critics — Pagi  (torn.  ii.  p.  639,  640),  Muratori  (Annali  d'ltalia, 
torn.  v.  p.  160-163),  and  the  last  editors,  Horatius  Blancus  (Script.  Kerum  Italic, 
torn.  i.  p.  427,  428)  and  Philip  Argelatus  (Sigon.  Opera,  torn.  ii.  p.  11,  12).  The 
Narses  who  assisted  at  the  coronation  of  Justin  (Corippus,  1.  iii.  221)  is  clearly 
understood  to  be  a  different  person. 

16  The  death  of  Narses  is  meutioned  by  Paul,  1.  ii.  c.  11.  Anastas.  in  Vit. 
Johan.  iii.  p.  43.  Agnellus,  Liber  Pontifical.  Eaven.  [c.  3  fin.]  in  Script.  Ker. 
Itahcarum,  torn.  ii.  part  i.  p.  114, 124.  Yet  I  cannot  believe  with  Agnellus  that 
Narses  was  ninety-five  years  of  age.  Is  it  probable  that  all  his  exploits  were 
performed  at  fourscore  ? 

11  The  designs  of  Narses  and  of  the  Lombards  for  the  invasion  of  Italy  are  ex- 
posed in  the  last  chapter  of  the  first  book,  and  the  seven  first  chapters  of  the  sec- 
ond book,  of  Paul  the  Deacon. 

IV.— 34 


530  CONQUESTS  OF  THE  LOMBARDS  IN  ITALY.    [Ch.  XLY. 

select  band  were  stationed  at  Forum  Julii,  the  modern  Fri« 
uli,  to  guard  the  passes  of  the  mountains.  The  Lombards  re- 
spected the  strength  of  Pavia,  and  listened  to  the  prayers  of 
the  Trevisans :  their  slow  and  heavy  multitudes  proceeded  to 
occupy  the  palace  and  city  of  Verona ;  and  Milan,  now  rising 
from  her  ashes,  was  invested  by  the  powers  of  Alboin  five 
months  after  his  departure  from  Pannonia.  Terror  preceded 
his  march :  he  found  everywhere,  or  he  left,  a  dreary  solitude ; 
and  the  pusillanimous  Italians  presumed,  without  a  trial,  that 
the  stranger  was  invincible.  Escaping  to  lakes,  or  rocks,  or 
morasses,  the  affrighted  crowds  concealed  some  fragments  of 
their  wealth,  and  delayed  the  moment  of  their  servitude. 
Paulinus,  the  patriarch  of  Aquileia,  removed  his  treasures, 
sacred  and  profane,  to  the  Isle  of  Grado,18  and  his  successors 
were  adopted  by  the  infant  republic  of  Venice,  which  was 
continually  enriched  by  the  public  calamities.  Honoratus, 
who  filled  the  chair  of  St.  Ambrose,  had  credulously  accept- 
ed the  faithless  offers  of  a  capitulation ;  and  the  archbishop, 
with  the  clergy  and  nobles  of  Milan,  were  driven  by  the  per- 
fidy of  Alboin  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  less  accessible  ramparts 
of  Genoa.  Along  the  maritime  coast  the  courage  of  the  in- 
habitants was  supported  by  the  facility  of  supply,  the  hopes 
of  relief,  and  the  power  of  escape ;  but,  from  the  Trentine 
hills  to  the  gates  of  Eavenna  and  Eome,  the  inland  regions  of 
Italy  became,  without  a  battle  or  a  siege,  the  lasting  patrimony 
of  the  Lombards.  The  submission  of  the  people  invited  the 
barbarian  to  assume  the  character  of  a  lawful  sovereign,  and 
the  helpless  exarch  was  confined  to  the  office  of  announcing 
to  the  Emperor  Justin  the  rapid  and  irretrievable  loss  of  his 
provinces  and  cities.19     One  city,  which  had  been  diligently 

18  Which  from  this  translation  was  called  New  Aquileia  (Chron.  Venet.  p.  3). 
The  patriarch  of  Grado  soon  became  the  first  citizen  of  the  republic  (p.  9,  etc.), 
but  his  seat  was  not  removed  to  Venice  till  the  year  1450.  He  is  now  decorated 
with  titles  and  honors ;  but  the  genius  of  the  Church  has  bowed  to  that  of  the 
State,  and  the  government  of  a  Catholic  city  is  strictly  Presbyterian.  Thomas- 
sin,  Discipline  de  1'Eglise,  torn.  i.  p.  156, 157,  161-165.  Amelot  de  la  Honssaye, 
Gouvernement  de  Venise,  torn.  i.  p.  256-261. 

19  Paul  has  given  a  description  of  Italy,  as  it  was  then  divided,  into  eighteen 
regions  (1.  ii.  c.  14-24).     The  Dissertatio  Chorographica  de  Italia  Medii  Mvi,  b] 


a.d.  573.]  MURDER  OF  ALBOIN.  531 

fortified  by  the  Goths,  resisted  the  arms  of  a  new  invader ; 
and,  while  Italy  was  subdued  by  the  flying  detachments  of  the 
Lombards,  the  royal  camp  was  fixed  above  three  years  before 
the  western  gate  of  Ticinum,  or  Pavia.  The  same  courage 
which  obtains  the  esteem  of  a  civilized  enemy  provokes  the 
fury  of  a  savage ;  and  the  impatient  besieger  had  bound  him- 
self by  a  tremendous  oath  that  age,  and  sex,  and  dignity  should 
be  confounded  in  a  general  massacre.  The  aid  of  famine  at 
length  enabled  him  to  execute  his  bloody  vow ;  but  as  Al- 
boin  entered  the  gate  his  horse  stumbled,  fell,  and  could  not  be 
raised  from  the  ground.  One  of  his  attendants  was  prompted 
by  compassion,  or  piety,  to  interpret  this  miraculous  sign  of 
the  wrath  of  Heaven :  the  conqueror  paused  and  relented ;  he 
sheathed  his  sword,  and,  peacefully  reposing  himself  in  the 
palace  of  Theodoric,  proclaimed  to  the  trembling  multitude 
that  they  should  live  and  obey.  Delighted  with  the  situation 
of  a  city  which  was  endeared  to  his  pride  by  the  difficulty  of 
the  purchase,  the  prince  of  the  Lombards  disdained  the  an- 
cient glories  of  Milan ;  and  Pavia  during  some  ages  was  re- 
spected as  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy.20 

The  reign  of  the  founder  was  splendid  and  transient ;  and, 
before  he  could  regulate  his  new  conquests,  Alboin  fell  a  sac- 
Aiboin  is  rifice  to  domestic  treason  and  female  revenge.  In 
by  wb  wife  a  palace  near  Yerona,  which  had  not  been  erected 
r.»sa5T3°nd"  f°r  tne  barbarians,  he  feasted  the  companions  of  his 
June  28.  arms ;  intoxication  was  the  reward  of  valor,  and  the 
king  himself  was  tempted  by  appetite  or  vanity  to  exceed  the 
ordinary  measure  of  his  intemperance.  After  draining  many 
capacious  bowls  of  Khsetian  or  Falernian  wine  he  called  for 
the  skull  of  Cunimund,  the  noblest  and  most  precious  orna- 
ment of  his  sideboard.  The  cup  of  victory  was  accepted  with 
horrid  applause  by  the  circle  of  the  Lombard  chiefs.     "  Fill 


Father  Beretti,  a  Benedictine  monk,  and  regius  professor  at  Pavia,  has  been  use- 
fully consulted. 

30  For  the  conquest  of  Italy,  see  the  original  materials  of  Paul  (1.  ii.  c.  7-10, 12, 
14,  25,  2G,  27),  the  eloquent  narrative  of  Sigonius  (torn.  ii.  De  Regno  Italise,  1.  i. 
p.  13-19),  and  the  correct  and  critical  review  of  Muratori  (Annali  d'ltalia,  torn,  v 
p.  164-180). 


532  MURDER  OF  ALBOIN.  [Ch.XLV. 

it  again  with  wine  V  exclaimed  the  inhuman  conqueror ;  "  fill 
it  to  the  brim !  carry  this  goblet  to  the  queen,  and  request  in 
my  name  that  she  would  rejoice  with  her  father."  In  an  ag- 
ony of  grief  and  rage,  Kosamond  had  strength  to  utter,  "  Let 
the  will  of  my  lord  be  obeyed  1"  and,  touching  it  with  her 
lips,  pronounced  a  silent  imprecation  that  the  insult  should 
be  washed  away  in  the  blood  of  Alboin.  Some  indulgence 
might  be  due  to  the  resentment  of  a  daughter,  if  she  had  not 
already  violated  the  duties  of  a  wife.  Implacable  in  her  en- 
mity, or  inconstant  in  her  love,  the  Queen  of  Italy  had  stoop- 
ed from  the  throne  to  the  arms  of  a  subject,  and  Helmichis, 
the  king's  armor-bearer,  was  the  secret  minister  of  her  pleas- 
ure and  revenge.  Against  the  proposal  of  the  murder  he 
could  no  longer  urge  the  scruples  of  fidelity  or  gratitude ; 
but  Helmichis  trembled  when  he  revolved  the  danger  as  well 
as  the  guilt,  when  he  recollected  the  matchless  strength  and 
intrepidity  of  a  warrior  whom  he  had  so  often  attended  in 
the  field  of  battle.  He  pressed,  and  obtained,  that  one  of  the 
bravest  champions  of  the  Lombards  should  be  associated  to 
the  enterprise ;  but  no  more  than  a  promise  of  secrecy  could 
be  drawn  from  the  gallant  Peredens,  and  the  mode  of  seduc- 
tion employed  by  Bosainond  betrays  her  shameless  insensibil- 
ity both  to  honor  and  love.  She  supplied  the  place  of  one  of 
her  female  attendants  who  was  beloved  by  Peredeus,  and  con- 
trived some  excuse  for  darkness  and  silence  till  she  could  in- 
form her  companion  that  he  had  enjoyed  the  queen  of  the 
Lombards,  and  that  his  own  death  or  the  death  of  Alboin 
must  be  the  consequence  of  such  treasonable  adultery.  In 
this  alternative  he  chose  rather  to  be  the  accomplice  than  the 
victim  of  Rosamond,91  whose  undaunted  spirit  was  incapable 
of  fear  or  remorse.  She  expected  and  soon  found  a  favora- 
ble moment,  when  the  king,  oppressed  with  wine,  had  retired 
from  the  table  to  his  afternoon  slumbers.    His  faithless  spouse 

21  The  classical  reader  will  recollect  the  wife  and  murder  of  Candaules,  so  agree- 
ably told  in  the  first  book  of  Herodotus  [c.  8  seq.].  The  choice  of  Gyges,  aipitrai 
avng  TTsputvat,  may  serve  as  the  excuse  of  Peredeus ;  and  this  soft  insinuation 
of  an  odious  idea  has  been  imitated  by  the  best  writers  of  antiquity  (Grajvius,  ad 
Ciceron.  Orat.  pro  Milone,  c.  10). 


ALBION,  THE   LOMBARD   KING,  COMPELS  ROSAMOND  TO 
DRINK  TO  HIS  HEALTH  Page  532 

from  the  skull  of  her  murdered  father  Cunimund 
Gibbons  Rome,  Vol.  IV.  Drawing  by  A.  Zick 


A.D.  573.]  FLIGHT  AND  DEATH  OF  ROSAMOND.  533 

was  anxious  for  his  health  and  repose ;  the  gates  of  the  palace 
were  shut,  the  arms  removed,  the  attendants  dismissed,  and 
Rosamond,  after  lulling  him  to  rest  by  her  tender  caresses, 
unbolted  the  chamber-door  and  urged  the  reluctant  conspira- 
tors to  the  instant  execution  of  the  deed.  On  the  first  alarm 
the  warrior  started  from  his  couch :  his  sword,  which  he  at- 
tempted to  draw,  had  been  fastened  to  the  scabbard  by  the 
hand  of  Rosamond ;  and  a  small  stool,  his  only  weapon,  could 
not  long  protect  him  from  the  spears  of  the  assassins.  The 
daughter  of  Cunimund  smiled  in  his  fall :  his  body  was  bur- 
ied under  the  staircase  of  the  palace ;  and  the  grateful  poster- 
ity of  the  Lombards  revered  the  tomb  and  the  memory  of 
their  victorious  leader. 

The  ambitious  Rosamond  aspired  to  reign  in  the  name  of 
her  lover ;  the  city  and  palace  of  Verona  were  awed  by  her 
Her  flight  power ;  and  a  faithful  band  of  her  native  Gepidae 
and  death.  wag  prepared  to  applaud  the  revenge  and  to  second 
the  wishes  of  their  sovereign.  But  the  Lombard  chiefs,  who 
fled  in  the  first  moments  of  consternation  and  disorder,  had 
resumed  their  courage  and  collected  their  powers;  and  the 
nation,  instead  of  submitting  to  her  reign,  demanded  with 
unanimous  cries  that  justice  should  be  executed  on  the  guilty 
spouse  and  the  murderers  of  their  king.  She  sought  a  refuge 
among  the  enemies  of  her  country,  and  a  criminal  who  de- 
served the  abhorrence  of  mankind  was  protected  by  the  self- 
ish policy  of  the  exarch.  With  her  daughter,  the  heiress  of 
the  Lombard  throne,  her  two  lovers,  her  trusty  Gepidse,  and 
the  spoils  of  the  palace  of  Yerona,  Rosamond  descended  the 
Adige  and  the  Po,  and  was  transported  by  a  Greek  vessel  to 
the  safe  harbor  of  Ravenna.  Longinus  beheld  with  delight 
the  charms  and  the  treasures  of  the  widow  of  Alboin:  her 
situation  and  her  past  conduct  might  justify  the  most  licen- 
tious proposals,  and  she  readily  listened  to  the  passion  of  a 
minister  who,  even  in  the  decline  of  the  empire,  was  respect- 
ed as  the  equal  of  kings.  The  death  of  a  jealous  lover  was 
an  easy  and  grateful  sacrifice,  and  as  Helmichis  issued  from 
the  bath  he  received  the  deadly  potion  from  the  hand  of  his 
mistress.    The  taste  of  the  liquor,  its  speedy  operation,  and 


534  CLEPHO,  KING  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  [CH.XLY4 

his  experience  of  the  character  of  Rosamondj  convinced  him 
that  he  was  poisoned  ;  he  pointed  his  dagger  to  her  breast, 
compelled  her  to  drain  the  remainder  of  the  cup,  and  ex- 
pired in  a  few  minutes  with  the  consolation  that  she  could  not 
survive  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  her  wickedness.  The  daugh- 
ter of  Alboin  and  Rosamond,  with  the  richest  spoils  of  the 
Lombards,  was  embarked  for  Constantinople :  the  surprising 
strength  of  Peredeus  amused  and  terrified  the  imperial  court;a 
his  blindness  and  revenge  exhibited  an  imperfect  copy  of  the 
adventures  of  Samson.  By  the  free  suffrage  of  the  nation  in 
ho  the  assembly  of  Pavia,  Clepho,  one  of  their  noblest 

fcmgof'the      chiefs,  was  elected  as  the  successor  of  Alboin.    Be- 
a.d.5T3,  '      fore  the  end  of  eighteen  months  the  throne  was 


polluted  by  a  second  murder:  Clepho  was  stabbed 
by  the  hand  of  a  domestic;  the  regal  office  was  suspended 
above  ten  years  during  the  minority  of  his  son  Autharis,  and 
Italy  was  divided  and  oppressed  by  a  ducal  aristocracy  of 
thirty  tyrants." 

When  the  nephew  of  Justinian  ascended  the  throne,  he 
proclaimed  a  new  era  of  happiness  and  glory.     The  annals 

of  the  second  Justin33  are  marked  with  disgrace 
of  the  Em-      abroad  and  misery  at  home.    In  the  West  the  Ro- 

peror  Justin.  .  m.   .     -i  i        ,-,       i  P  -r     -,         , 

man  empire  was  afflicted  by  the  loss  of  Italy,  the 
desolation  of  Africa,  and  the  conquests  of  the  Persians.  In- 
justice prevailed  both  in  the  capital  and  the  provinces :  the 
rich  trembled  for  their  property,  the  poor  for  their  safety ; 
the  ordinary  magistrates  were  ignorant  or  venal,  the  occasion- 
al remedies  appear  to  have  been  arbitrary  and  violent,  and 

52  See  the  history  of  Paul,  1.  ii.  c.  28-32.  I  have  borrowed  some  interesting 
circumstances  from  the  Liber  Pontificalis  of  Agnellus  [c.  4]  in  Script.  Rer.  Ital. 
torn.  ii.  p.  124.     Of  all  chronological  guides  Muratori  is  the  safest. 

23  The  original  authors  for  the  reign  of  Justin  the  younger  are  Evagrius,  Hist. 
Eccles.  1.  v.  c.  1-12 ;  Theophanes,  in  Chronograph,  p.  204-210  [torn.  i.  p.  373 
seq.,  edit.  Bonn];  Zonaras,  torn.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  10]  p.  70-72;  Cedrenus,  in  Com- 
pend.  p.  388-392  [torn.  i.  p.  680-688,  edit.  Bonn]. 


■  He  killed  a  lion.  His  eyes  were  put  out  by  the  timid  Justin.  Peredeus  re- 
questing an  interview,  Justin  substituted  two  Patricians,  whom  the  blinded  bar- 
barian stabbed  to  the  heart  with  two  concealed  daggers.  See  Le  Beau,  vol.  x. 
p.  99.— M. 


a.d.  573.]  WEAKNESS  OF  JUSTIN  II.  535 

the  complaints  of  the  people  could  no  longer  be  silenced  by 
the  splendid  names  of  a  legislator  and  a  conqueror.  The 
opinion  which  imputes  to  the  prince  all  the  calamities  of 
his  times  may  be  countenanced  by  the  historian  as  a  serious 
truth  or  a  salutary  prejudice.  Yet  a  candid  suspicion  will 
arise  that  the  sentiments  of  Justin  were  pure  and  benevolent, 
and  that  he  might  have  filled  his  station  without  reproach 
if  the  faculties  of  his  mind  had  not  been  impaired  by  disease, 
which  deprived  the  emperor  of  the  use  of  his  feet  and  con- 
fined him  to  the  palace,  a  stranger  to  the  complaints  of  the 
people  and  the  vices  of  the  government.  The  tardy  knowl- 
edge of  his  own  impotence  determined  him  to  lay  down  the 
weight  of  the  diadem,  and  in  the  choice  of  a  worthy  substi- 
tute he  showed  some  symptoms  of  a  discerning  and  even 
magnanimous  spirit.  The  only  son  of  Justin  and  Sophia 
died  in  his  infancy ;  their  daughter  Arabia  was  the  wife  of 
Baduarius/4  superintendent  of  the  palace,  and  afterwards 
commander  of  the  Italian  armies,  who  vainly  aspired  to  con- 
firm the  rights  of  marriage  by  those  of  adoption.  While  the 
empire  appeared  an  object  of  desire,  Justin  was  accustomed 
to  behold  with  jealousy  and  hatred  his  brothers  and  cousins, 
the  rivals  of  his  hopes ;  nor  could  he  depend  on  the  gratitude 
of  those  who  would  accept  the  purple  as  a  restitution  rather 
than  a  gift.  Of  these  competitors  one  had  been  removed  by 
exile,  and  afterwards  by  death ;  and  the  emperor  himself  had 
inflicted  such  cruel  insults  on  another,  that  he  must  either 
dread  his  resentment  or  despise  his  patience.  This  domestic 
animosity  was  refined  into  a  generous  resolution  of  seeking 
a  successor,  not  in  his  family,  but  in  the  republic ;  and  the 
artful  Sophia  recommended  Tiberius,"  his  faithful  captain  of 

54  Dispositor  que  novus  sacras  Baduarius  aula?. 

Successor  soceri  mox  factus  Cura-palati. — Corippus. 
Baduarius  is  enumerated  among  the  descendants  and  allies  of  the  House  of  Jus- 
tinian. A  family  of  noble  Venetians  (Casa  Badoero)  built  churches  and  gave 
dukes  to  the  republic  as  early  as  the  ninth  century ;  and,  if  their  descent  be  ad- 
mitted, no  kings  in  Europe  can  produce  a  pedigree  so  ancient  and  illustrious. 
Ducange,  Fam.  Byzantin.  p.  99.  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye,  Gouvernement  de  Ve- 
hise,  torn.  ii.  p.  555. 

26  The  praise  bestowed  on  princes  before  their  elevation  is  the  purest  and  most 


536  ASSOCIATION  OF  TIBERIUS.  [Ch.  XLV. 

the  guards,  whose  virtues  and  fortune  the  emperor  might 
Association  cherish  as  the  fruit  of  his  judicious  choice.  The 
I'dK™8,  ceremony  of  his  elevation  to  the  rank  of  Caesar  or 
December.  Augustus  was  performed  in  the  portico  of  the  pal- 
ace in  the  presence  of  the  patriarch  and  the  senate.  Justin 
collected  the  remaining  strength  of  his  mind  and  body ;  but 
the  popular  belief  that  his  speech  was  inspired  by  the  Deity 
betrays  a  very  humble  opinion  both  of  the  man  and  of  the 
times.29  "  You  behold,"  said  the  emperor,  "  the  ensigns  of 
eupreme  power.  You  are  about  to  receive  them,  not  from 
my  hand,  but  from  the  hand  of  God.  Honor  them,  and  from 
them  you  will  derive  honor.  Respect  the  empress  your 
mother ;  you  are  now  her  son ;  before,  you  were  her  servant. 
Delight  not  in  blood ;  abstain  from  revenge ;  avoid  those  ac- 
tions by  which  I  have  incurred  the  public  hatred ;  and  con- 
sult the  experience,  rather  than  the  example,  of  your  pred- 
ecessor. As  a  man,  I  have  sinned ;  as  a  sinner,  even  in  this 
life,  I  have  been  severely  punished :  but  these  servants  "  (and 
he  pointed  to  his  ministers), "  who  have  abused  my  confidence 
and  inflamed  my  passions,  will  appear  with  me  before  the 
tribunal  of  Christ.  I  have  been  dazzled  by  the  splendor  of 
the  diadem :  be  thou  wise  and  modest ;  remember  what  yon 
have  been,  remember  what  you  are.  You  see  around  us  your 
slaves  and  your  children ;  with  the  authority,  assume  the 
tenderness  of  a  parent.  Love  your  people  like  yourself; 
cultivate  the  affections,  maintain  the  discipline,  of  the  army ; 
protect  the  fortunes  of  the  rich,  relieve  the  necessities  of  the 
poor."27    The  assembly,  in  silence  and  in  tears,  applauded 


weighty.  Corippus  has  celebrated  Tiberius  at  the  time  of  the  accession  of  Justin 
(1.  i.  212-222).  Yet  even  a  captain  of  the  guards  might  attract  the  flattery  of 
an  African  exile. 

26  Evagrius  (1.  v.  c.  13)  has  added  the  reproach  to  his  ministers.  He  applies  this 
speech  to  the  ceremony  when  Tiberius  was  invested  with  the  rank  of  CEesar.  The 
loose  expression,  rather  than  the  positive  error,  of  Theophanes,  etc.,  has  delayed 
it  to  his  Augustan  investiture,  immediately  before  the  death  of  Justin. 

21  Theophylact  Simocatta  (1.  iii.  c.  11  [p.  136,  edit.  Bonn])  declares  that  ha 
shall  give  to  posterity  the  speech  of  Justin  as  it  was  pronounced,  without  attempt- 
ing to  correct  the  imperfections  of  language  or  rhetoric.  Perhaps  the  vain  soph' 
1st  would  have  been  incapable  of  producing  such  sentiments. 


a.d.  578.]  DEATH  OF  JUSTIN  II.  537 

the  counsels  and  sympathized  with  the  repentance  of  their 
prince :  the  patriarch  rehearsed  the  prayers  of  the  Church ; 
Tiberius  received  the  diadem  on  his  knees;  and  Justin,  who 
in  his  abdication  appeared  most  worthy  to  reign,  addressed 
the  new  monarch  in  the  following  words :  "  If  you  consent, 
I  live ;  if  you  command,  I  die :  may  the  God  of  heaven  and 
earth  infuse  into  your  heart  whatever  I  have  neglected  or 
Death  of  forgotten,"  The  four  last  years  of  the  Emperor 
a").'^11'  Justin  were  passed  in  tranquil  obscurity :  his  con- 
octobers.  science  was  no  longer  tormented  by  the  remem- 
brance of  those  duties  which  he  was  incapable  of  discharging, 
and  his  choice  was  justified  by  the  filial  reverence  and  grati- 
tude of  Tiberius. 

Among  the  virtues  of  Tiberius,28  his  beauty  (he  was  one  of 
the  tallest  and  most  comely  of  the  Romans)  might  introduce 
Reign  of  nnn  to  the  favor  of  Sophia ;  and  the  widow  of  Jus- 
™%is,  IL  tm  was  persuaded  that  she  should  preserve  her  sta- 
aTjJ^  tion  and  influence  under  the  reign  of  a  second  and 
Aug.  14.  more  youthful  husband.  But  if  the  ambitious  can- 
didate had  been  tempted  to  flatter  and  dissemble,  it  was  no 
longer  in  his  power  to  fulfil  her  expectations  or  his  own 
promise.  The  factions  of  the  hippodrome  demanded  with 
some  impatience  the  name  of  their  new  empress;  both  the 
people  and  Sophia  were  astonished  by  the  proclamation  of 
Anastasia,  the  secret  though  lawful  wife  of  the  Emperor 
Tiberius.  "Whatever  could  alleviate  the  disappointment  of 
Sophia,  imperial  honors,  a  stately  palace,  a  numerous  house- 
hold, was  liberally  bestowed  by  the  piety  of  her  adopted  son ; 
on  solemn  occasions  he  attended  and  consulted  the  widow  of 
his  benefactor,  but  her  ambition  disdained  the  vain  semblance 
of  royalty,  and  the  respectful  appellation  of  mother  served  to 
exasperate  rather  than  appease  the  rage  of  an  injured  woman. 
While  she  accepted  and  repaid  with  a  courtly  smile  the  fair 

58  For  the  character  and  reign  of  Tiberius  see  Evagrins,  1.  v.  c.  13;  Theophylact, 
1.  iii.  c.  12,  etc. ;  Theophanes,  in  Chron.  p.  210-213  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  382-388, 
edit.  Bonn];  Zonaras,tom.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  11]  p.  72;  Cedienus,p.  392  [torn.  i.  p.  688, 
edit.  Bonn] ;  Paul  AVarnefrid,  De  Gestis  Langobard.  1.  iii.  c.  11, 12.  The  deacon 
of  Forum  Julii  appears  to  have  possessed  some  curious  and  authentic  facts. 


538  REIGN  OF  TIBERIUS  II.  [Ch.  XLV. 

expressions  of  regard  and  confidence,  a  secret  alliance  was 
concluded  between  the  dowager-empress  and  her  ancient  ene- 
mies ;  and  Justinian,  the  son  of  Germanus,  was  employed  as 
the  instrument  of  her  revenge.  The  pride  of  the  reigning 
house  supported  with  reluctance  the  dominion  of  a  stranger : 
the  youth  was  deservedly  popular,  his  name  after  the  death 
of  Justin  had  been  mentioned  by  a  tumultuous  faction,  and 
his  own  submissive  offer  of  his  head,  with  a  treasure  of  sixty 
thousand  pounds,  might  be  interpreted  as  an  evidence  of 
guilt,  or  at  least  of  fear.  Justinian  received  a  free  pardon, 
and  the  command  of  the  Eastern  army.  The  Persian  mon- 
arch fled  before  his  arms,  and  the  acclamations  which  accom- 
panied his  triumph  declared  him  worthy  of  the  purple.  His 
artful  patroness  had  chosen  the  month  of  the  vintage,  while 
the  emperor,  in  a  rural  solitude,  was  permitted  to  enjoy  the 
pleasures  of  a  subject.  On  the  first  intelligence  of  her  de- 
signs he  returned  to  Constantinople,  and  the  conspiracy  was 
suppressed  by  his  presence  and  firmness.  From  the  pomp 
and  honors  which  she  had  abused,  Sophia  was  reduced  to  a 
modest  allowance ;  Tiberius  dismissed  her  train,  intercepted 
her  correspondence,  and  committed  to  a  faithful  guard  the 
custody  of  her  person.  But  the  services  of  Justinian  were 
not  considered  by  that  excellent  prince  as  an  aggravation  of 
his  offences :  after  a  mild  reproof  his  treason  and  ingratitude 
were  forgiven,  and  it  was  commonly  believed  that  the  emper- 
or entertained  some  thoughts  of  contracting  a  double  alliance 
with  the  rival  of  his  throne.  The  voice  of  an  angel  (such  a 
fable  was  propagated)  might  reveal  to  the  emperor  that  he 
should  always  triumph  over  his  domestic  foes,  but  Tiberius 
derived  a  firmer  assurance  from  the  innocence  and  generosity 
of  his  own  mind. 

"With  the  odious  name  of  Tiberius  he  assumed  the  more 
popular  appellation  of  Constantine,  and  imitated  the  purer 
.  virtues  of  the   Antonines.     After  recording  the 

vice  or  folly  of  so  many  Roman  princes,  it  is  pleas- 
ing to  repose  for  a  moment  on  a  character  conspicuous  by  the 
qualities  of  humanity,  justice,  temperance,  and  fortitude ;  to 
contemplate  a  sovereign  affable  in  his  palace,  pious  in  the 


A-D.57&-582.]  HIS  VIRTUES.  539 

Church,  impartial  on  the  seat  of  judgment,  and  victorious,  at 
least  by  his  generals,  in  the  Persian  war.  The  most  glorious 
trophy  of  his  victory  consisted  in  a  multitude  of  captives, 
whom  Tiberius  entertained,  redeemed,  and  dismissed  to  their 
native  homes  with  the  charitable  spirit  of  a  Christian  hero. 
The  merit  or  misfortunes  of  his  own  subjects  had  a  dearer 
claim  to  his  beneficence,  and  he  measured  his  bounty  not  so 
much  by  their  expectations  as  by  his  own  dignity.  This 
maxim,  however  dangerous  in  a  trustee  of  the  public  wealth, 
was  balanced  by  a  principle  of  humanity  and  justice,  which 
taught  him  to  abhor,  as  of  the  basest  alloy,  the  gold  that  was 
extracted  from  the  tears  of  the  people.  For  their  relief,  as 
often  as  they  had  suffered  by  natural  or  hostile  calamities,  he 
was  impatient  to  remit  the  arrears  of  the  past  or  the  demands 
of  future  taxes :  he  sternly  rejected  the  servile  offerings  of 
his  ministers,  which  were  compensated  by  tenfold  oppression ; 
and  the  wise  and  equitable  laws  of  Tiberius  excited  the  praise 
and  regret  of  succeeding  times.  Constantinople  believed  that 
the  emperor  had  discovered  a  treasure ;  but  his  genuine  treas- 
ure consisted  in  the  practice  of  liberal  economy,  and  the  con- 
tempt of  all  vain  and  superfluous  expense.  The  Romans  of 
the  East  would  have  been  happy  if  the  best  gift  of  Heaven,  a 
patriot  king,  had  been  confirmed  as  a  proper  and  permanent 
blessing.  But  in  less  than  four  years  after  the  death  of  Jus- 
tin, his  worthy  successor  sunk  into  a  mortal  disease,  which  left 
him  only  sufficient  time  to  restore  the  diadem,  according  to 
the  tenure  by  which  he  held  it,  to  the  most  deserving  of  his 
fellow -citizens.  He  selected  Maurice  from  the  crowd  —  a 
judgment  more  precious  than  the  purple  itself :  the  patriarch 
and  senate  were  summoned  to  the  bed  of  the  dying  prince ; 
he  bestowed  his  daughter  and  the  empire,  and  his  last  advice 
was  solemnly  delivered  by  the  voice  of  the  quaestor.  Tiberius 
expressed  his  hope  that  the  virtues  of  his  son  and  successor 
would  erect  the  noblest  mausoleum  to  his  memory.  His 
memory  was  embalmed  by  the  public  affliction ;  but  the  most 
sincere  grief  evaporates  in  the  tumult  of  a  new  reign,  and  the 
eyes  and  acclamations  of  mankind  were  speedily  directed  to 
the  rising  sun. 


540  REIGN  OF  MAURICE.  [Ch.  XLV. 

The  Emperor  Maurice  derived  his  origin  from  ancient 
Rome  ;2*  but  his  immediate  parents  were  settled  at  Arabissus, 
The  reign  in  Cappadocia,  and  their  singular  felicity  preserved 
°J.^m%ce'  them  alive  to  behold  and  partake  the  fortune  of 
a.d?'602~  their  august  son.  The  youth  of  Maurice  was  spent 
Nov. 27.  in  f^g  profession  0f  arms:  Tiberius  promoted  him 
to  the  command  of  a  new  and  favorite  legion  of  twelve  thou- 
sand confederates;  his  valor  and  conduct  were  signalized  in 
the  Persian  war;  and  he  returned  to  Constantinople  to  ac- 
cept, as  his  just  reward,  the  inheritance  of  the  empire.  Mau- 
rice ascended  the  throne  at  the  mature  age  of  forty- three 
years ;  and  he  reigned  above  twenty  years  over  the  East  and 
over  himself;30  expelling  from  his  mind  the  wild  democracy 
of  passions,  and  establishing  (according  to  the  quaint  expres- 
sion of  Evagrius)  a  perfect  aristocracy  of  reason  and  virtue. 
Some  suspicion  will  degrade  the  testimony  of  a  subject, 
though  he  protests  that  his  secret  praise  should  never  reach 
the  ear  of  his  sovereign,31  and  some  failings  seem  to  place  the 
character  of  Maurice  below  the  purer  merit  of  his  predeces- 
sor. His  cold  and  reserved  demeanor  might  be  imputed  to 
arrogance;  his  justice  was  not  always  exempt  from  cruelty, 
nor  his  clemency  from  weakness ;  and  his  rigid  economy  too 
often  exposed  him  to  the  reproach  of  avarice.  But  the  ra- 
tional wishes  of  an  absolute  monarch  must  tend  to  the  hap- 
piness of  his  people :  Maurice  was  endowed  with  sense  and 

29  It  Is  therefore  singular  enough  that  Paul  (1.  iii.  c.  15)  should  distinguish  him 
sis  the  first  Greek  emperor — "Primus  ex  Graecorum  genere  in  Imperio  constitutus" 
[confirmatus].  His  immediate  predecessors  had  indeed  been  born  in  the  Latin 
provinces  of  Europe ;  and  a  various  reading,  in  Gnecorum  Imperio,  would  apply 
the  expression  to  the  empire  rather  than  the  prince. 

30  Consult,  for  the  character  and  reign  of  Maurice,  the  fifth  and  sixth  books  of 
Evagrius,  particularly  1.  vi.  c.  1 ;  the  eight  books  of  his  prolix  and  florid  history 
by  Theophylact  Simocatta;  Theophanes,  p.  213,  etc.  [torn.  i.  p.  288  seq.,  edit. 
Bonn]  ;  Zonaras,  torn.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  12]  p.  73 ;  Cedrenus,  p.  394  [torn.  i.  p.  691, 
edit.  Bonn]. 

31  AvTOKparup  ovt<i>q  yzvojitvog  rrjv  fitv  ox^oicpartiav  ruiv  ira9£>v  tK  rrjg  oiKtictQ 
£%Evri\aTT]<je  ipvXVG'  apiffTOKparslav  St  sv  toiq  iavrov  Xoyi<Tfi6iQ  KaTaarrjaafitvoQ 
[1.  vi.  c.  1].  Evagrius  composed  his  history  in  the  twelfth  year  of  Maurice ;  and 
he  had  been  so  wisely  indiscreet  that  the  emperor  knew  and  rewarded  his  favor* 
able  opinion  (1.  vi.  c.  24}. 


A.D.  582-602.]  DISTRESS  OF  ITALY.  541 

courage  to  promote  that  happiness,  and  his  administration 
was  directed  by  the  principles  and  example  of  Tiberius. 
The  pusillanimity  of  the  Greeks  had  introduced  so  complete 
a  separation  between  the  offices  of  king  and  of  general,  that 
a  private  soldier,  who  had  deserved  and  obtained  the  purple, 
seldom  or  never  appeared  at  the  head  of  his  armies.  Yet  the 
Emperor  Maurice  enjoyed  the  glory  of  restoring  the  Persian 
monarch  to  his  throne ;  his  lieutenants  waged  a  doubtful  war 
against  the  Avars  of  the  Danube ;  and  he  cast  an  eye  of  pity, 
of  ineffectual  pity,  on  the  abject  and  distressful  state  of  his 
Italian  provinces. 

From  Italy  the  emperors  were  incessantly  tormented  by 
tales  of  misery  and  demands  of  succor,  which  extorted  the 
Distress  humiliating  confession  of  their  own  weakness.  The 
of  Italy.  expiring  dignity  of  Rome  was  only  marked  by  the 
freedom  and  energy  of  her  complaints :  "  If  you  are  incapa- 
ble," she  said,  "  of  delivering  us  from  the  sword  of  the  Lom- 
bards, save  us  at  least  from  the  calamity  of  famine."  Tibe- 
rius forgave  the  reproach,  and  relieved  the  distress :  a  supply 
of  corn  was  transported  from  Egypt  to  the  Tiber ;  and  the 
Roman  people,  invoking  the  name,  not  of  Camillus,  but  of 
St.  Peter,  repulsed  the  barbarians  from  their  walls.  But  the 
relief  was  accidental,  the  danger  was  perpetual  and  pressing  ; 
and  the  clergy  and  senate,  collecting  the  remains  of  their 
ancient  opulence,  a  sum  of  three  thousand  pounds  of  gold, 
despatched  the  Patrician  Pamphronius  to  lay  their  gifts  and 
their  complaints  at  the  foot  of  the  Byzantine  throne.  The 
attention  of  the  court,  and  the  forces  of  the  East,  were  di- 
verted by  the  Persian  war;  but  the  justice  of  Tiberius  ap- 
plied the  subsidy  to  the  defence  of  the  city;  and  he  dis- 
missed the  Patrician  with  his  best  advice,  either  to  bribe  the 
Lombard  chiefs,  or  to  purchase  the  aid  of  the  kings  of  France. 
Notwithstanding  this  weak  invention,  Italy  was  still  afflicted, 
Pome  was  again  besieged,  and  the  suburb  of  Classe,  only  three 
miles  from  Ravenna,  was  pillaged  and  occupied  by  the  troops 
of  a  simple  duke  of  Spoleto.  Maurice  gave  audience  to  a 
second  deputation  of  priests  and  senators :  the  duties  and 
the  menaces  of  religion  were  forcibly  urged  iii  the  letters  of 


542  AUTHAEIS,  KING  OF  THE  LOMBARDS,         [Ch.  XLV. 

the  Roman  pontiff ;  and  his  nuncio,  the  deacon  Gregory,  was 
alike  qualified  to  solicit  the  powers  either  of  heaven  or  of  the 
earth.  The  emperor  adopted,  with  stronger  effect,  the  meas- 
ures of  his  predecessor :  some  formidable  chiefs  were  per- 
suaded to  embrace  the  friendship  of  the  Romans ;  and  one  of 
them,  a  mild  and  faithful  barbarian,  lived  and  died  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  exarch :  the  passes  of  the  Alps  were  delivered  to 
the  Franks ;  and  the  pope  encouraged  them  to  violate,  with- 
out scruple,  their  oaths  and  engagements  to  the  misbelievers. 
Childebert,  the  great-grandson  of  Clovis,  was  persuaded  to  in- 
vade Italy  by  the  payment  of  fifty  thousand  pieces ;  but,  as  he 
had  viewed  with  delight  some  Byzantine  coin  of  the  weight 
of  one  pound  of  gold,  the  King  of  Austrasia  might  stipulate 
that  the  gift  should  be  rendered  more  worthy  of  his  accept- 
ance by  a  proper  mixture  of  these  respectable  medals.  The 
dukes  of  the  Lombards  had  provoked  by  frequent  inroads 
their  powerful  neighbors  of  Gaul.  As  soon  as  they  were  ap- 
prehensive of  a  just  retaliation,  they  renounced  their  feeble 
and  disorderly  independence :  the  advantages  of  regal  govern- 
ment, union,  secrecy,  and  vigor  were  unanimously  confessed ; 
Autharis,  an<^  Autharis,  the  son  of  Clepho,  had  already  attain- 
Lombards?  e&  tne  strength  and  reputation  of  a  warrior.  TJn- 
a-d.  684-590.  ^er  ^  standard  of  their  new  king,  the  conquerors 
of  Italy  withstood  three  successive  invasions,  one  of  which 
was  led  by  Childebert  himself,  the  last  of  the  Merovingian 
race  who  descended  from  the  Alps.  The  first  expedition  was 
defeated  by  the  jealous  animosity  of  the  Franks  and  Aleman- 
ni.  In  the  second  they  were  vanquished  in  a  bloody  battle, 
with  more  loss  and  dishonor  than  they  had  sustained  since  the 
foundation  of  their  monarchy.  Impatient  for  revenge,  they 
returned  a  third  time  with  accumulated  force,  and  Autharis 
yielded  to  the  fury  of  the  torrent.  The  troops  and  treasures 
of  the  Lombards  were  distributed  in  the  walled  towns  be- 
tween the  Alps  and  the  Apennine.  A  nation,  less  sensible 
of  danger  than  of  fatigue  and  delay,  soon  murmured  against 
the  folly  of  their  twenty  commanders ;  and  the  hot  vapors  of 
an  Italian  sun  infected  with  disease  those  tramontane  bodies 
which  had  already  suffered  the  vicissitudes  of  intemperance 


A.D.  584-590.]    THE  EXARCHATE  OF  RAVENNA.  543 

and  famine.  The  powers  that  were  inadequate  to  the  con- 
quest were  more  than  sufficient  for  the  desolation  of  the 
country ;  nor  could  the  trembling  natives  distinguish  between 
their  enemies  and  their  deliverers.  If  the  junction  of  the 
Merovingian  and  imperial  forces  had  been  effected  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Milan,  perhaps  they  might  have  subverted 
the  throne  of  the  Lombards ;  but  the  Franks  expected  six 
days  the  signal  of  a  flaming  village,  and  the  arms  of  the 
Greeks  were  idly  employed  in  the  reduction  of  Modena  and 
Parma,  which  were  torn  from  them  after  the  retreat  of  their 
transalpine  allies.  The  victorious  Autharis  asserted  his  claim 
to  the  dominion  of  Italy.  At  the  foot  of  the  Rhsetian  Alps, 
lie  subdued  the  resistance,  and  rifled  the  hidden  treasures,  of 
a  sequestered  island  in  the  lake  of  Comum.  At  the  extreme 
point  of  Calabria,  he  touched  with  his  spear  a  column  on  the 
sea-shore  of  Rhegium,32  proclaiming  that  ancient  landmark  to 
stand  the  immovable  boundary  of  his  kingdom.33 

During  a  period  of  two  hundred  years  Italy  was  unequally 
divided  between  the  kingdom  of  the  Lombards  and  the  ex- 
The exarchate  archate  of  Eavenna.  The  offices  and  professions 
of  Ravenna,  wnicn  the  jealousy  of  Constantine  had  separated 
were  united  by  the  indulgence  of  Justinian;  and  eighteen 
successive  exarchs  were  invested,  in  the  decline  of  the  em- 
pire, with  the  full  remains  of  civil,  of  military,  and  even  of 
ecclesiastical  power.  Their  immediate  jurisdiction,  which  was 
afterwards  consecrated  as  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  extend- 
ed over  the  modern  Romagna,  the  marshes  or  valleys  of  Fer- 
rara  and  Commachio,34  five  maritime  cities  from  Rimini  to 


32  The  Columna  Rhegina,  in  the  narrowest  part  of  the  Faro  of  Messina,  one 
hundred  stadia  from  Rhegium  itself,  is  frequently  mentioned  in  ancient  geography. 
Cluver.  Ital.  Antiq.  torn.  ii.  p.  1295 ;  Lucas  Holsten.  Annotat.  ad  Oliver,  p.  301 ; 
Wesseling,  Itinerar.  p.  106. 

33  The  Greek  historians  afford  some  faint  hints  of  the  wars  of  Italy  (Menander, 
in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  124, 126  [p.  327,  331,  edit.  Bonn];  Theophylact,  1.  hi.  c.  4 
[p.  120,  edit.  Bonn]).  The  Latins  are  more  satisfactory ;  and  especially  Paul 
Warnefrid  (1.  iii.  c.  13-34),  who  had  read  the  more  ancient  histories  of  Secundus 
and  Gregory  of  Tours.  Baronius  produces  some  letters  of  the  popes,  etc.  ;  and 
the  times  are  measured  by  the  accurate  scale  of  Pagi  and  Muratori. 

.    M  The  papal  advocates,  Zacagni  and  Fontanini,  might  justly  claim  the  valley 


544  THE  EXARCHATE  OF  RAVENNA.  [Ch.  XLV. 

Ancona,  and  a  second  inland  Pentapolis,  between  the  Adri- 
atic coast  and  the  hills  of  the  Apennine.  Three  subordinate 
provinces — of  Rome,  of  Venice,  and  of  Naples — which  were 
divided  bj  hostile  lands  from  the  palace  of  Ravenna,  acknowl- 
edged, both  in  peace  and  war,  the  supremacy  of  the  exarch. 
The  duchy  of  Rome  appears  to  have  included  the  Tuscan, 
Sabine,  and  Latin  conquests  of  the  first  four  hundred  years 
of  the  city,  and  the  limits  may  be  distinctly  traced  along  the 
coast,  from  Civita  Yecchia  to  Terracina,  and  with  the  course 
of  the  Tiber  from  Ameria  and  Narni  to  the  port  of  Ostia. 
The  numerous  islands  from  Grado  to  Chiozza  composed  the 
infant  dominion  of  Venice;  but  the  more  accessible  towns  on 
the  continent  were  overthrown  by  the  Lombards,  who  beheld 
with  impotent  fury  a  new  capital  rising  from  the  waves.  The 
power  of  the  dukes  of  Naples  was  circumscribed  by  the  bay 
and  the  adjacent  isles,  by  the  hostile  territory  of  Capua,  and 
by  the  Roman  colony  of  Amalphi,88  whose  industrious  citi- 
zens, by  the  invention  of  the  mariner's  compass,  have  unveil- 
ed the  face  of  the  globe.  The  three  islands  of  Sardinia,  Cor- 
sica, and  Sicily  still  adhered  to  the  empire;  and  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  farther  Calabria  removed  the  landmark  of  Autha- 
ris  from  the  shore  of  Rhegium  to  the  Isthmus  of  Consentia. 
In  Sardinia  the  savage  mountaineers  preserved  the  liberty 
and  religion  of  their  ancestors ;  but  the  husbandmen  of  Sicily 
were  chained  to  their  rich  and  cultivated  soil.  Rome  was 
oppressed  by  the  iron  sceptre  of  the  exarchs,  and  a  Greek, 
perhaps  a  eunuch,  insulted  with  impunity  the  ruins  of  the 
Capitol.  But  Naples  soon  acquired  the  privilege  of  electing 
her  own  dukes  :38  the  independence  of  Amalphi  was  the  fruit 
of  commerce;  and  the  voluntary  attachment  of  Venice  was 
finally  ennobled  by  an  equal  alliance  with  the  Eastern  empire. 


or  morasa  of  Commachio  as  a  part  of  the  exarchate.  But  the  ambition  of  includ- 
ing  Modena,  Reggio,  Parma,  and  Placentia  has  darkened  a  geographical  question 
somewhat  doubtful  and  obscure.  Even  Muratori,  as  the  servant  of  the  House  of 
Este,  is  not  free  from  partiality  and  prejudice. 

86  See  Brenckman,  Dissert.  I™  de  Republic^  Amalphitan&,  p.  1-42,  ad  calcem 
Hist.  Pandect.  Plorent. 

M  Gregor.  Magn.  L  iii.  Epist.  23,  25, 26,  27. 


A..D.  584-590.]     THE  KINGDOM  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  545 

On  the  map  of  Italy  the  measure  of  the  exarchate  occupies  a 
very  inadequate  space,  but  it  included  an  ample  proportion  of 
wealth,  industry,  and  population.  The  most  faithful  and  val- 
uable subjects  escaped  from  the  barbarian  yoke ;  and  the  ban- 
ners of  Pavia  and  Yerona,  of  Milan  and  Padua,  were  display- 
ed in  their  respective  quarters  by  the  new  inhabitants  of  Ra- 
venna. The  remainder  of  Italy  was  possessed  by  the  Lom- 
bards ;  and  from  Pavia,  the  royal  seat,  their  kin£- 
domofthe  dom  was  extended  to  the  east,  the  north,  and  the 
west,  as  far  as  the  confines  of  the  Avars,  the  Bava- 
rians, and  the  Franks  of  Austrasia  and  Burgundy.  In  the 
language  of  modern  geography,  it  is  now  represented  by  the 
Terra  Pinna  of  the  Venetian  republic,  Tyrol,  the  Milanese, 
Piedmont,  the  coast  of  Genoa,  Mantua,  Parma,  and  Modena, 
the  grand  duchy  of  Tuscany,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  eccle- 
siastical state  from  Perugia  to  the  Adriatic.  The  dukes,  and 
at  length  the  princes,  of  Beneventum,  survived  the  monarchy, 
and  propagated  the  name  of  the  Lombards.  From  Capua  to 
Tarentum,  they  reigned  near  five  hundred  years  over  the, 
greatest  part  of  the  present  kingdom  of  Naples." 

In  comparing  the  proportion  of  the  victorious  and  the  van- 
quished people,  the  change  of  language  will  afford  the  most 
Language  probable  inference.  According  to  this  standard  it 
Hereof  the  wiU  appear  that  the  Lombards  of  Italy,  and  the 
Lombards.  Visigoths  of  Spain,  were  less  numerous  than  the 
Franks  or  Burgundians;  and  the  conquerors  of  Gaul  must 
yield,  in  their  turn,  to  the  multitude  of  Saxons  and  Angles 
who  almost  eradicated  the  idioms  of  Britain.  The  modern 
Italian  has  been  insensibly  formed  by  the  mixture  of  nations: 
the  awkwardness  of  the  barbarians  in  the  nice  management 
of  declensions  and  conjugations  reduced  them  to  the  use  of 
articles  and  auxiliary  verbs;  and  many  new  ideas  have  been 


37  I  have  described  the  state  of  Italy  from  the  excellent  Dissertation  of  Beretti. 
Giannone  (Istoria  Civile,  torn.  i.  p.  374-387)  has  followed  the  learned  Camillo  Pel- 
legrini in  the  geography  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  After  the  loss  of  the  true 
Calabria  the  vanity  of  the  Greeks  substituted  that  name  instead  of  the  more  igno- 
ble appellation  of  Bruttium ;  and  the  change  appears  to  have  taken  place  before 
the  time  of  Charlemagne  (Eginard,  p.  75  £c.  15J). 


546  LANGUAGE  AND  MANNERS        [Ch.  XLV. 

expressed  by  Teutonic  appellations.  Yet  the  principal  stock 
of  technical  and  familiar  words  is  found  to  be  of  Latin  deri- 
vation ;88  and,  if  we  were  sufficiently  conversant  with  the  ob- 
solete, the  rustic,  and  the  municipal  dialects  of  ancient  Italy, 
we  should  trace  the  origin  of  many  terms  which  might,  per- 
haps, be  rejected  by  the  classic  purity  of  Eome.  A  numer- 
ous army  constitutes  but  a  small  nation,  and  the  powers  of 
the  Lombards  were  soon  diminished  by  the  retreat  of  twenty 
thousand  Saxons,  who  scorned  a  dependent  situation,  and  re- 
turned, after  many  bold  and  perilous  adventures,  to  their  na- 
tive country.39  The  camp  of  Alboin  was  of  formidable  ex- 
tent, but  the  extent  of  a  camp  would  be  easily  circumscribed 
within  the  limits  of  a  city ;  and  its  martial  inhabitants  must 
be  thinly  scattered  over  the  face  of  a  large  country.  When 
Alboin  descended  from  the  Alps,  he  invested  his  nephew,  the 
first  duke  of  Friuli,  with  the  command  of  the  province  and 
the  people :  but  the  prudent  Gisulf  would  have  declined  the 
dangerous  office,  unless  he  had  been  permitted  to  choose, 
among  the  nobles  of  the  Lombards,  a  sufficient  number  of 
families40  to  form  a  perpetual  colony  of  soldiers  and  subjects. 
In  the  progress  of  conquest,  the  same  option  could  not  be 
granted  to  the  dukes  of  Brescia  or  Bergamo,  of  Pavia  or 
Turin,  of  Spoleto  or  Beneventum;  but  each  of  these,  and  each 
of  their  colleagues,  settled  in  his  appointed  district  with  a 
band  of  followers  who  resorted  to  his  standard  in  war  and  his 
tribunal  in  peace.  Their  attachment  was  free  and  honora- 
ble: resigning  the  gifts  and  benefits  which  they  had  accept- 
ed, they  might  emigrate  with  their  families  into  the  jurisdic- 

88  Maffei  (Verona  Illustrata,  part  i.  p.  310-321)  and  Muratori  (Antichita  Itali- 
ane,  torn.  ii.  Dissertazione  xxxii.  xxxiii.  p.  71-365)  have  asserted  the  native  claims 
of  the  Italian  idiom  :  the  former  with  enthusiasm,  the  latter  with  discretion  :  both 
with  learning,  ingenuity,  and  truth. a 

39  Paul,  De  Gest.  Langobard.  1.  iii.  c.  5,  6,  7. 

40  Paul,  1.  ii.  c.  9.  He  calls  these  families  or  generations  by  the  Teutonic  name 
of  Faras,  which  is  likewise  used  in  the  Lombard  laws.  The  humble  deacon  was 
not  insensible  of  the  nobility  of  his  own  race.     See  1.  iv.  c.  39. 


*  Compare  the  admirable  sketch  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  Latin  language  and 
the  formation  of  the  Italian  in  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  vol.  iii.  p.  275  seq.,  10th 
edit.— M. 


A.D.  584-590.]  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  547 

tion  of  another  duke ;  but  their  absence  from  the  kingdom 
was  punished  with  death,  as  a  crime  of  military  desertion.41 
The  posterity  of  the  first  conquerors  struck  a  deeper  root  into 
the  soil,  which,  by  every  motive  of  interest  and  honor,  they 
were  bound  to  defend.  A  Lombard  was  born  the  soldier  of 
his  king  and  his  duke ;  and  the  civil  assemblies  of  the  nation 
displayed  the  banners,  and  assumed  the  appellation,  of  a  reg- 
ular army.  Of  this  army  the  pay  and  the  rewards  were  drawn 
from  the  conquered  provinces ;  and  the  distribution,  which 
was  not  effected  till  after  the  death  of  Alboin,  is  disgraced 
by  the  foul  marks  of  injustice  and  rapine.  Many  of  the  most 
wealthy  Italians  were  slain  or  banished ;  the  remainder  were 
divided  among  the  strangers,  and  a  tributary  obligation  was 
imposed  (under  the  name  of  hospitality)  of  paying  to  the 
Lombards  a  third  part  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  Within  less 
than  seventy  years  this  artificial  system  was  abolished  by  a 
more  simple  and  solid  tenure.43  Either  the  Roman  landlord 
was  expelled  by  his  strong  and  insolent  guest,  or  the  annual 
payment,  a  third  of  the  produce,  was  exchanged  by  a  more 
equitable  transaction  for  an  adequate  proportion  of  landed 
property."  Under  these  foreign  masters,  the  business  of  agri- 
culture, in  the  cultivation  of  corn,  vines,  and  olives,  was  ex- 
ercised with  degenerate  skill  and  industry  by  the  labor  of  the 
slaves  and  natives.  But  the  occupations  of  a  pastoral  life 
were  more  pleasing  to  the  idleness  of  the  barbarians.  In  the 
rich  meadows  of  Yenetia  they  restored  and  improved  the 
breed  of  horses,  for  which  that  province  had  once  been  illus- 
trious ;48  and  the  Italians  beheld  with  astonishment  a  foreign 

41  Compare  Nos.  3  and  177  of  the  Laws  of  Rotharis. 

42  Paul,  1.  ii.  c.  31,  32 ;  1.  iii.  c.  16.  The  Laws  of  Rotharis,  promulgated  a.d.  643, 
do  not  contain  the  smallest  vestige  of  this  payment  of  thirds  ;  but  they  preserve 
many  curious  circumstances  of  the  state  of  Italy  and  the  manners  of  the  Lombards. 

43  The  studs  of  Dionysius  of  Syracuse,  and  his  frequent  victories  in  the  Olym- 


a  The  former  of  these  suppositions  is  inadmissible,  since  we  cannot  conceive  it 
possible  that  in  time  of  peace  the  Roman  landlord  should  have  been  treated  worse 
than  at  the  first  conquest:  the  latter  supposition  is  more  probable,  though  we  can- 
not argue,  from  the  silence  of  the  laws  of  Rotharis  respecting  the  payment  of  thirds, 
that  this  payment  had  gone  entirely  out  of  use.  See  Savigny,  Geschichte  des  R6- 
mischen  Rechts,  vol.  i.  p.  404,  2d  edit.— S. 


548  MANNERS  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.      [Ch.  XLV. 

race  of  oxen  or  buffaloes.44  The  depopulation  of  Lombardy, 
and  the  increase  of  forests,  afforded  an  ample  range  for  the 
pleasures  of  the  chase.48  That  marvellous  art  which  teaches 
the  birds  of  the  air  to  acknowledge  the  voice,  and  execute  the 
commands,  of  their  master  had  been  unknown  to  the  ingenu- 
ity of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.48  Scandinavia  and  Scythia 
produce  the  boldest  and  most  tractable  falcons  :4r  they  were 
tamed  and  educated  by  the  roving  inhabitants,  always  on 
horseback  and  in  the  field.  This  favorite  amusement  of  our 
ancestors  was  introduced  by  the  barbarians  into  the  Roman 
provinces :  and  the  laws  of  Italy  esteem  the  sword  and  the 
hawk  as  of  equal  dignity  and  importance  in  the  hands  of  a 
noble  Lombard.48 


pic  games,  had  diffused  among  the  Greeks  the  fame  of  the  Venetian  horses;  but 
the  breed  was  extinct  in  the  time  of  Strabo  (1.  v.  p.  325  [p.  212,  edit.  Casaub.]). 
Gisulf  obtained  from  his  uncle  "generosarum  equarum  greges."  Paul,  1.  ii.  c.  9. 
The  Lombards  afterwards  introduced  "caballi  silvatici"  —  wild  horses.  Paul, 
1.  iv.c.  11. 

44  "Tunc  (a.d.  596)  primum,  bubali  in  Italiam  delati  Italia?  populis  miracula 
fuere  "  (Paul  Warnefrid,  1.  iv.  c.  11).  The  buffaloes,  whose  native  climate  appears 
to  be  Africa  and  India,  are  unknown  to  Europe,  except  in  Italy,  where  they  are 
numerous  and  useful.  The  ancients  were  ignorant  of  these  animals,  unless  Aris- 
totle (Hist.  Anim.  1.  ii.  c.  1,  p.  58,  Paris,  1783)  has  described  them  as  the  wild 
oxen  of  Arachosia.  See  Buffon,  Hist.  Naturelle,  torn.  xi.  and  Supplement,  torn, 
vi.  Hist,  Ge'nerale  des  Voyages,  torn.  i.  p.  7,  481,  ii.  105,  iii.  291,  iv.  234,  461, 
v.  193,  vi.  491,  viii.  400,  x.  666;  Pennant's  Quadrupedes,  p.  24;  Dictionnaire 
d'Hist.  Naturelle,  par  Valmont  de  Bomare,  torn.  ii.  p.  74.  Yet  I  must  not  con- 
ceal the  suspicion  that  Paul,  by  a  vulgar  error,  may  have  applied  the  name  of 
luba/us  to  the  aurochs,  or  wild  bull  of  ancient  Germany. 

45  Consult  the  twenty-first  Dissertation  of  Muratori. 

46  Their  ignorance  is  proved  by  the  silence  even  of  those  who  professedly  treat 
of  the  arts  of  hunting  and  the  history  of  animals.  Aristotle  (Hist.  Animal.  1.  ix. 
c.  36,  torn.  i.  p.  586,  and  the  Notes  of  his  last  editor,  M.  Camus,  torn.  ii.  p.  314), 
Pliny  (Hist.  Natur.  1.  x.  c.  10),  iElian  (De  Natur.  Animal.  1.  ii.  c.  42),  and  perhaps 
Homer  (Odyss.  xxii.  302-306),  describe  with  astonishment  a  tacit  league  and  com- 
mon chase  between  the  hawks  and  the  Thracian  fowlers. 

47  Particularly  the  gerfaut,  or  gyrfalcon,  of  the  size  of  a  small  eagle.  See  the 
animated  description  of  M.  de  Buffon,  Hist.  Naturelle,  torn.  xvi.  p.  239,  etc. 

48  Script.  Rerum  Italicarum,  torn.  i.  part  ii.  p.  129.  This  is  the  sixteenth  law 
of  the  Emperor  Lewis  the  Pious.  His  father  Charlemagne  had  falconers  in  his 
household  as  well  as  huntsmen  (Me'moires  sur  lAncienne  Chevalerie,  par  M.  da 
St.  Palaye,  torn.  iii.  p.  175).  I  observe  in  the  Laws  of  Rotharis  a  more  early 
mention  of  the  art  of  hawking  (No.  322) ;    and  in  Gaul,  in  the  fifth  cen- 


A.D.  584-590.]  THEIK  DRESS  AND  MARRIAGE.  649 

So  rapid  was  the  influence  of  climate  and  example,  that  the 
Lombards  of  the  fourth  generation  surveyed  with  curiosity 
Dress  and  and  affright  the  portraits  of  their  savage  forefa- 
nwriage.  thers.49  Their  heads  were  shaven  behind,  but  the 
shaggy  locks  hung  over  their  eyes  and  mouth,  and  a  long 
beard  represented  the  name  and  character  of  the  nation. 
Their  dress  consisted  of  loose  linen  garments,  after  the  fash- 
ion of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  which  were  decorated,  in  their  opin- 
ion, with  broad  stripes  of  variegated  colors.  The  legs  and 
feet  were  clothed  in  long  hose  and  open  sandals,  and  even  in 
the  security  of  peace  a  trusty  sword  was  constantly  girt  to 
their  side.  Yet  this  strange  apparel  and  horrid  aspect  often 
concealed  a  gentle  and  generous  disposition ;  and  as  soon  as 
the  rage  of  battle  had  subsided,  the  captives  and  subjects  were 
sometimes  surprised  by  the  humanity  of  the  victor.  The 
vices  of  the  Lombards  were  the  effect  of  passion,  of  ignorance, 
of  intoxication ;  their  virtues  are  the  more  laudable,  as  they 
were  not  affected  by  the  hypocrisy  of  social  manners,  nor  im- 
posed by  the  rigid  constraint  of  laws  and  education.  I  should 
not  be  apprehensive  of  deviating  from  my  subject,  if  it  were 
in  my  power  to  delineate  the  private  life  of  the  conquerors  of 
Italy ;  and  I  shall  relate  with  pleasure  the  adventurous  gal- 
lantry of  Autharis,  which  breathes  the  true  spirit  of  chivalry 
and  romance.60  After  the  loss  of  his  promised  bride,  a  Mero- 
vingian princess,  he  sought  in  marriage  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  Bavaria,  and  Garibald  accepted  the  alliance  of  the 

tury,  it  is  celebrated  by  Sidonius  Apollinaris  among  the  talents  of  Avitus  (202- 
207). a 

49  The  epitaph  of  Droctulf  (Paul,  1.  iii.  c.  19)  may  be  applied  to  many  of  his 
countrymen : 

"  Terribilis  visu  facies,  sed  mente  benignus 
Longaque  robusto  pectore  barba  fuit." 

The  portraits  of  the  old  Lombards  might  still  be  seen  in  the  palace  of  Monza, 
twelve  miles  from  Milan,  which  had  been  founded  or  restored  by  Queen  Theude- 
linda  (1.  iv.  22,  23).     See  Muratori,  torn.  i.  dissertaz.  xxiii.  p.  300. 

60  The  story  of  Autharis  and  Theudelinda  is  related  by  Paul,  1.  iii.  c.  29,  34 ; 
and  any  fragment  of  Bavarian  antiquity  excites  the  indefatigable  diligence  of  the 
Count  de  Buat,  Hist,  des  Peuples  de  l'Europe,  torn.  xi.  p.  595-635 ;  torn.  xii.  p. 

1-53.  

*  See  Beckman,  Hist,  of  Invention*,  vol.  i  p.  819.— M» 


550  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  [Ch.  XLV 

Italian  monarch.  Impatient  of  the  slow  progress  of  negotia- 
tion, the  ardent  lover  escaped  from  his  palace,  and  visited  the 
court  of  Bavaria  in  the  train  of  his  own  embassy.  At  the 
public  audience  the  unknown  stranger  advanced  to  the  throne, 
and  informed  Garibald  that  the  ambassador  was  indeed  the 
minister  of  state,  but  that  he  alone  was  the  friend  of  Autha- 
ris,  who  had  trusted  him  with  the  delicate  commission  of 
making  a  faithful  report  of  the  charms  of  his  spouse.  Theu- 
delinda  was  summoned  to  undergo  this  important  examina- 
tion, and,  after  a  pause  of  silent  rapture,  he  hailed  her  as  the 
Queen  of  Italy,  and  humbly  requested  that,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  nation,  she  would  present  a  cup  of  wine  to  the 
first  of  her  new  subjects.  By  the  command  of  her  father  she 
obeyed  :  Autharis  received  the  cup  in  his  turn,  and,  in  restor- 
ing it  to  the  princess,  he  secretly  touched  her  hand,  and  drew 
his  own  finger  over  his  face  and  lips.  In  the  evening  Theu- 
delinda  imparted  to  her  nurse  the  indiscreet  familiarity  of  the 
stranger,  and  was  comforted  by  the  assurance  that  such  bold- 
ness could  proceed  only  from  the  king  her  husband,  who,  by 
his  beauty  and  courage,  appeared  worthy  of  her  love.  The 
ambassadors  were  dismissed :  no  sooner  did  they  reach  the 
confines  of  Italy  than  Autharis,  raising  himself  on  his  horse, 
darted  his  battle-axe  against  a  tree  with  incomparable  strength 
and  dexterity.  "  Such,"  said  he  to  the  astonished  Bavarians 
— "  such  are  the  strokes  of  the  king  of  the  Lombards."  On 
the  approach  of  a  French  army,  Garibald  and  his  daughter 
took  refuge  in  the  dominions  of  their  ally,  and  the  marriage 
was  consummated  in  the  palace  of  Verona.  At  the  end  of 
one  year  it  was  dissolved  by  the  death  of  Autharis ;  but  the 
virtues  of  Theudelinda"  had  endeared  her  to  the  nation,  and 
she  was  permitted  to  bestow,  with  her  hand,  the  sceptre  of 
the  Italian  kingdom. 

From  this  fact,  as  well  as  from  similar  events,"  it  is  certain 

81  Giannone  (Istoria  Civile  di  Napoli,  torn.  i.  p.  263)  has  justly  censured  the  im- 
pertinence of  Boccaccio  (Gio.  iii.  Novel.  2),  who,  without  right,  or  truth,  or  pre- 
tence, has  given  the  pious  Queen  Theudelinda  to  the  arms  of  a  muleteer. 

62  Paul,  1.  iii.  c.  16.  The  first  dissertations  of  Muratori.  and  the  first  volume 
of  Giannone's  history,  may  be  consulted  for  the  state  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy. 


A.D.643.]  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.    5.H 

that  the  Lombards  possessed  freedom  to  elect  their  sovereign, 
and  sense  to  decline  the  frequent  use  of  that  dan* 

Government.  ? 

gerous  privilege.  I  he  public  revenue  arose  from 
the  produce  of  land  and  the  profits  of  justice.  When  the 
independent  dukes  agreed  that  Autharis  should  ascend  the 
throne  of  his  father,  they  endowed  the  regal  office  with  a  fair 
moiety  of  their  respective  domains.  The  proudest  nobles 
aspired  to  the  honors  of  servitude  near  the  person  of  their 
prince ;  he  rewarded  the  fidelity  of  his  vassals  by  the  precari- 
ous gift  of  pensions  and  benefices,  and  atoned  for  the  injuries 
of  war  by  the  rich  foundation  of  monasteries  and  churches. 
In  peace  a  judge,  a  leader  in  war,  he  never  usurped  the  pow- 
ers of  a  sole  and  absolute  legislator.  The  King  of  Italy  con- 
vened the  national  assemblies  in  the  palace,  or  more  probably 
in  the  fields,  of  Pa  via ;  his  great  council  was  composed  of  the 
persons  most  eminent  by  their  birth  and  dignities;  but  the 
validity,  as  well  as  the  execution,  of  their  decrees  depended 
Law8  on  the  approbation  of  the,  faithful  people,  the  fori- 

a.d.643,  etc.  unafe  army  of  the  Lombards.  About  fourscore 
years  after  the  conquest  of  Italy  their  traditional  customs 
were  transcribed  in  Teutonic  Latin,63  and  ratified  by  the  con- 
sent of  the  prince  and  people ;  some  new  regulations  were  in- 
troduced, more  suitable  to  their  present  condition ;  the  exam- 
ple of  Rotharis  was  imitated  by  the  wisest  of  his  successors : 
and  the  laws  of  the  Lombards  have  been  esteemed  the  least 


*8  The  most  accurate  edition  of  the  Laws  of  the  Lombards  is  to  he  found  in  tha 
Scriptores  Rerum  Italicarum,  torn.  i.  part  ii.  p.  1-181,  collated  from  the  most  an- 
cient MSS.,  and  illustrated  by  the  critical  notes  of  Muratori.* 


*  The  Laws  of  the  Lombards  have  come  down  to  us  in  two  collections,  one  his- 
torical and  the  other  systematic.  The  historical  collection  follows  the  order  of 
the  kings  in  whose  reigns  the  laws  were  promulgated.  It  contains  first  the  laws 
of  five  native  kings,  Rotharis  (a.d.  643),  Grimoald  (668),  Lintprand  (713-735), 
Rachis  (746),  Aistulf  (754),  and  then  the  laws  of  Charlemagne  and  his  successors 
down  to  Lothaire  II.  The  systematic  collection  contains  the  same  laws  as  the 
preceding,  only  arranged  in  a  systematic  instead  of  a  chronological  order.  It 
consists  of  three  books,  of  which  the  first  has  37  titles,  the  second  59  [60],  and  the 
third  40.  It  is  certainly  later  than  Henry  II.  [III.  j  (a.d.  1056),  since  it  contains 
a  law  of  this  emperor,  which  is,  however,  the  most  recent  in  the  collection  ;  but 
there  is  evidence  that  it  was  in  existence  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 
See  Savigny,  Geschichte  des  Romischen  Rechts,  vol.  ii,  p.  209  seq, — 6b 


552   GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  [Ch.  XLV. 

imperfect  of  the  barbaric  codes."  Secure  by  their  courage  in 
the  possession  of  liberty,  these  rude  and  hasty  legislators  were 
incapable  of  balancing  the  powers  of  the  constitution,  or  of 
discussing  the  nice  theory  of  political  government.  Such 
crimes  as  threatened  the  life  of  the  sovereign  or  the  safety  of 
the  State  were  adjudged  worthy  of  death ;  but  their  attention 
was  principally  confined  to  the  defence  of  the  person  and 
property  of  the  subject.  According  to  the  strange  jurispru- 
dence of  the  times,  the  guilt  of  blood  might  be  redeemed  by 
a  fine ;  yet  the  high  price  of  nine  hundred  pieces  of  gold  de- 
clares a  just  sense  of  the  value  of  a  simple  citizen.  Less 
atrocious  injuries — a  wound,  a  fracture,  a  blow,  an  opprobrious 
word — were  measured  with  scrupulous  and  almost  ridiculous 
diligence ;  and  the  prudence  of  the  legislator  encouraged  the 
ignoble  practice  of  bartering  honor  and  revenge  for  a  pecu- 
niary compensation.  The  ignorance  of  the  Lombards  in  the 
state  of  paganism  or  Christianity  gave  implicit  credit  to  the 
malice  and  mischief  of  witchcraft :  but  the  judges  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  might  have  been  instructed  and  confounded 
by  the  wisdom  of  Rotharis,  who  derides  the  absurd  supersti- 
tion, and  protects  the  wretched  victims  of  popular  or  judicial 
cruelty.5*  The  same  spirit  of  a  legislator  superior  to  his  age 
and  country  may  be  ascribed  to  Liutprand,  who  condemns 
while  he  tolerates  the  impious  and  inveterate  abuse  of  duels,68 
observing,  from  his  own  experience,  that  the  juster  cause  had 
often  been  oppressed  by  successful  violence.  Whatever  merit 
may  be  discovered  in  the  laws  of  the  Lombards,  they  are  the 
genuine  fruit  of  the  reason  of  the  barbarians,  who  never  ad- 


54  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Loix,  1.  xxviii.  ch.  1.  "Les  loix  des  Bourguignons 
Bont  assez  judicieuses ;  celles  de  Rotharis  et  des  autres  princes  Lombards  le  sont 
encore  plus." 

65  See  Leges  Rotharis,  No.  379,  p.  47.  Striga  is  used  as  the  name  of  a  witch. 
It  is  of  the  purest  classic  origin  (Horat.  epod.  v.  20 ;  Petron.  c.  1 34)  ;  and  from 
the  words  of  Petronius  ("Quae  striges  comederunt  nervos  tuos?")  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  the  prejudice  was  of  Italian  rather  than  barbaric  extraction. 

58  "Quia  incerti  sumus  de  judicio  Dei,  et  multos  audivimus  per  pugnam  sine 
justa  causa  suam  causam  perdere.  Sed  propter  consuetudinem  gentem  nostram 
Langobardorum  legem  impiam  vetare  non  possumus."  See  p.  74,  No.  65,  of  tha 
Laws  of  Liutprand,  promulgated  a.jd.  724. 


A.D.643.]  MISERY  OF  ROME.  553 

mitted  the  bishops  of  Italy  to  a  seat  in  their  legislative  coun- 
cils. But  the  succession  of  their  kings  is  marked  with  virtue 
and  ability ;  the  troubled  series  of  their  annals  is  adorned 
with  fair  intervals  of  peace,  order,  and  domestic  happiness ; 
and  the  Italians  enjoyed  a  milder  and  more  equitable  gov- 
ernment than  any  of  the  other  kingdoms  which  had  been 
founded  on  the  ruins  of  the  "Western  empire." 

Amidst  the  arms  of  the  Lombards,  and  under  the  despot- 
ism of  the  Greeks,  we  again  inquire  into  the  fate  of  Rome,68 
Misery  which  had  reached,  about  the  close  of  the  sixth  cen- 

ofKome.  tury,  the  lowest  period  of  her  depression.  By  the 
removal  of  the  seat  of  empire  and  the  successive  loss  of  the 
provinces,  the  sources  of  public  and  private  opulence  were 
exhausted :  the  lofty  tree,  under  whose  shade  the  nations  of 
the  earth  had  reposed,  was  deprived  of  its  leaves  and  branches, 
and  the  sapless  trunk  was  left  to  wither  on  the  ground.  The 
ministers  of  command  and  the  messengers  of  victory  no  long- 
er met  on  the  Appian  or  Flaminian  way,  and  the  hostile  ap- 
proach of  the  Lombards  was  often  felt  and  continually  feared. 
The  inhabitants  of  a  potent  and  peaceful  capital,  who  visit 
without  an  anxious  thought  the  garden  of  the  adjacent  coun- 
try, will  faintly  picture  in  their  fancy  the  distress  of  the  Ro- 
mans: they  shut  or  opened  their  gates  with  a  trembling  hand, 
beheld  from  the  walls  the  flames  of  their  houses,  and  heard 
the  lamentations  of  their  brethren,  who  were  coupled  together 
like  dogs,  and  dragged  away  into  distant  slavery  beyond  the 
sea  and  the  mountains.  Such  incessant  alarms  must  annihi- 
late the  pleasures  and  interrupt  the  labors  of  a  rural  life;  and 
the  Campagna  of  Rome  was  speedily  reduced  to  the  state  of  a 
dreary  wilderness,  in  which  the  land  is  barren,  the  waters  are 
impure,  and  the  air  is  infectious.     Curiosity  and  ambition  no 


"  Read  the  history  of  Paul  Warnefrid ;  particularly  1.  iii.  c.  16.  Baronius  re- 
jects the  praise,  which  appears  to  contradict  the  invectives,  of  Pope  Gregory  the 
Great ;  hut  Muratori  (Annali  d'ltalia,  torn.  v.  p.  217)  presumes  to  insinuate  that 
the  saint  may  have  magnified  the  faults  of  Arians  and  enemies. 

68  The  passages  of  the  homilies  of  Gregory  which  represent  the  miserable  state 
of  the  city  and  country  are  transcribed  in  the  Annals  of  Baronius,  a.d.  590,  No. 
16,  a.d.  595,  No.  2,  etc.,  etc. 


554:  MISERY  OF  ROME.  [Ch.  XLV 

longer  attracted  the  nations  to  the  capital  of  the  world ;  but 
if  chance  or  necessity  directed  the  steps  of  a  wandering  stran- 
ger, he  contemplated  with  horror  the  vacancy  and  solitude  of 
the  city,  and  might  be  tempted  to  ask,  "Where  is  the  senate, 
and  where  are  the  people  ?  In  a  season  of  excessive  rains  the 
Tiber  swelled  above  its  banks,  and  rushed  with  irresistible  vi- 
olence into  the  valleys  of  the  seven  hills.  A  pestilential  dis- 
ease arose  from  the  stagnation  of  the  deluge,  and  so  rapid  was 
the  contagion  that  fourscore  persons  expired  in  an  hour  in  the 
midst  of  a  solemn  procession  which  implored  the  mercy  of 
Heaven.69  A  society  in  which  marriage  is  encouraged  and  in- 
dustry prevails  soon  repairs  the  accidental  losses  of  pestilence 
and  war;  but  as  the  far  greater  part  of  the  Romans  was  con- 
demned to  hopeless  indigence  and  celibacy,  the  depopulation 
was  constant  and  visible,  and  the  gloomy  enthusiasts  might 
expect  the  approaching  failure  of  the  human  race.80  Yet  the 
number  of  citizens  still  exceeded  the  measure  of  subsistence : 
their  precarious  food  was  supplied  from  the  harvests  of  Sicily 
or  Egypt,  and  the  frequent  repetition  of  famine  betrays  the 
inattention  of  the  emperor  to  a  distant  province.  The  edi- 
fices of  Eome  were  exposed  to  the  same  ruin  and  decay ;  the 
mouldering  fabrics  were  easily  overthrown  by  inundations, 
tempests,  and  earthquakes ;  and  the  monks,  who  had  occupied 
the  most  advantageous  stations,  exulted  in  their  base  triumph 
over  the  ruins  of  antiquity."  It  is  commonly  believed  that 
Pope  Gregory  the  First  attacked  the  temples  and  mutilated 
the  statues  of  the  city ;  that,  by  the  command  of  the  barba- 

69  The  inundation  and  plague  were  reported  by  a  deacon,  whom  his  bishop, 
Gregory  of  Tours,  had  despatched  to  Rome  for  some  relics.  The  ingenious  mes- 
senger embellished  his  tale  and  the  river  with  a  great  dragon  and  a  train  of  little 
serpents  (Greg.  Turon.  1.  x.  c.  1). 

60  Gregory  of  Rome  (Dialog.  1.  ii.  c.  15)  relates  a  memorable  prediction  of  St. 
Benedict.  "Roma  a,  Gentilibus  [gentibus]  non  exterminabitur  sed  tempestati- 
bus,  coruscis  turbinibus  ac  terra?  motu  [fatigata]  in  semetipsa  marcescet."  Such  a 
prophecy  melts  into  true  history,  and  becomes  the  evidence  of  the  fact  after  which 
it  was  invented. 

61  "Quia  in  uno  se  ore  cum  Jovis  laudibus,  Christi laudes  non  capiunt,  et  quam 
grave  nefandumque  sit  episcopis  canere  quod  nee  laico  religioso  conveniat,  ipse 
considera  "  (1.  ix.  Ep.  4).  The  writings  of  Gregory  himself  attest  his  innocence 
of  any  classic  taste  or  literature. 


A.D.  043.]         TOMBS  AND  RELICS  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  555 

rian,  the  Palatine  library  was  reduced  to  ashes,  and  that  the 
history  of  Livy  was  the  peculiar  mark  of  his  absurd  and  mis- 
chievous fanaticism.  The  writings  of  Gregory  himself  reveal 
his  implacable  aversion  to  the  monuments  of  classic  genius, 
and  he  points  his  severest  censure  against  the  profane  learn- 
ing of  a  bishop  who  taught  the  art  of  grammar,  studied  the 
Latin  poets,  and  pronounced  with  the  same  voice  the  praises 
of  Jupiter  and  those  of  Christ.  But  the  evidence  of  his  de- 
structive rage  is  doubtful  and  recent :  the  Temple  of  Peace 
or  the  Theatre  of  Marcellus  have  been  demolished  by  the 
slow  operation  of  ages,  and  a  formal  proscription  would  have 
multiplied  the  copies  of  Yirgil  and  Livy  in  the  countries 
which  were  not  subject  to  the  ecclesiastical  dictator.69 

Like  Thebes,  or  Babylon,  or  Carthage,  the  name  of  Home 

might  have  been  erased  from  the  earth,  if  the  city  had  not 

been  animated  by  a  vital  principle,  which  again  re- 

The  tombs  ,,  ,       ,    J  j    j         •    •  *  , 

mid  relics  of  stored  ner  to  honor  and  dominion.  A  vague  tra- 
dition was  embraced,  that  two  Jewish  teachers,  a 
tent-maker  and  a  fisherman,  had  formerly  been  executed  in 
the  circus  of  Nero,  and  at  the  end  of  five  hundred  years  their 
genuine  or  fictitious  relics  were  adored  as  the  Palladium  of 
Christian  Rome.  The  pilgrims  of  the  East  and  West  resort- 
ed to  the  holy  threshold  ;  but  the  shrines  of  the  apostles  were 
guarded  by  miracles  and  invisible  terrors,  and  it  was  not 
without  fear  that  the  pious  Catholic  approached  the  object  of 
his  worship.  It  was  fatal  to  touch,  it  was  dangerous  to  be- 
hold, the  bodies  of  the  saints ;  and  those  who,  from  the  purest 
motives,  presumed  to  disturb  the  repose  of  the  sanctuary  were 
affrighted  by  visions  or  punished  with  sudden  death.  The 
unreasonable  request  of  an  empress,  who  wished  to  deprive 
the  Romans  of  their  sacred  treasure,  the  head  of  St.  Paul,  was 
rejected  with  the  deepest  abhorrence ;  and  the  pope  asserted, 
most  probably  with  truth,  that  a  linen  which  had  been  sanc- 
tified in  the  neighborhood  of  his  body,  or  the  filings  of  his 

62  Bayle  (Dictionnaire  Critique,  torn.  ii.  p.  598,  599),  in  a  very  good  article  of 
Grigoire  I.,  has  quoted,  for  the  buildings  and  statues,  Platina  in  Gregorio  I. ;  for 
the  Palatine  library,  John  of  Salisbury  (De  Nugis  Curialium,  1.  ii.  c.  26);  and  for 
Liry,  Antoninus  of  Florence :  the  oldest  of  the  three  lived  in  the  twelfth  century. 


556  GREGORY  THE  ROMAN.  [Ch.  XLV. 

chain,  which  it  was  sometimes  easy  and  sometimes  impossible 
to  obtain,  possessed  an  equal  degree  of  miraculous  virtue.88 
But  the  power  as  well  as  virtue  of  the  apostles  resided  with 
living  energy  in  the  breast  of  their  successors  :  and  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter  was  filled  under  the  reign  of  Maurice  by  the 
Birth  and  firs*  and  greatest  of  the  name  of  Gregory.64  His 
&eJory°tnef  grandfather  Felix  had  himself  been  pope,  and,  as 
Boman.  fae  bishops  were  already  bound  by  the  law  of  cel- 
ibacy, his  consecration  must  have  been  preceded  by  the  death 
of  his  wife.  The  parents  of  Gregory,  Sylvia  and  Gordian, 
were  the  noblest  of  the  senate  and  the  most  pious  of  the 
Church  of  Rome ;  his  female  relations  were  numbered  among 
the  saints  and  virgins,  and  his  own  figure,  with  those  of  his 
father  and  mother,  were  represented  near  three  hundred  years 
in  a  family  portrait65  which  he  offered  to  the  monastery  of 
St.  Andrew.  The  design  and  coloring  of  this  picture  afford 
an  honorable  testimony  that  the  art  of  painting  was  cultivated 
by  the  Italians  of  the  sixth  century;  but  the  most  abject 
ideas  must  be  entertained  of  their  taste  and  learning,  since 


83  Gregor.  1.  iii.  Epist.  24,  Indict.  12,  etc.  p.  iv.  Ep.  30,  edit.  Bened.].  From 
the  Epistles  of  Gregory,  and  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Annals  of  Baronius,  the 
pious  reader  may  collect  the  particles  of  holy  iron  which  were  inserted  in  keys  or 
crosses  of  gold,  and  distributed  in  Britain,  Gaul,  Spain,  Africa,  Constantinople,  and 
Egypt.  The  pontifical  smith  who  handled  the  file  must  have  understood  the  mira- 
cles which  it  was  in  his  own  power  to  operate  or  withhold  ;  a  circumstance  which 
abates  the  superstition  of  Gregory  at  the  expense  of  his  veracity. 

64  Besides  the  Epistles  of  Gregory  himself,  which  are  methodized  by  Dupin  (Bi- 
bliotheque  Eccle's.  torn,  v.  p.  103-126),  we  have  three  Lives  of  the  pope ;  the  two 
first  written  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  (De  Triplici  Vita  St.  Greg.  Preface 
to  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Benedictine  edition)  by  the  deacons  Paul  (p.  1-18)  and 
John  (p.  19-188),  and  containing  much  original,  though  doubtful,  evidence  ;  the 
third,  a  long  and  labored  compilation  by  the  Benedictine  editors  (p.  199-305). 
The  Annals  of  Baronius  are  a  copious  but  partial  history.  His  papal  prejudices 
are  tempered  by  the  good-sense  of  Flemy  (Hist.  Eccles.  torn,  viii.),  and  his  chro- 
nology has  been  rectified  by  the  criticism  of  Pagi  and  Muratori. 

65  John  the  deacon  has  described  them  like  an  eye-witness  (1.  iv.  c.  83,  84) ;  and 
his  description  is  illustrated  by  Angelo  Eocca,  a  Roman  antiquary  (St.  Greg. 
Opera,  torn.  iv.  p.  312-326),  who  observes  that  some  mosaics  of  the  popes  of  the 
seventh  century  are  still  preserved  in  the  old  churches  of  Rome  (p.  321-323).  The 
same  walls  which  represented  Gregory's  family  are  now  decorated  with  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  St.  Andrew,  the  noble  contest  of  Doineuichiuo  and  Guido. 


A.D.  643.]  GREGORY  THE  ROMAN.  557 

the  epistles  of  Gregory,  Lis  sermons,  and  his  dialogues,  are  the 
work  of  a  man  who  was  second  in  erudition  to  none  of  his 
contemporaries  :66  his  birth  and  abilities  had  raised  him  to  the 
office  of  praefect  of  the  city,  and  he  enjoyed  the  merit  of  re- 
nouncing the  pomp  and  vanities  of  this  world.  His  ample 
patrimony  was  dedicated  to  the  foundation  of  seven  monas- 
teries," one  in  Rome88  and  six  in  Sicily ;  and  it  was  the  wish 
of  Gregory  that  he  might  be  unknown  in  this  life,  and  glori- 
ous only  in  the  next.  Yet  his  devotion,  and  it  might  be  sin- 
cere, pursued  the  path  which  would  have  been  chosen  by  a 
crafty  and  ambitious  statesman.  The  talents  of  Gregory,  and 
the  splendor  which  accompanied  his  retreat,  rendered  him 
dear  and  useful  to  the  Church,  and  implicit  obedience  has 
been  always  inculcated  as  the  first  duty  of  a  monk.  As  soon 
as  he  had  received  the  character  of  deacon,  Gregory  was 
Bent  to  reside  at  the  Byzantine  court,  the  nuncio  or  minister 
of  the  apostolic  see ;  and  he  boldly  assumed,  in  the  name  of 
St.  Peter,  a  tone  of  independent  dignity  which  would  have 
been  criminal  and  dangerous  in  the  most  illustrious  layman 
of  the  empire.  He  returned  to  Rome  with  a  just  increase  of 
reputation,  and,  after  a  short  exercise  of  the  monastic  virtues, 
lie  was  dragged  from  the  cloister  to  the  papal  throne  by  the 
unanimous  voice  of  the  clergy,  the  senate,  and  the  people. 
He  alone  resisted,  or  seemed  to  resist,  his  own  elevation ;  and 
his  humble  petition  that  Maurice  would  be  pleased  to  reject 

68  "  Disciplinis  vero  liberalibus,  hoc  est  grammatical,  rhetorica,  dialectica  ita  a 
puero  est  institutes,  ut  quamvis  eo  tempore  florerent  adhuc  Eomse  studia  Iiterarum, 
tamen  nulli  in  urbe  ipsa  secundus  putaretur  "  (Paul.  Diacon.  in  Vit.  S.  Gregor.  c.  2)„ 

61  The  Benedictines  (Vit.  Greg.  1.  i.  p.  205-208)  labor  to  reduce  the  monasteries 
of  Gregory  within  the  rule  of  their  own  order  ;  but,  as  the  question  is  confessed  to 
be  doubtful,  it  is  clear  that  these  powerful  monks  are  in  the  wrong.  See  Butler's 
Lives  of  the  Saints,  vol.  iii.  p.  145  ;  a  work  of  merit:  the  sense  and  learning  be- 
long to  the  author — his  prejudices  are  those  of  his  profession. 

68  "Monasterium  Gregoriannm  in  ejusdem  Beati  Gregorii  aedibus  ad  clivum 
Scauri  prope  ecclesiam  SS.  Johannis  et  Pauli  in  honorem  St.  Andrea? "  (John,  in 
Vit.  Greg.  1.  i.  c.  6  ;  Greg.  1.  vii.  Epist.  13).  This  house  and  monastery  were  sit- 
uate on  the  side  of  the  Caslian  Hill,  which  fronts  the  Palatine ;  they  are  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Camaldoli :  San  Gregorio  triumphs,  and  St.  Andrew  has  retired  to 
a  small  chapel.  Nardini,  Roma  Antica,  1.  iii.  c.  6,  p.  100 }  Descrizione  di  Roma, 
torn.  i.  p.  442-44a 


558      PONTIFICATE  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT.  [Ch.XLV. 

the  choice  of  the  Komans  could  only  serve  to  exalt  his  char- 
acter in  the  eyes  of  the  emperor  and  the  public.  When  the 
fatal  mandate  was  proclaimed,  Gregory  solicited  the  aid  of 
some  friendly  merchants  to  convey  him  in  a  basket  beyond 
the  gates  of  Rome,  and  modestly  concealed  himself  some  days 
among  the  woods  and  mountains,  till  his  retreat  was  discover- 
ed, as  it  is  said,  by  a  celestial  light. 

The  pontificate  of  Gregory  the  Great,  which  lasted  thirteen 
years,  six  months,  and  ten  days,  is  one  of  the  most  edifying 
Pontificate  periods  of  the  history  of  the  Church.  His  virtues, 
°heGGrlat,y  and  even  his  faults,  a  singular  mixture  of  simplici- 
a!dF59o,  ty  and  cunning,  of  pride  and  humility,  of  sense  and 
Sew,  superstition,  were  happily  suited  to  his  station  and 
March  12.  {.Q  ^e  temper  of  the  times.  In  his  rival,  the  patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  he  condemned  the  antichristian  title 
of  universal  bishop,  which  the  successor  of  St.  Peter  was  too 
haughty  to  concede  and  too  feeble  to  assume;  and  the  ec- 
His  spirit-  clesiastical  jurisdiction  of  Gregory  was  confined  to 
nai  office,  tke  triple  character  of  Bishop  of  Rome,  Primate  of 
Italy,  and  Apostle  of  the  West.  He  frequently  ascended  the 
pulpit,  and  kindled,  by  his  rude  though  pathetic  eloquence, 
the  congenial  passions  of  his  audience :  the  language  of  the 
Jewish  prophets  was  interpreted  and  applied ;  and  the  minds 
of  a  people  depressed  by  their  present  calamities  were  direct- 
ed to  the  hopes  and  fears  of  the  invisible  world.  His  pre- 
cepts and  example  defined  the  model  of  the  Roman  liturgy ;" 
the  distribution  of  the  parishes,  the  calendar  of  festivals,  the 
order  of  processions,  the  service  of  the  priests  and  deacons, 
the  variety  and  change  of  sacerdotal  garments.  Till  the  last 
days  of  his  life  he  officiated  in  the  canon  of  the  mass,  which 
continued  above  three  hours :  the  Gregorian  chant70  has  pre- 


69  The  Lord's  Prayer  consists  of  half  a  dozen  lines ;  the  Sacramentarius  and 
Antiphonarius  of  Gregory  fill  880  folio  pages  (torn.  iii.  pt.  i.  p.  1-880) ;  yet  these 
only  constitute  a  part  of  the  Ordo  Romamis,  which  Mabillon  has  illustrated  and 
Fleury  has  abridged  (Hist.  Eccle's.  torn.  viii.  p.  139-152). 

10  I  learn  from  the  Abbe*  Dubos  (Reflexions  sur  la  Poe'sie  et  la  Peintnre,  torn, 
iii.  p.  174, 175)  that  the  simplicity  of  the  Ambrosian  chant  was  confined  to  four 
tnodes,  while  the  more  perfect  harmony  of  the  Gregorian  comprised  the  eight 


a.d.  590-604.]  PONTIFICATE  OF  GREGORY  TILE  GREAT.  550 

served  the  vocal  and  instrumental  music  of  the  theatre,  and 
the  rough  voices  of  the  barbarians  attempted  to  imitate  the 
melody  of  the  Roman  school.71  Experience  had  shown  him 
the  efficacy  of  these  solemn  and  pompous  rites  to  soothe  the 
distress,  to  confirm  the  faith,  to  mitigate  the  fierceness,  and  to 
dispel  the  dark  enthusiasm  of  the  vulgar,  and  he  readily  for- 
gave their  tendency  to  promote  the  reign  of  priesthood  and 
superstition.  The  bishops  of  Italy  and  the  adjacent  islands 
acknowledged  the  Roman  pontiff  as  their  special  metropoli- 
tan. Even  the  existence,  the  union,  or  the  translation  of 
episcopal  seats  was  decided  by  his  absolute  discretion:  and 
his  successful  inroads  into  the  provinces  of  Greece,  of  Spain, 
and  of  Gaul  might  countenance  the  more  lofty  pretensions 
of  succeeding  popes.  He  interposed  to  prevent  the  abuses 
of  popular  elections ;  his  jealous  care  maintained  the  purity 
of  faith  and  discipline;  and  the  apostolic  shepherd  assidu- 
ously watched  over  the  faith  and  discipline  of  the  subordi- 
nate pastors.  Under  his  reign  the  Arians  of  Italy  and  Spain 
were  reconciled  to  the  Catholic  Church,  and  the  conquest  of 
Britain  reflects  less  glory  on  the  name  of  Caesar  than  on  that 
of  Gregory  the  First.  Instead  of  six  legions,  forty  monks 
were  embarked  for  that  distant  island,  and  the  pontiff  lament- 
ed the  austere  duties  which  forbade  him  to  partake  the  perils 
of  their  spiritual  warfare.  In  less  than  two  years  he  could 
announce  to  the  Archbishop  of  Alexandria  that  they  had  bap- 
tized the  King  of  Kent  with  ten  thousand  of  his  Anglo-Sax- 
ons ;  and  that  the  Roman  missionaries,  like  those  of  the  prim- 
itive Church,  were  armed  only  with  spiritual  and  supernatu- 
ral powers.     The  credulity  or  the  prudence  of  Gregory  was 

modes  or  fifteen  chords  of  the  ancient  music.  He  observes  (p.  332)  that  the  con- 
noisseurs admire  the  preface  and  many  passages  of  the  Gregorian  oflice, 

71  John  the  deacon  (in  Vit.  Greg.  1.  ii.  c.  7)  expresses  the  early  contempt  of  the 
Italians  for  tramontane  singing.  "Alpina  scilicet  corpora  vocum  suarum  toni- 
truis  altisone  perstrepentia,  susceptse  modulationis  dulcedinem  proprie  non  resul- 
tant: quia  bibuli  gutturis  barbara  feritas  dura  inflexionibus  et  repercussionibus 
mitem  nititur  edere  cantilenam,  naturali  quodam  fragore,  quasi  plaustra  per  gra- 
dus  confuse  sonantia,  rigidas  voces  jactat,"  etc.  In  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  the 
Franks,  though  with  some  reluctance,  admitted  the  justice  of  the  reproach.  Ma- 
ratori,  Dissert,  xxv. 


560      PONTIFICATE  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT.   [Ch.  XLV. 

always  disposed  to  confirm  the  truths  of  religion  by  the  evi- 
dence of  ghosts,  miracles,  and  resurrections  ;7a  and  posterity 
has  paid  to  his  memory  the  same  tribute  which  he  freely 
granted  to  the  virtue  of  his  own  or  the  preceding  generation. 
The  celestial  honors  have  been  liberally  bestowed  by  the 
authority  of  the  popes,  but  Gregory  is  the  last  of  their  own 
order  whom  they  have  presumed  to  inscribe  in  the  calendar 
of  saints. 

Their  temporal  power  insensibly  arose  from  the  calamities 
of  the  times;  and  the  Eoman  bishops,  who  have  deluged 
and  temporal  Europe  and  Asia  with  blood,  were  compelled  to 
government ;  rejgn  as  the  ministers  of  charity  and  peace.  I.  The 
Church  of  Home,  as  it  has  been  formerly  observed,  was  en- 
dowed with  ample  possessions  in  Italy,  Sicily,  and  the  more 
distant  provinces ;  and  her  agents,  who  were  commonly  sub- 
deacons,  had  acquired  a  civil  and  even  criminal  jurisdiction 
over  their  tenants  and  husbandmen.  The  successor  of  St. 
Peter  administered  his  patrimony  with  the  temper 
of  a  vigilant  and  moderate  landlord  ;73  and  the  epis- 
tles of  Gregory  are  filled  with  salutary  instructions  to  abstain 
from  doubtful  or  vexatious  lawsuits,  to  preserve  the  integrity 
of  weights  and  measures,  to  grant  every  reasonable  delay,  and 
to  reduce  the  capitation  of  the  slaves  of  the  glebe,  who  pur- 
chased the  right  of  marriage  by  the  payment  of  an  arbitrary 
fine.74  The  rent  or  the  produce  of  these  estates  was  trans- 
ported to  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  at  the  risk  and  expense  of 

"  A  French  critic  (Petrus  Gussanvillus,  Opera,  torn,  ii.  p.  105-112)  has  vindi- 
cated the  right  of  Gregory  to  the  entire  nonsense  of  the  Dialogues.  Dupin  (torn. 
V.  p.  138)  does  not  think  that  any  one  will  vouch  for  the  truth  of  all  these  mira- 
cles :  I  should  like  to  know  how  many  of  them  he  believed  himself. 

13  Baronius  is  unwilling  to  expatiate  on  the  care  of  the  patrimonies,  lest  he 
should  betray  that  they  consisted  not  of  kingdoms  but  farms.  The  French  writers, 
the  Benedictine  editors  (torn.  iv.  1.  iii.  p.  272,  etc.),  and  Fleury  (torn.  viii.  p.  29, 
etc.),  are  not  afraid  of  entering  into  these  humble,  though  useful,  details ;  and  the 
humanity  of  Fleury  dwells  on  the  social  virtues  of  Gregory. 

,4  I  much  suspect  that  this  pecuniary  fine  on  the  marriages  of  villains  produced 
the  famous,  and  often  fabulous,  right,  de  cuissage,  de  marquette,  etc.  With  the 
consent  of  her  husband,  a  handsome  bride  might  commute  the  payment  in  the 
arms  of  a  young  landlord,  and  tha  mutual  favor  might  afford  a  precedent  of  local 
xather  than  legal  tyranny. 


a.d.  590-604.]  PONTIFICATE  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT.      5G1 

the  pope :  in  the  use  of  wealth  he  acted  like  a  faithful  stew- 
ard of  the  Church  and  the  poor,  and  liberally  applied  to  their 
wants  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  abstinence  and  order. 
The  voluminous  account  of  his  receipts  and  disbursements 
was  kept  above  three  hundred  years  in  the  Lateran,  as  the 
model  of  Christian  economy.  On  the  four  great  festivals  he 
divided  their  quarterly  allowance  to  the  clergy,  to 

and  alms.  .  l  J  .  ■,  -, 

his  domestics,  to  the  monasteries,  the  churches,  the 
places  of  burial,  the  almshouses,  and  the  hospitals  of  Rome, 
and  the  rest  of  the  diocese.  On  the  first  day  of  every  month 
he  distributed  to  the  poor,  according  to  the  season,  their  stated 
portion  of  corn,  wine,  cheese,  vegetables,  oil,  fish,  fresh  provi- 
sions, clothes,  and  money ;  and  his  treasurers  were  continually 
summoned  to  satisfy,  in  his  name,  the  extraordinary  demands 
of  indigence  and  merit.  The  instant  distress  of  the  sick  and 
helpless,  of  strangers  and  pilgrims,  was  relieved  by  the  bounty 
of  each  day  and  of  every  hour ;  nor  would  the  pontiff  indulge 
himself  in  a  frugal  repast  till  he  had  sent  the  dishes  from  his 
own  table  to  some  objects  deserving  of  his  compassion.  The 
misery  of  the  times  had  reduced  the  nobles  and  matrons 
of  Borne  to  accept,  without  a  blush,  the  benevolence  of  the 
Church :  three  thousand  virgins  received  their  food  and  rai- 
ment from  the  hand  of  their  benefactor ;  and  many  bishops  of 
Italy  escaped  from  the  barbarians  to  the  hospitable  threshold 
of  the  Vatican.  Gregory  might  justly  be  styled  the  Father 
of  his  country;  and  such  was  the  extreme  sensibility  of  his 
conscience,  that,  for  the  death  of  a  beggar  who  had  perished 
in  the  streets,  he  interdicted  himself  during  several  days  from 
the  exercise  of  sacerdotal  functions.  II.  The  misfortunes  of 
Home  involved  the  apostolical  pastor  in  the  business  of  peace 
and  war ;  and  it  might  be  doubtful  to  himself  whether  piety 
or  ambition  prompted  him  to  supply  the  place  of  his  absent 
sovereign.  Gregory  awakened  the  emperor  from  a  long  slum- 
ber; exposed  the  guilt  or  incapacity  of  the  exarch  and  his 
inferior  ministers;  complained  that  the  veterans  were  with- 
drawn from  Home  for  the  defence  of  Spoleto ;  encouraged 
the  Italians  to  guard  their  cities  and  altars ;  and  condescend- 
ed, in  the  crisis  of  danger,  to  name  the  tribunes  and  to  direct 
IV.— 36 


562      PONTIFICATE  OF  GKEGORY  THE  GREAT.  [Ch.  XLV. 

tlie  operations  of  the  provincial  troops.  But  the  martial  spirit 
of  the  pope  was  checked  by  the  scruples  of  humanity  and  re- 
ligion :  the  imposition  of  tribute,  though  it  was  employed  in 
the  Italian  war,  he  freely  condemned  as  odious  and  oppres- 
sive ;  whilst  he  protected,  against  the  imperial  edicts,  the  pi- 
ous cowardice  of  the  soldiers  who  deserted  a  military  for  a 
monastic  life.  If  we  may  credit  his  own  declarations,  it  would 
have  been  easy  for  Gregory  to  exterminate  the  Lombards  by 
their  domestic  factions,  without  leaving  a  king,  a  duke,  or  a 
count  to  save  that  unfortunate  nation  from  the  vengeance  of 
their  foes.  As  a  Christian  bishop,  he  preferred  the  salutary 
offices  of  peace ;  his  mediation  appeased  the  tumult  of  arms ; 
but  he  was  too  conscious  of  the  arts  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
passions  of  the  Lombards  to  engage  his  sacred  promise  for 
the  observance  of  the  truce.  Disappointed  in  the  hope  of  a 
general  and  lasting  treaty,  he  presumed  to  save  his  country 
without  the  consent  of  the  emperor  or  the  exarch.  The  sword 
of  the  enemy  was  suspended  over  Home ;  it  was  averted  by 
the  mild  eloquence  and  seasonable  gifts  of  the  pontiff,  who 
The  savior  commanded  the  respect  of  heretics  and  barbarians. 
ofEome.  The  merits  of  Gregory  were  treated  by  the  Byzan- 
tine court  with  reproach  and  insult ;  but  in  the  attachment  of 
a  grateful  people  he  found  the  purest  reward  of  a  citizen  and 
the  best  right  of  a  sovereign.75 

75  The  temporal  reign  of  Gregory  I.  is  ably  exposed  by  Sigonius  in  the  first 
book,  De  Regno  Italic.    See  bis  works,  torn.  ii.  p.  44-75. 


OlXLVL}  CONTEST  OF  ROME  AND  PEESIA.  563 


CHAPTER  XLVI, 

Revolutions  of  Persia  after  the  Death  of  Chosroes  or  Nushirvan. — His  Son  Hor- 
mouz,  a  Tyrant,  is  deposed. — Usurpation  of  Bahram. — Flight  and  Restoration 
of  Chosroes  II. — His  Gratitude  to  the  Romans. — The  Chagan  of  the  Avars. — 
Revolt  of  the  Army  against  Maurice. — His  Death. — Tyranny  of  Phocas. — Ele- 
vation of  Heraclius. — The  Persian  War. — Chosroes  subdues  Syria,  Egypt,  and 
Asia  Minor. — Siege  of  Constantinople  by  the  Persians  and  Avars. — Persian 
Expeditions. — Victories  and  Triumph  of  Heraclius. 

The  conflict  of  Kome  and  Persia  was  prolonged  from  the 

death  of  Crassus  to  the  reign  of  Heraclius.     An  experience 

of  seven  hundred  years  might  convince  the  rival 
Contest  of  .  .     J  to  ...         .    . 

Rome  and      nations  oi  the  impossibility  of  maintaining  their 

conquests  beyond  the  fatal  limits  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates.  Yet  the  emulation  of  Trajan  and  Julian  was 
awakened  by  the  trophies  of  Alexander,  and  the  sovereigns 
of  Persia  indulged  the  ambitious  hope  of  restoring  the  em- 
pire of  Cyrus.1  Such  extraordinary  efforts  of  power  and 
courage  will  always  command  the  attention  of  posterity ;  but 
the  events  by  which  the  fate  of  nations  is  not  materially 
changed  leave  a  faint  impression  on  the  page  of  history,  and 
the  patience  of  the  reader  would  be  exhausted  by  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  hostilities,  undertaken  without  cause,  prose- 
cuted without  glory,  and  terminated  without  effect.  The  arts 
of  negotiation,  unknown  to  the  simple  greatness  of  the  senate 
and  the  Caesars,  were  assiduously  cultivated  by  the  Byzantine 
princes ;  and  the  memorials  of  their  perpetual  embassies5  re- 


1  "Missis  qui  *  *  *  reposcerent  *  *  *  veteres  Persarum  ac  Macedonum  termi- 
nos,  seque  invasurum  possessa  Cyro  et  post  Alexandra,  per  vaniloquentiam  ac 
minas  jaciebat "  (Tacit.  Annal.  vi.  31).  Such  was  the  language  of  the  Arsacides  : 
I  have  repeatedly  marked  the  lofty  claims  of  the  Sassanians. 

2  fee  the  embassies  of  Menander,  extracted  and  preserved  in  the  tenth  century 
by  the  order  of  Constantino  Porphyrogenitus, 


564  CONQUEST  OF  YEMEN  BY  NUSHIRVAN.     [CH.XLVI 

peat,  with  the  same  uniform  prolixity,  the  language  of  false- 
hood and  declamation,  the  insolence  of  the  barbarians,  and  the 
servile  temper  of  the  tributary  Greeks.  Lamenting  the  bar- 
ren superfluity  of  materials,  I  have  studied  to  compress  the 
narrative  of  these  uninteresting  transactions :  but  the  just 
!Nushirvan  is  still  applauded  as  the  model  of  Oriental  kings, 
and  the  ambition  of  his  grandson  Chosroes  prepared  the  rev- 
olution of  the  East,  which  was  speedily  accomplished  by  the 
arms  and  the  religion  of  the  successors  of  Mahomet. 

In  the  useless  altercations  that  precede  and  justify  the 
quarrels  of  princes,  the  Greeks  and  the  barbarians  accused 
conquest  of  eacn  other  of  violating  the  peace  which  had  been 
Nn^u-van.  concluded  between  the  two  empires  about  four 
A.D.57o,etc.  years  before  the  death  of  Justinian.  The  sover- 
eign of  Persia  and  India  aspired  to  reduce  under  his  obedi- 
ence the  province  of  Yemen,  or  Arabia8  Felix;  the  distant 
land  of  myrrh  and  frankincense,  which  had  escaped,  rather 
than  opposed,  the  conquerors  of  the  East.  After  the  defeat 
of  Abrahah  under  the  walls  of  Mecca,  the  discord  of  his  sons 
and  brothers  gave  an  easy  entrance  to  the  Persians:  they 
chased  the  strangers  of  Abyssinia  beyond  the  Red  Sea ;  and 
a  native  prince  of  the  ancient  Homerites  was  restored  to  the 
throne  as  the  vassal  or  viceroy  of  the  great  Nushirvan.4    But 

8  The  general  independence  of  the  Arabs,  which  cannot  be  admitted  without 
many  limitations,  is  blindly  asserted  in  a  separate  dissertation  of  the  authors  of 
the  Universal  History,  vol.  xx.  p.  196-250.  A  perpetual  miracle  is  supposed  to 
have  guarded  the  prophecy  in  favor  of  the  posterity  of  Ishmael ;  and  these  learn- 
ed bigots  are  not  afraid  to  risk  the  truth  of  Christianity  on  this  frail  and  slippery 
foundation.* 

4  D'Herbelot,  Biblioth.  Orient,  p.  477;  Pocock,  Specimen  Hist.  Arabum,  p.  64, 
65.    Father  Pagi  (Critica,  torn.  ii.  p.  646)  has  proved  that,  after  ten  years'  peace, 


a  It  certainly  appears  difficult  to  extract  a  prediction  of  the  perpetual  indepen- 
dence of  the  Arabs  from  the  text  in  Genesis,  which  would  have  received  an  ample 
fulfilment  during  centuries  of  uninvaded  freedom.  But  the  disputants  appear  to 
forget  the  inseparable  connection  in  the  prediction  of  the  wild,  the  Bedoween  hab- 
its of  the  Ismaelites,  with  their  national  independence.  The  stationary  and  civil- 
ized descendant  of  Ismael  forfeited,  as  it  were,  his  birthright,  and  ceased  to  be  a 
genuine  son  of  the  "wild  man."  The  phrase,  "dwelling  in  the  presence  of  his 
brethren,"  is  interpreted  by  Rosenmuller(in  loc.)and  others,  according  to  the  He- 
brew geography,  "  to  the  east "  of  his  brethren,  the  legitimate  race  of  Abraham. 
— -M. 


A.D.570.]  HIS  LAST  WAR  WITH  THE  ROMANS.  505 

the  nephew  of  Justinian  declared  his  resolution  to  avenge  the 
injuries  of  his  Christian  ally  the  prince  of  Abyssinia,  as  they 
suggested  a  decent  pretence  to  discontinue  the  annual  tribute, 
which  was  poorly  disguised  by  the  name  of  pension.  The 
churches  of  Persarmenia  were  oppressed  by  the  intolerant 
spirit  of  the  Magi  ;a  they  secretly  invoked  the  protector  of 
the  Christians,  and,  after  the  pious  murder  of  their  satraps, 
the  rebels  were  avowed  and  supported  as  the  brethren  and 
subjects  of  the  Roman  emperor.  The  complaints  of  Nushir- 
van  were  disregarded  by  the  Byzantine  court ;  Justin  yield- 
ed to  the  importunities  of  the  Turks,  who  offered  an  alliance 
against  the  common  enemy ;  and  the  Persian  monarchy  was 
threatened  at  the  same  instant  by  the  united  forces  of  Europe, 
of  ^Ethiopia,  and  of  Scythia.  At  the  age  of  fourscore  the 
sovereign  of  the  East  would  perhaps  have  chosen  the  peaceful 

the  Persian  war,  which  continued  twenty  years,  was  renewed  a.d.  571.b  Ma- 
homet was  horn  a.d.  569,  in  the  year  of  the  elephant,  or  the  defeat  of  Abrahah 
(Gagnier,  Vie  de  Mahomet,  torn.  i.  p.  89,  90,  98) ;  and  this  account  allows  two 
years  for  the  conquest  of  Yemen. c 


3  Persarmenia  was  long  maintained  in  peace  by  the  tolerant  administration  of 
Mejej,  prince  of  the  Gnounians.  On  his  death  he  was  succeeded  by  a  persecutor, 
a  Persian,  named  Ten-Schahpour,  who  attempted  to  propagate  Zoroastrianism  by 
violence.  Nushirvan,  on  an  appeal  to  the  throne  by  the  Armenian  clergy,  re- 
placed Ten-Schahpour  in  552,  by  Veschnas-Vahram.  The  new  marzban,  or  gov- 
ernor, was  instructed  to  repress  the  bigoted  Magi  in  their  persecutions  of  the  Ar- 
menians, but  the  Persian  converts  to  Christianity  were  still  exposed  to  cruel  suf- 
ferings. The  most  distinguished  of  them,  Izdbouzid,  was  crucified  at  Dovin  in 
the  presence  of  a  vast  multitude.  The  fame  of  this  martyr  spread  to  the  West. 
Menander,  the  historian,  not  only,  as  appears  by  a  fragment  published  by  Mai,  re- 
lated this  event  in  his  history,  but,  according  to  M.  St.  Martin,  wrote  a  tragedy  on 
the  subject.  This,  however,  is  an  unwarrantable  inference  from  the  phrase  rpayai- 
diav  Bs/xevoe,  which  merely  means  that  he  related  the  tragic  event  in  his  history. 
An  epigram  on  the  same  subject  preserved  in  the  Anthology  (Jacob's  Anth.  Palat. 
i.  27)  belongs  to  the  historian.  Yet  Armenia  remained  in  peace  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Veschnas-Vahram  and  his  successor  Varazdat.  The  tyranny  of  his  suc- 
cessor Surena  led  to  the  insurrection  under  Vartan,  the  Mamigonian,  who  revenged 
the  death  of  his  brother  on  the  marzban  Surena,  surprised  Dovin,  and  put  to  the 
sword  the  governor,  the  soldiers,  and  the  Magians.  From  St.  Martin,  vol.  x.  p.  79- 
89.— M. 

b  Clinton  has  proved  that  the  Persian  war  was  renewed  in  572,  in  the  seventh 
year  of  Justin.     Fasti  Romani,  vol.  i.  p.  828. — S. 

c  Abrahah,  according  to  some  accounts,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Taksoum, 
who  reigned  seventeen  years  ;  his  brother  Mascouh,  who  was  slain  in  battle  against 
the  Persians,  twelve.  But  tbis  chronology  is  irreconcilable  with  the  Arabian  con- 
quests of  Nushirvan  the  Great.  Either  Seif.  or  his  son  Maadi  Karb,  was  the  na- 
tive prince  placed  on  the  throne  by  the  Persians,  St.  Martin,  vol,  X.  p.  78.  Sea 
likewise  Johannseu,  Hist,  Yemanaj, — M, 


566     NUSHIRVAN'S  LAST  WAR  WITH  THE  ROMANS.  [CH.XLVI 

enjoyment  of  his  glory  and  greatness ;  but  as  soon  as  war  be- 
came inevitable  he  took  the  field  with  the  alacrity  of  youth, 
His  last  war  whilst  the  aggressor  trembled  in  the  palace  of  Con- 
Somans.  stantinople.  Nushirvan  or  Chosroes  conducted  in 
A.D.5T2,etc  person  the  siege  of  Dara ;  and  although  that  im- 
portant fortress  had  been  left  destitute  of  troops  and  maga- 
zines, the  valor  of  the  inhabitants  resisted  above  five  months 
the  archers,  the  elephants,  and  the  military  engines  of  the 
Great  King.  In  the  mean  while  his  general  Adarman  ad- 
vanced from  Babylon,  traversed  the  desert,  passed  the  Eu- 
phrates, insulted  the  suburbs  of  Antioch,  reduced  to  ashes  the 
city  of  Apamea,  and  laid  the  spoils  of  Syria  at  the  feet  of  his 
master,  whose  perseverance  in  the  midst  of  winter  at  length 
subverted  the  bulwark  of  the  East.  But  these  losses,  which 
astonished  the  provinces  and  the  court,  produced  a  salutary 
effect  in  the  repentance  and  abdication  of  the  Emperor  Jus- 
tin :  a  new  spirit  arose  in  the  Byzantine  councils  ;  and  a  truce 
of  three  years  was  obtained  by  the  prudence  of  Tiberius. 
That  seasonable  interval  was  employed  in  the  preparations  of 
war ;  and  the  voice  of  rumor  proclaimed  to  the  world  that 
from  the  distant  countries  of  the  Alps  and  the  Rhine,  from 
Scythia,  Msesia,  Pannonia,  Illyricum,  and  Isauria,  the  strength 
of  the  imperial  cavalry  was  reinforced  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  soldiers.  Yet  the  King  of  Persia,  without  fear 
or  without  faith,  resolved  to  prevent  the  attack  of  the  enemy ; 
again  passed  the  Euphrates,  and,  dismissing  the  ambassadors 
of  Tiberius,  arrogantly  commanded  them  to  await  his  arrival 
at  Csesarea,  the  metropolis  of  the  Cappadocian  provinces. 
The  two  armies  encountered  each  other  in  the  battle  of  Me- 
litene  ;a  the  barbarians,  who  darkened  the  air  with  a  cloud  of 
arrows,  prolonged  their  line  and  extended  their  wings  across 
the  plain  ;  while  the  Romans,  in  deep  and  solid  bodies,  ex- 
pected to  prevail  in  closer  action  by  the  weight  of  their 
swords  and  lances.  A  Scythian  chief,  who  commanded  their 
right  wing,  suddenly  turned  the  flank  of  the  enemy,  attacked 
their  rear -guard  in  the  presence  of  Chosroes,  penetrated  to 

'  Malathiah.     It  was  in  the  lesser  Armenia. — M. 


A.D.  579.]  HIS  DEATH.  567 

the  midst  of  the  camp,  pillaged  the  royal  tent,  profaned  the 
eternal  fire,  loaded  a  train  of  camels  with  the  spoils  of  Asia, 
cut  his  way  through  the  Persian  host,  and  returned  with  songs 
of  victory  to  his  friends,  who  had  consumed  the  day  in  single 
combats  or  ineffectual  skirmishes.  The  darkness  of  the  night 
and  the  separation  of  the  Komans  afforded  the  Persian  mon- 
arch an  opportunity  of  revenge ;  and  one  of  their  camps  was 
swept  away  by  a  rapid  and  impetuous  assault.  But  the  re- 
view of  his  loss  and  the  consciousness  of  his  danger  deter- 
mined Chosroes  to  a  speedy  retreat :  he  burned  in  his  passage 
the  vacant  town  of  Melitene ;  and,  without  consulting  the 
safety  of  his  troops,  boldly  swam  the  Euphrates  on  the  back 
of  an  elephant.  After  this  unsuccessful  campaign,  the  want 
of  magazines,  and  perhaps  some  inroad  of  the  Turks,  obliged 
him  to  disband  or  divide  his  forces ;  the  Romans  were  left 
masters  of  the  field,  and  their  general,  Justinian,  advancing  to 
the  relief  of  the  Persarmenian  rebels,  erected  his  standard  on 
the  banks  of  the  Araxes.  The  great  Pompey  had  formerly 
halted  within  three  days'  march  of  the  Caspian  :B  that  inland 
sea  was  explored  for  the  first  time  by  a  hostile  fleet,6  and 
seventy  thousand  captives  were  transplanted  from  Hyrcania 
to  the  Isle  of  Cyprus.  On  the  return  of  spring  Justinian  de- 
scended into  the  fertile  plains  of  Assyria ;  the  flames  of  war 
approached  the  residence  of  Nushirvan ;  the  indignant  mon- 
His death.  arca  sun^  mto  tne  grave;  and  his  last  edict  re- 
a.d.5T9.  strained  his  successors  from  exposing  their  person 
in  a  battle  against  the  Romans.a     Yet  the  memory  of  this 

B  He  had  vanquished  the  Albanians,  who  brought  into  the  field  12,000  horse 
and  60,000  foot ;  but  he  dreaded  the  multitude  of  venomous  reptiles,  whose  ex- 
istence may  admit  of  some  doubt,  as  well  as  that  of  the  neighboring  Amazons. 
Plutarch,  in  Pompeio  [c.  36],  torn.  ii.  p.  1165, 1166. 

6  In  the  history  of  the  world  I  can  only  perceive  two  navies  on  the  Caspian : 
1.  Of  the  Macedonians,  when  Patrocles,  the  admiral  of  the  kings  of  Syria,  Seleu- 
cus  and  Antiochus,  descended  most  probably  the  river  Oxus,  from  the  confines 
of  India  (Plin.  Hist.  Natur.  vi.  21).  2.  Of  the  Russians,  when  Peter  the  First 
conducted  a  fleet  and  army  from  the  neighborhood  of  Moscow  to  the  coast  of  Per- 
sia (Bell's  Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  325-352).  He  justly  observes  that  such  martial 
pomp  had  never  been  displayed  on  the  Volga. 


»  This  circumstance  rests  on  the  statements  of  Evagrius  and  Theopbylact  Si* 


568  TYRANNY  AND  VICES  OF  HOEMOUZ.        [Ch.  XLVL 

transient  affront  was  lost  in  the  glories  of  a  long  reign ;  and 
his  formidable  enemies,  after  indulging  their  dream  of  con- 
quest, again  solicited  a  short  respite  from  the  calamities  of 
war.7 

The  throne  of  Chosroes  Kushirvan  was  filled  by  Hormouz, 
or  Horrnisdas,  the  eldest  or  the  most  favored  of  his  sons. 
Tyranny  and  With  the  kingdoms  of  Persia  and  India,  he  iuher- 
eiifnormouz.  ^ed  tne  reputation  and  example  of  his  father,  the 
a.d.  579-590.  servjCGj  jn  every  rank,  of  his  wise  and  valiant  of- 
ficers, and  a  general  system  of  administration  harmonized  by 
time  and  political  wisdom  to  promote  the  happiness  of  the 
prince  and  people.  But  the  royal  youth  enjoyed  a  still  more 
valuable  blessing,  the  friendship  of  a  sage  who  had  presided 
over  his  education,  and  who  always  preferred  the  honor  to 
the  interest  of  his  pupil,  his  interest  to  his  inclination.  In  a 
dispute  with  the  Greek  and  Indian  philosophers,  Buzurg8  had 
once  maintained  that  the  most  grievous  misfortune  of  life  is 
old  age  without  the  remembrance  of  virtue;  and  our  candor 
will  presume  that  the  same  principle  compelled  him  during 
three  years  to  direct  the  councils  of  the  Persian  empire.  His 
zeal  was  rewarded  by  the  gratitude  and  docility  of  Hormouz, 
who  acknowledged  himself  more  indebted  to  his  preceptor 
than  to  his  parent :-  but  when  age  and  labor  had  impaired  the 
strength,  and  perhaps  the  faculties,  of  this  prudent  counsellor, 
he  retired  from  court  and  abandoned  the  youthful  monarch 
to  his  own  passions  and  those  of  his  favorites.     By  the  fatal 

1  For  these  Persian  wars  and  treaties,  see  Menander,  in  Excerpt.  Legat. 
p.  113-125  [p.  311-331,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Theophanes  Byzant.  apnd  Photium,  cod. 
Ixiv.  p.  77,  80,  81  [p.  26,  27,  edit.  Bekk.];  Evagrius,  1.  v.  c.  7-15;  Theophylact, 
1.  iii.  c.  9-16  ;  Agathias,  1.  iv.  [c.  29]  p.  140  [p.  271,  edit.  Bonn]. 

8  Buzurg  Mihir  may  be  considered,  in  his  character  and  station,  as  the  Seneca 
of  the  East;  but  his  virtues,  and  perhaps  his  faults,  are  less  known  than  those  of 
the  Roman,  who  appears  to  have  been  much  more  loquacious.  The  Persian  saga 
was  the  person  who  imported  from  India  the  game  of  chess  and  the  fables  of  Pil- 
pay.  Such  has  been  the  fame  of  his  wisdom  and  virtues,  that  the  Christians  claim 
him  as  a  believer  in  the  Gospel ;  and  the  Mahometans  revere  Buzurg  as  a  prema- 
ture Mussulman.     D'Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Orientale,  p.  218. 


mocatta.     They  are  not  of  sufficient  authority  to  establish  a  fact  so  improbable 
St.  Martin,  vol.  s.  p.  140,— M. 


a.d.  579-590.]     TYRANNY  AND  VICES  OF  HORMOUZ.  509 

vicissitude  of  human  affairs,  the  same  scenes  were  renewed  at 
Ctesiphon  which  had  been  exhibited  in  Rome  after  the  death 
of  Marcus  Antoninus.  The  ministers  of  flattery  and  corrup- 
tion, who  had  been  banished  by  the  father,  were  recalled  and 
cherished  by  the  son ;  the  disgrace  and  exile  of  the  friends  of 
Kushirvan  established  their  tyranny;  and  virtue  was  driven 
by  degrees  from  the  mind  of  Hormouz,  from  his  palace,  and 
from  the  government  of  the  State.  The  faithful  agents,  the 
eyes  and  ears  of  the  king,  informed  him  of  the  progress  of 
disorder,  that  the  provincial  governors  flew  to  their  prey  with 
the  fierceness  of  lions  and  eagles,  and  that  their  rapine  and  in- 
justice would  teach  the  most  loyal  of  his  subjects  to  abhor  the 
name  and  authority  of  their  sovereign.  The  sincerity  of  this 
advice  was  punished  with  death ;  the  murmurs  of  the  cities 
were  despised,  their  tumults  were  quelled  by  military  execu- 
tion ;  the  intermediate  powers  between  the  throne  and  the 
people  were  abolished ;  and  the  childish  vanity  of  Hormouz, 
who  affected  the  daily  use  of  the  tiara,  was  fond  of  declaring 
that  he  alone  would  be  the  judge  as  well  as  the  master  of  his 
kingdom.  In  every  word  and  in  every  action  the  son  of  Nu- 
shirvan  degenerated  from  the  virtues  of  his  father.  His  ava- 
rice defrauded  the  troops;  his  jealous  caprice  degraded  the 
satraps ;  the  palace,  the  tribunals,  the  waters  of  the  Tigris, 
were  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  innocent,  and  the  tyrant 
exulted  in  the  sufferings  and  execution  of  thirteen  thousand 
victims.  As  the  excuse  of  his  cruelty,  he  sometimes  conde- 
scended to  observe  that  the  fears  of  the  Persians  would  be 
productive  of  hatred,  and  that  their  hatred  must  terminate  in 
rebellion ;  but  he  forgot  that  his  own  guilt  and  folly  had  in- 
spired the  sentiments  which  he  deplored,  and  prepared  the 
event  which  he  so  justly  apprehended.  Exasperated  by  long 
and  hopeless  oppression,  the  provinces  of  Babylon,  Susa,  and 
Carmania  erected  the  standard  of  revolt ;  and  the  princes  of 
Arabia,  India,  and  Scythia  refused  the  customary  tribute  to 
the  unworthy  successor  of  Nushirvan.  The  arms  of  the  Ro- 
mans, in  slow  sieges  and  frequent  inroads,  afflicted  the  fron- 
tiers of  Mesopotamia  and  Assyria :  one  of  their  generals  pro- 
fessed himself  the  disciple  of  Scipio ;  and  the  soldiers  were 


570  EXPLOITS  OF  BAHRAM.  [Ch.  XLVL 

animated  by  a  miraculous  image  of  Christ,  whose  mild  aspect 
should  never  have  been  displayed  in  the  front  of  battle.8  At 
the  same  time  the  eastern  provinces  of  Persia  were  invaded 
by  the  great  khan,  who  passed  the  Oxus  at  the  head  of  three 
or  four  hundred  thousand  Turks.  The  imprudent  Hormouz 
accepted  their  perfidious  and  formidable  aid;  the  cities  of 
Khorassan  or  Bactriana  were  commanded  to  open  their  gates ; 
the  march  of  the  barbarians  towards  the  mountains  of  Hyr- 
cania  revealed  the  correspondence  of  the  Turkish  and  Roman 
arms ;  and  their  union  must  have  subverted  the  throne  of  the 
House  of  Sassan. 

Persia  had  been  lost  by  a  king ;  it  was  saved  by  a  hero. 

After  his  revolt,  Yaranes  or  Bahrain  is  stigmatized  by  the  son 

,     .     of  Hormouz  as  an  ungrateful  slave :  the  proud  and 

Exploits  of  .  &  _r 

Bahram.  ambiguous  reproach  01  despotism,  since  he  was  tru- 
ly descended  from  the  ancient  princes  of  Rei,10  one 
of  the  seven  families  whose  splendid,  as  well  as  substantial, 
prerogatives  exalted  them  above  the  heads  of  the  Persian  no- 
bility."   At  the  siege  of  Dara  the  valor  of  Bahram  was  sig- 

9  See  the  imitation  of  Scipio  in  Theophylact,  1.  i.  c.  14 ;  the  image  of  Christ, 
1.  ii.  c.  3.  Hereafter  I  shall  speak  more  amply  of  the  Christian  images — I  had  al- 
most said  idols.  This,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  is  the  oldest  axupoiroitjTog  of  divine 
manufacture ;  but  in  the  next  thousand  years  many  others  issued  from  the  same 
workshop. 

10  Ragae,  or  Rei,  is  mentioned  in  the  apocryphal  book  of  Tobit  as  already  flour- 
ishing 700  years  before  Christ,  under  the  Assyrian  empire.  Under  the  foreign 
names  of  Europus  and  Arsacia,  this  city,  500  stadia  to  the  south  of  the  Caspian 
gates,  was  successively  embellished  by  the  Macedonians  and  Parthians  (Strabo, 
l.xi.  p.  796  [p.  524,  edit.  Casaub.]).  Its  grandeur  and  populousness  in  the  ninth 
century  is  exaggerated  beyond  the  bounds  of  credibility ;  but  Rei  has  been  since 
ruined  by  wars  and  the  unwholesomeness  of  the  air.  Chardin,  Voyage  en  Perse, 
torn.  i.  p.  279,  280 ;  D'Herbelot,  Biblioth.  Oriental,  p.  714. 

11  Theophylact,  1.  iii.  c.  18  [p.  153,  edit.  Bonn].  The  story  of  the  seven  Per- 
sians is  told  in  the  third  book  of  Herodotus  ;  and  their  noble  descendants  are  of- 
ten mentioned,  especially  in  the  fragments  of  Ctesias.  Yet  the  independence  of 
Otanes  (Herodot.  1.  iii.  c.  83,  84)  is  hostile  to  the  spirit  of  despotism,  and  it  may 
not  seem  probable  that  the  seven  families  could  survive  the  revolutions  of  eleven 
hundred  years.  They  might,  however,  be  represented  by  the  seven  ministers 
(Brisson,  De  Regno  Persico,  1.  i.  p.  190) ;  and  some  Persian  nobles,  like  the  kings 
of  Pontus  (Polyb.  1.  v.  [c.  43]  p.  540)  and  Cappadocia  (Diodor.  Sicul.  1.  xxxi. 
[c.  19]  torn.  ii.  p.  517),  might  claim  their  descent  from  the  bold  companions  of 
Darius, 


A.D.590.]  EXPLOITS  OF  BAHRAM.  571 

nalized  under  the  eyes  of  Nushirvan,  and  both  the  father  and 
son  successively  promoted  him  to  the  command  of  armies,  the 
government  of  Media,  and  the  superintendence  of  the  palace. 
The  popular  prediction  which  marked  him  as  the  deliverer  of 
Persia  might  be  inspired  by  his  past  victories  and  extraordi- 
nary figure:  the  epithet  Giuhin*  is  expressive  of  the  quality 
of  dry  wood;  he  had  the  strength  and  stature  of  a  giant ;  and 
his  savage  countenance  was  fancifully  compared  to  that  of 
a  wild-cat.  While  the  nation  trembled,  while  Hormouz  dis- 
guised his  terror  by  the  name  of  suspicion,  and  his  servants 
concealed  their  disloyalty  under  the  mask  of  fear,  Bahrain 
alone  displayed  his  undaunted  courage  and  apparent  fidelity : 
and  as  soon  as  he  found  that  no  more  than  twelve  thousand 
soldiers  would  follow  him  against  the  enemy,  he  prudently 
declared  that  to  this  fatal  number  Heaven  had  reserved  the 
honors  of  the  triumph.b  The  steep  and  narrow  descent  of 
the  Pule  Kudbar,"  or  Hyrcanian  rock,  is  the  only  pass  through 
which  an  army  can  penetrate  into  the  territory  of  Kei  and  the 
plains  of  Media.  From  the  commanding  heights  a  band  of 
resolute  men  might  overwhelm  with  stones  and  darts  the 
myriads  of  the  Turkish  host :  their  emperor  and  his  son  were 
transpierced  with  arrows ;  and  the  fugitives  were  left,  with- 
out counsel  or  provisions,  to  the  revenge  of  an  injured  peo- 
ple. The  patriotism  of  the  Persian  general  was  stimulated 
by  his  affection  for  the  city  of  his  forefathers ;  in  the  hour  of 
victory  every  peasant  became  a  soldier,  and  every  soldier  a 
hero ;  and  their  ardor  was  kindled  by  the  gorgeous  spectacle 
of  beds,  and  thrones,  and  tables  of  massy  gold,  the  spoils  of 
Asia,  and  the  luxury  of  the  hostile  camp.  A  prince  of  a  less 
malignant  temper  could  not  easily  have  forgiven  his  benefac- 

12  See  an  accurate  description  of  this  mountain  by  Olearius  (Voyage  en  Perse, 
p.  997, 998),  who  ascended  it  with  much  difficulty  and  danger  in  his  return  from 
Ispahan  to  the  Caspian  Sea. 


*  He  is  generally  called  Baharam  Choubeen,  Baharam  the  stick-like,  probably 
from  his  appearance.     Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  120. — M. 

b  The  Persian  historians  say  that  Hormouz  entreated  his  general  to  increase 
his  numbers ;  but  Baharam  replied  that  experience  had  taught  him  that  it  was 
the  quality,  not  the  number  of  soldiers,  which  gave  success.  *  *  *  No  man  in  his 
army  was  under  forty  years,  and  none  above  fifty.     Malcolm,  vol.  i.  p.  121. — M. 


572  REBELLION  OF  BAHRAM.  [Ch.XLVL 

tor ;  and  the  secret  hatred  of  Horraouz  was  envenomed  by  a 
malicious  report  that  Bahram  had  privately  retained  the  most 
precious  fruits  of  his  Turkish  victory.  But  the  approach  of 
a  Roman  army  on  the  side  of  the  Araxes  compelled  the  im- 
placable tyrant  to  smile  and  to  applaud;  and  the  toils  of 
Bahram  were  rewarded  with  the  permission  of  encountering 
a  new  enemy,  by  their  skill  and  discipline  more  formidable 
than  a  Scythian  multitude.  Elated  by  his  recent  success,  he 
-despatched  a  herald  with  a  bold  defiance  to  the  camp  of  the 
[Romans,  requesting  them  to  fix  a  day  of  battle,  and  to  choose 
whether  they  would  pass  the  river  themselves,  or  allow  a  free 
passage  to  the  arms  of  the  Great  King.  The  lieutenant  of 
the  Emperor  Maurice  preferred  the  safer  alternative;  and 
this  local  circumstance,  which  would  have  enhanced  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Persians,  rendered  their  defeat  more  bloody  and 
their  escape  more  difficult.  But  the  loss  of  his  subjects,  and 
the  danger  of  his  kingdom,  were  overbalanced  in  the  mind 
of  Hormouz  by  the  disgrace  of  his  personal  enemy ;  and  no 
sooner  had  Bahram  collected  and  reviewed  his  forces  than  he 
received  from  a  royal  messenger  the  insulting  gift  of  a  dis- 
taff, a  spinning-wheel,  and  a  complete  suit  of  female  apparel. 
Obedient  to  the  will  of  his  sovereign,  he  showed  himself  to 
flthe  soldiers  in  this  unworthy  disguise :  they  resented  his  ig- 
nominy and  their  own ;  a  shout  of  rebellion  ran 
through  the  ranks ;  and  the  general  accepted  their 
oath  of  fidelity  and  vows  of  revenge.  A  second  messenger, 
who  had  been  commanded  to  bring  the  rebel  in  chains,  was 
trampled  under  the  feet  of  an  elephant,  and  manifestoes  were 
diligently  circulated,  exhorting  the  Persians  to  assert  their 
freedom  against  an  odious  and  contemptible  tyrant.  The  de- 
fection was  rapid  and  universal;  his  loyal  slaves  were  sacri- 
ficed to  the  public  fury;  the  troops  deserted  to  the  standard 
of  Bahram ;  and  the  provinces  again  saluted  the  deliverer  of 
his  country. 

As  the  passes  were  faithfully  guarded,  Hormouz  could 
only  compute  the  number  of  his  enemies  by  the  testimony 
of  a  guilty  conscience,  and  the  daily  defection  of  those  who, 
in  the  hour  of  his  distress,  avenged  their  wrongs,  or  forgot 


a.d.590.]         HORMOUZ  DEPOSED  AND  IMPRISONED.  573 

their  obligations.     He  proudly  displayed  the  ensigns  of  roy- 
Hormo  a^ »  ^ut  ^e  c^  an(^  Pa^ace  °f  Modain  had  already 

deposed  and  escaped  from  the  hand  of  the  tyrant.  Among  the 
victims  of  his  cruelty,  Bindoes,  a  Sassanian  prince, 
had  been  cast  into  a  dungeon:  his  fetters  were  broken  by  the 
zeal  and  courage  of  a  brother;  and  he  stood  before  the  king 
at  the  head  of  those  trusty  guards  who  had  been  chosen  as 
the  ministers  of  his  confinement,  and  perhaps  of  his  death. 
Alarmed  by  the  hasty  intrusion  and  bold  reproaches  of  the 
captive,  Hormouz  looked  round,  but  in  vain,  for  advice  or  as- 
Eistance ;  discovered  that  his  strength  consisted  in  the  obe- 
dience of  others;  and  patiently  yielded  to  the  single  arm  of 
Bindoes,  who  dragged  him  from  the  throne  to  the  same  dun- 
geon in  which  he  himself  had  been  so  lately  confined.  At 
the  first  tumult,  Chosroes,  the  eldest  of  the  sons  of  Hormouz, 
escaped  from  the  city;  he  was  persuaded  to  return  by  the 
pressing  and  friendly  invitation  of  Bindoes,  who  promised  to 
seat  him  on  his  father's  throne,  and  who  expected  to  reign 
under  the  name  of  an  inexperienced  youth.  In  the  just  as- 
surance that  his  accomplices  could  neither  forgive  nor  hope 
to  be  forgiven,  and  that  every  Persian  might  be  trusted  as 
the  judge  and  enemy  of  the  tyrant,  he  instituted  a  public  trial 
without  a  precedent  and  without  a  copy  in  the  annals  of  the 
East.  The  son  of  Nushirvan,  who  had  requested  to  plead  in 
his  own  defence,  was  introduced  as  a  criminal  into  the  full 
assembly  of  the  nobles  and  satraps.13  He  was  heard  with  de- 
cent attention  as  long  as  he  expatiated  on  the  advantages  of 
order  and  obedience,  the  danger  of  innovation,  and  the  inev- 
itable discord  of  those  who  had  encouraged  each  other  to 
trample  on  their  lawful  and  hereditary  sovereign.  By  a  pa- 
thetic appeal  to  their  humanity  he  extorted  that  pity  which, 
is  seldom  refused  to  the  fallen  fortunes  of  a  king ;  and  while 
they  beheld  the  abject  posture  and  squalid  appearance  of  the 

13  The  Orientals  suppose  that  Bahram  convened  this  assembly  and  proclaimed 
Chosroes  ;  but  Theophylact  is,  in  this  instance,  more  distinct  and  credible.* 


»  Yet  Theophylact  seems  to  have  seized  the  opportunity  to  indulge  his  pro- 
pensity for  writing  orations  ;  and  the  orations  read  rather  like  those  of  a  Grecian 
sophist  than  of  an  Eastern  assembly. — M. 


574  ELEVATION  OF  CHOSROES.  [Ch.XLVL 

prisoner,  his  tears,  his  chains,  and  the  marks  of  ignominious 
stripes,  it  was  impossible  to  forget  how  recently  they  had 
adored  the  divine  splendor  of  his  diadem  and  purple.  But 
an  angry  murmur  arose  in  the  assembly  as  soon  as  he  pre- 
sumed to  vindicate  his  conduct  and  to  applaud  the  victories 
of  his  reign.  He  defined  the  duties  of  a  king,  and  the  Per- 
sian nobles  listened  with  a  smile  of  contempt ;  they  were  fired 
with  indignation  when  he  dared  to  vilify  the  character  of 
Chosroes  ;  and  by  the  indiscreet  offer  of  resigning  the  sceptre 
to  the  second  of  his  sons,  he  subscribed  his  own  condemnation, 
and  sacrificed  the  life  of  hi3  innocent  favorite.  The  mangled 
bodies  of  the  boy  and  his  mother  were  exposed  to  the  peo- 
ple ;  the  eyes  of  Horinouz  were  pierced  with  a  hot  needle ; 
and  the  punishment  of  the  father  was  succeeded  by  the  coro- 
nation of  his  eldest  son.  Chosroes  had  ascended  the  throne 
without  guilt,  and  his  piety  strove  to  alleviate  the 
of  Ms  soS  misery  of  the  abdicated  monarch;  from  the  dun- 
geon he  removed  Hormouz  to  an  apartment  of  the 
palace,  supplied  with  liberality  the  consolations  of  sensual  en- 
joyment, and  patiently  endured  the  furious  sallies  of  his  re- 
sentment and  despair.  He  might  despise  the  resentment  of 
a  blind  and  unpopular  tyrant,  but  the  tiara  was  trembling  on 
his  head,  till  he  could  subvert  the  power,  or  acquire  the  friend- 
ship, of  the  great  Bahram,  who  sternly  denied  the  justice  of  a 
revolution  in  which  himself  and  his  soldiers,  the  true  repre- 
sentatives of  Persia,  had  never  been  consulted.  The  offer  of 
a  general  amnesty,  and  of  the  second  rank  in  his  kingdom, 
was  answered  by  an  epistle  from  Bahram,  friend  of  the  gods, 
conqueror  of  men,  and  enemy  of  tyrants,  the  satrap  of  satraps, 
general  of  the  Persian  armies,  and  a  prince  adorned  with  the 
title  of  eleven  virtues.14  He  commands  Chosroes,  the  son  of 
Hormouz,  to  shun  the  example  and  fate  of  his  father,  to  con- 
fine the  traitors  who  had  been  released  from  their  chains,  to 


14  See  the  words  of  Theophylact,  1.  iv.  c.  7  [p.-  173,  edit.  Bonn].  Bap&p  <pikog 
roig  SeoTc,  viKi)TT}Q,lm(pavT]g,  rvpavvatv  k%9pvg,  aarpdirrig  ntyi<TTdv(i)v,riJQ  nepaucrjg 
apywv  $vvap.t(i)Q,  etc.  In  his  answer  Chosroes  styles  himself  ry  vvkti  %apd,6fiEvog 
ofifxaTa  *  *  *  6  rovg  Aauvag  (the  genii)  {uaOovjiwoQ  [p.  175 J.  This  is  genuina 
Oriental  bombast. 


A.D.590.]  T^F.ATH  OF  IIORMOUZ.  575 

deposit  in  some  holy  place  the  diadem  which  he  had  usurped, 
and  to  accept  from  his  gracious  benefactor  the  pardon  of  hia 
faults  and  the  government  of  a  province.  The  rebel  might 
not  be  proud,  and  the  king  most  assuredly  was  not  humble  ; 
but  the  one  was  conscious  of  his  strength,  the  other  was  sen- 
sible of  his  weakness ;  and  even  the  modest  language  of  his 
reply  still  left  room  for  treaty  and  reconciliation.  Chosroes 
led  into  the  field  the  slaves  of  the  palace  and  the  populace  of 
the  capital :  they  beheld  with  terror  the  banners  of  a  veteran 
army;  they  were  encompassed  and  surprised  by  the  evolu- 
tions of  the  general ;  and  the  satraps  who  had  deposed  Hor- 
mouz  received  the  punishment  of  their  revolt,  or  expiated 
their  first  treason  by  a  second  and  more  criminal  act  of  dis- 
loyalty. The  life  and  liberty  of  Chosroes  were  saved,  but  he 
was  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  imploring  aid  or  refuge  in 
some  foreign  land;  and  the  implacable  Bindoes,  anxious  to 
secure  an  unquestionable  title,  hastily  returned  to 
Hormouz.  the  palace,  and  ended,  with  a  bowstring,  the  wretch- 
ed existence  of  the  son  of  ISTushirvan.16 
While  Chosroes  despatched  the  preparations  of  his  retreat, 
he  deliberated  with  his  remaining  friends16  whether  he  should 
lurk  in  the  valleys  of  Mount  Caucasus,  or  fly  to  the 
flies  to  the      tents  of  the  Turks,  or  solicit  the  protection  of  the 

Romans.  '  .  A 

emperor.  Ine  long  emulation  of  the  successors  of 
Artaxerxes  and  Constantine  increased  his  reluctance  to  appear 
as  a  suppliant  in  a  rival  court ;  but  he  weighed  the  forces 
of  the  Eomans,  and  prudently  considered  that  the  neighbor- 

16  Theophylact  (1.  iv.  c.  7  [p.  173,  edit.  Bonn  J)  imputes  the  death  of  Hormouz  to 
his  son,  by  whose  command  he  was  beaten  to  death  with  clubs.  I  have  followed 
the  milder  account  of  Khondemir  and  Eutychius,  and  shall  always  be  content  with 
the  slightest  evidence  to  extenuate  the  crime  of  parricide.* 

16  After  the  battle  of  Pharsalia,  the  Pompey  of  Lucan  (1.  viii.  256-455)  holds  a 
similar  debate.  He  was  himself  desirous  of  seeking  the  Parthians:  but  his  com- 
panions abhorred  the  unnatural  alliance ;  and  the  adverse  prejudices  might  op- 
erate as  forcibly  on  Chosroes  and  his  companions,  who  could  describe,  with  tho 
same  vehemence,  the  contrast  of  laws,  religion,  and  manners,  between  the  East 
and  West.  

a  Malcolm  concurs  in  ascribing  his  death  to  Bundawee  (Bindoes),  vol.  i.  p.  123. 
The  Eastern  writers  generally  impute  the  crime  to  the  uncle.  St.  Martin,  vol.  x> 
p.  300.— M. 


576  FLIGHT  OF  CHOSROES.  [CaXLVL 

hood  of  Syria  would  render  his  escape  more  easy  and  their 
succors  more  effectual.  Attended  only  by  his  concubines  and 
a  troop  of  thirty  guards,  he  secretly  departed  from  the  capital, 
followed  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  traversed  the  desert,  and 
halted  at  the  distance  of  ten  miles  from  Circesium.  About 
the  third  watch  of  the  night  the  Roman  praefect  was  inform- 
ed of  his  approach,  and  he  introduced  the  royal  stranger  to 
the  fortress  at  the  dawn  of  day.  From  thence  the  King  of 
Persia  was  conducted  to  the  more  honorable  residence  of 
Hierapolis ;  and  Maurice  dissembled  his  pride,  and  displayed 
his  benevolence,  at  the  reception  of  the  letters  and  ambassa- 
dors of  the  grandson  of  Nushirvan.  They  humbly  represent- 
ed the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  and  the  common  interest  of 
princes,  exaggerated  the  ingratitude  of  Bahram,  the  agent  of 
the  evil  principle,  and  urged,  with  specious  argument,  that  it 
was  for  the  advantage  of  the  Romans  themselves  to  support 
the  two  monarchies  which  balance  the  world,  the  two  great 
luminaries  by  whose  salutary  influence  it  is  vivified  and  adorn- 
ed. The  anxiety  of  Chosroes  was  soon  relieved  by  the  assur- 
ance that  the  emperor  had  espoused  the  cause  of  justice  and 
royalty  ;  but  Maurice  prudently  declined  the  expense  and  de- 
lay of  his  useless  visit  to  Constantinople.  In  the  name  of 
his  generous  benefactor,  a  rich  diadem  was  presented  to  the 
fugitive  prince,  with  an  inestimable  gift  of  jewels  and  gold ; 
a  powerful  army  was  assembled  on  the  frontiers  of  Syria  and 
Armenia,  under  the  command  of  the  valiant  and  faithful  Par- 
ses ;"  and  this  general,  of  his  own  nation,  and  his  own  choice, 
was  directed  to  pass  the  Tigris,  and  never  to  sheath  his  sword 
till  he  had  restored  Chosroes  to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.* 


11  In  this  age  there  were  three  warriors  of  the  name  of  Narses,  who  have  been, 
often  confounded  (Pagi,  Critica,  torn.  ii.  p.  640) :  1.  A  Persarmenian,  the  brother 
of  Isaac  and  Armatius,  who,  after  a  successful  action  against  Belisarius,  deserted 
from  his  Persian  sovereign,  and  afterwards  served  in  the  Italian  war.  2.  The  eu- 
nuch who  conquered  Italy.  3.  The  restorer  of  Chosroes,  who  is  celebrated  in  the 
poem  of  Corippus  (1.  iii.  220-227)  as  "  excelsus  super  omnia  vertice  agmina  *  *  * 
habitu  modestus  *  *  *  morum  probitate  placens,  virtute  verendus;  fulmineus, 
cautus,  vigilans,"  etc.      

•  The  Armenians  adhered  to  Chosroes.    St.  Martin,  toI.  x.  p.  312.— M. 


i.D.  590.]  DEATH  OF  BAHRAM.  677 

The  enterprise,  however  splendid,  was  less  arduous  than  it 
might  appear.  Persia  had  already  repented  of  her  fa- 
tal rashness,  which  betrayed  the  heh  of  the  House  of 
Sassan  to  the  ambition  of  a  rebellious  subject :  and  the  bold 
refusal  of  the  Magi  to  consecrate  his  usurpation  compelled 
Bahrain  to  assume  the  sceptre,  regardless  of  the  laws  and 
prejudices  of  the  nation.  The  palace  was  soon  distracted  with 
conspiracy,  the  city  with  tumult,  the  provinces  with  insurrec- 
tion ;  and  the  cruel  execution  of  the  guilty  and  the  suspected 
served  to  irritate  rather  than  subdue  the  public  discontent. 
No  sooner  did  the  grandson  of  Nushirvan  display  his  own  and 
the  Koman  banners  beyond  the  Tigris,  than  he  was  joined, 
each  day,  by  the  increasing  multitudes  of  the  nobility  and 
people ;  and  as  he  advanced,  he  received  from  every  side  the 
grateful  offerings  of  the  keys  of  his  cities  and  the  heads  of 
his  enemies.  As  soon  as  Modain  was  freed  from  the  presence 
of  the  usurper,  the  loyal  inhabitants  obeyed  the  first  summons 
of  Mebodes  at  the  head  of  only  two  thousand  horse,  and  Chos- 
roes  accepted  the  sacred  and  precious  ornaments  of  the  pal- 
ace as  the  pledge  of  their  truth  and  a  presage  of  his  approach 
ing  success.  After  the  junction  of  the  imperial  troops,  which 
Bahram  vainly  struggled  to  prevent,  the  contest  was  decided 
and  final  by  two  battles  on  the  banks  of  the  Zab  and  the 
victory.  confines  of  Media.     The  Eomans,  with  the  faith- 

ful subjects  of  Persia,  amounted  to  sixty  thousand,  while  the 
whole  force  of  the  usurper  did  not  exceed  forty  thousand 
men :  the  two  generals  signalized  their  valor  and  ability ;  but 
the  victory  was  finally  determined  by  the  prevalence  of  num- 
bers and  discipline.  With  the  remnant  of  a  broken  army, 
Bahram  fled  towards  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  Oxus :  the 
Death  of  enmity  of  Persia  reconciled  him  to  the  Turks;  but 
Bahram.  jjis  days  were  shortened  by  poison — perhaps  the 
most  incurable  of  poisons,  the  stings  of  remorse  and  despair, 
and  the  bitter  remembrance  of  lost  glory.  Yet  the  modern 
Persians  still  commemorate  the  exploits  of  Bahram ;  and  some 
excellent  laws  have  prolonged  the  duration  of  his  troubled  and 

transitory  reign.*    _      

a  According  to  Mirkhond  and  the  Oriental  writers,  Bahram  received  the  daugh- 

IV.— 37 


578  RESTORATION  OF  CHOSROES.  [Ch.  XLVI 

The  restoration  of  Chosroes  was  celebrated  with  feasts  and 
executions;  and  the  music  of  the  royal  banquet  was  often 
Restoration  disturbed  bj  the  groans  of  dying  or  mutilated  crim- 
of  chosroes.  inals.  A  general  pardon  might  have  diffused  com- 
A.».  591-603.  £ort  an(j  tranquillity  through  a  country  which  had 
been  shaken  by  the  late  revolutions ;  yet,  before  the  sangui- 
nary temper  of  Chosroes  is  blamed,  we  should  learn  whether 
the  Persians  had  not  been  accustomed  either  to  dread  the 
rigor  or  to  despise  the  weakness  of  their  sovereign.  The  re- 
volt of  Bahrain  and  the  conspiracy  of  the  satraps  were  impar- 
tially punished  by  the  revenge  or  justice  of  the  conqueror; 
the  merits  of  Bindoes  himself  could  not  purify  his  hand  from 
the  guilt  of  royal  blood ;  and  the  son  of  Hormouz  was  desir- 
ous to  assert  his  own  innocence,  and  to  vindicate  the  sanctity 
of  kings.  During  the  vigor  of  the  Roman  power  several 
princes  were  seated  on  the  throne  of  Persia  by  the  arms  and 
the  authority  of  the  first  Caesars.  But  their  new  subjects 
were  soon  disgusted  with  the  vices  or  virtues  which  they  had 
imbibed  in  a  foreign  land ;  the  instability  of  their  dominion 
gave  birth  to  a  vulgar  observation,  that  the  choice  of  Rome 
was  solicited  and  rejected  with  equal  ardor  by  the  capricious 
levity  of  Oriental  slaves.18  But  the  glory  of  Maurice  was 
conspicuous  in  the  long  and  fortunate  reign  of  his  son  and 
his  ally.  A  band  of  a  thousand  Romans,  who  continued  to 
guard  the  person  of  Chosroes,  proclaimed  his  confidence  in 
the  fidelity  of  the  strangers  ;  his  growing  strength  enabled 
him  to  dismiss  this  unpopular  aid,  but  he  steadily  professed 
the  same  gratitude  and  reverence  to  his  adopted  father ;  and, 
till  the  death  of  Maurice,  the  peace  and  alliance  of  the  two  em- 

18  "  Experimentis  cognitum  est  barbaros  malle  RomS,  petere  reges  quam  ha- 
bere." These  experiments  are  admirably  represented  in  the  invitation  and  expul- 
sion of  Vonones  (Annal.  ii.  1-3),  Tiridates  (Annal.  vi.  32-44),  and  Melierdates 
(Annal.  xi.  10;  xii.  10-14).  The  eye  of  Tacitus  seems  to  have  transpierced  the 
camp  of  the  Parthians  and  the  walls  of  the  harem. 


ter  of  the  Khakan  in  marriage,  and  commanded  a  body  of  Turks  in  an  invasion 
of  Persia.  Some  say  that  he  was  assassinated  :  Malcolm  adopts  the  opinion  that 
he  was  poisoned.  His  sister  Gourdieh,  the  companion  of  his  flight,  is  celebrated 
in  the  Shah  Nameh.  She  was  afterwards  one  of  the  wives  of  Chosroes.  St.  Mar- 
tin,  vol.  x.p.  331.— M. 


a.d.  591-603.]  RESTORATION  OF  CHOSROES.  579 

pires  were  faithfully  maintained.  Yet  the  mercenary  friend- 
ship of  the  Roman  prince  had  been  purchased  with  costly 
and  important  gifts;  the  strong  cities  of  Martyropolis  and 
Daraa  were  restored,  and  the  Persarmenians  became  the  will- 
ing subjects  of  an  empire  whose  eastern  limit  was  extended, 
beyond  the  example  of  former  times,  as  far  as  the  banks  of 
the  Araxes  and  the  neighborhood  of  the  Caspian.  A  pious 
hope  was  indulged  that  the  Church  as  well  as  the  State  might 
triumph  in  this  revolution :  but  if  Chosroes  had  sincerely 
listened  to  the  Christian  bishops,  the  impression  was  erased 
by  the  zeal  and  eloquence  of  the  Magi ;  if  he  was  armed  with 
philosophic  indifference,  he  accommodated  his  belief,  or  rath- 
er his  professions,  to  the  various  circumstances  of  an  exile  and 
a  sovereign.  The  imaginary  conversion  of  the  King  of  Persia 
was  reduced  to  a  local  and  superstitious  veneration  for  Sergi- 
Us,19  one  of  the  saints  of  Antioch,  who  heard  his  prayers  and 
appeared  to  him  in  dreams ;  he  enriched  the  shrine  with  of- 
ferings of  gold  and  silver,  and  ascribed  to  this  invisible  patron 
the  success  of  his  arms,  and  the  pregnancy  of  Sira,  a  devout 
Christian  and  the  best  beloved  of  his  wives.20  The  beauty  of 
Sira,  or  Schirin,"  her  wit,  her  musical  talents,  are  still  famous 

19  Sergius  and  his  companion  Bacchus,  who  are  said  to  have  suffered  in  the 
persecution  of  Maximian,  obtained  divine  honor  in  France,  Italy,  Constantinople, 
and  the  East.  Their  tomb  at  Rasaphe  was  famous  for  miracles,  and  that  Syrian 
town  acquired  the  more  honorable  name  of  Sergiopolis.  Tillemont,  Me'm.  Eccles. 
torn.  v.  p.  491-496;  Butler's  Saints,  vol.  x.  p.  155. 

20  Evagrius  (1.  vi.  c.  21)  and  Theophylact  (1.  v.  c.  13,  14  [p.  230  seq.,  edit. 
Bonn])  have  preserved  the  original  letters  of  Chosroes,  written  in  Greek,b  signed 
with  his  own  hand,  and  afterwards  inscribed  on  crosses  and  tables  of  gold,  which 
were  deposited  in  the  Church  of  Sergiopolis.  They  had  been  sent  to  the  Bishop 
of  Antioch,  as  primate  of  Syria. 

21  The  Greeks  only  describe  her  as  a  Roman  by  birth,  a  Christian  by  religion  ; 
but  she  is  represented  as  the  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Maurice  in  the  Persian 
and  Turkish  romances  which  celebrate  the  love  of  Khosrou  for  Schirin,  of  Schirin 
for  Ferhad,  the  most  beautiful  youth  of  the  East.  D'Herbelot,  Biblioth.  Orient, 
p.  789,  997,  998. c  

a  It  appears  from  Armenian  authorities  that  the  important  city  of  Nisibis  was 
also  ceded  to  the  Roman  empire.  St.  Martin,  Notes  on  Le  Beau,  vol.  x.  p.  332, 
and  Memoires  sur  l'Arme'nie,  torn.  i.  p.  25. — S. 

b  St.  Martin  thinks  that  they  were  first  written  in  Syriac,  and  then  translated 
into  the  bad  Greek  in  which  they  appear :  vol.  x.  p.  334. — M. 

'  Compare  M.  von  Hammer's  preface  to,  and  poem  of,  Schirin,  in  which  ha 


5S0  PEIDE,  POLICY,  AM)  POWER  OF  [Ch.  XLVI 

in  the  history,  or  rather  in  the  romances,  of  the  East :  her 
own  name  is  expressive,  in  the  Persian  tongue,  of  sweetness 
and  grace ;  and  the  epithet  of  Parviz  alludes  to  the  charms 
of  her  royal  lover.  Yet  Sira  never  shared  the  passion  which 
she  inspired,  and  the  bliss  of  Chosroes  was  tortured  by  a  jeal- 
ous doubt,  that  while  he  possessed  her  person  she  had  bestow- 
ed her  affections  on  a  meaner  favorite." 

"While  the  majesty  of  the  Koman  name  was  revived  in  the 
East,  the  prospect  of  Europe  is  less  pleasing  and  less  glorious. 
Pride,  policy,  By  the  departure  of  the  Lombards  and  the  ruin 
theiaglnol  of  the  Gtepidse  the  balance  of  power  was  destroyed 
!lb.  btoSbo'  ou  tne  Danube ;  and  the  Avars  spread  their  per- 
etc-  manent  dominion  from  the  foot  of  the  Alps  to  the 

sea-coast  of  the  Euxine.  The  reign  of  Baian  is  the  brightest 
era  of  their  monarchy ;  their  chagan,  who  occupied  the  rustic 
palace  of  Attila,  appears  to  have  imitated  his  character  and 
policy  ;M  but  as  the  same  scenes  were  repeated  in  a  smaller 

22  The  whole  series  of  the  tyranny  of  Hormouz,  the  revolt  of  Bahrain,  and  the 
flight  and  restoration  of  Chosroes,  is  related  by  two  contemporary  Greeks — more 
concisely  by  Evagrius  (1.  vi.  c.  16, 17,  18,  19),  and  most  diffusely  by  Theophylact 
Simocatta  (1.  iii.  c.  6-18 ;  I.  iv.  c.  1-16 ;  1.  v.  c.  1-15) :  succeeding  compilers, 
Zonaras  and  Cedrenus,  can  only  transcribe  and  abridge.  The  Christian  Arabs, 
Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  200-208)  and  Abulpharagius  (Dynast,  p.  96-98),  ap- 
pear to  have  consulted  some  particular  memoirs.  The  great  Persian  historians  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  Miikhond  and  Khondemir,  are  only  known  to  me  by  the 
imperfect  extracts  of  Schikard  (Tarikh,  p.  150-155),  Texeira,  or  rather  Stevens 
(Hist,  of  Persia,  p.  182-186),  a  Turkish  MS.  translated  by  the  Abbe'  Fourmont 
(Hist,  de  l'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  torn.  vii.  p.  325-334),  and  D'Herbelot  (aux 
mots,  Hormouz,  p.  457-459  ;  Bahrain,  p.  174  ;  Khosrou  Parviz,  p.  996).  Were 
I  perfectly  satisfied  of  their  authority,  I  could  wish  these  Oriental  materials  had 
been  more  copious. 

23  A  general  idea  of  the  pride  and  power  of  the  chagan  may  be  taken  from 
Menander  (Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  113,  etc.  [p.  308  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]),  and  Theophy- 
lact (1.  i.  c.  3;  1.  vii.  c.  15),  whose  eight  books  are  much  more  honorable  to  the 
Avar  than  to  the  Roman  prince.  The  predecessors  of  Baian  had  tasted  the  lib- 
erality of  Rome,  and  he  survived  the  reign  of  Maurice  (Buat,  Hist,  des  Peuples 
Barbares,  torn.  xi.  p.  545).  The  chagan  who  invaded  Italy  a.d.  611  (Muratori, 
Annali,  torn.  v.  p.  305)  was  then  "juvenili  aetate  florentem"  (Paul  Warnefrid,  De 
Gest.  Langobard.  1.  iv.  c.  38),  the  son,  perhaps,  or  the  grandson,  of  Baian. 


gives  an  account  of  the  various  Persian  poems,  of  which  he  has  endeavored  to 
extract  the  essence  in  his  own  work, — M. 


A.D.  570-600.]     THE  CHAGAN  OF  THE  AVARS.  581 

circle,  a  minute  representation  of  the  copy  would  be  devoid 
of  the  greatness  and  novelty  of  the  original.  The  pride  of 
the  second  Justin,  of  Tiberius,  and  Maurice  was  humbled  by 
a  proud  barbarian,  more  prompt  to  inflict  than  exposed  to 
suffer  the  injuries  of  war ;  and  as  often  as  Asia  was  threaten- 
ed by  the  Persian  arms,  Europe  was  oppressed  by  the  danger- 
ous inroads  or  costly  friendship  of  the  Avars.  When  the 
Roman  envoys  approached  the  presence  of  the  chagan,  they 
were  commanded  to  wait  at  the  door  of  his  tent  till,  at  the 
end  perhaps  of  ten  or  twelve  days,  he  condescended  to  admit 
them.  If  the  substance  or  the  style  of  their  message  was  of- 
fensive to  his  ear,  he  insulted,  with  real  or  affected  fury,  their 
own  dignity  and  that  of  their  prince;  their  baggage  was 
plundered,  and  their  lives  were  only  saved  by  the  promise  of 
a  richer  present  and  a  more  respectful  address.  But  his  sa- 
cred ambassadors  enjoyed  and  abused  an  unbounded  license 
in  the  midst  of  Constantinople :  they  urged,  with  importunate 
clamors,  the  increase  of  tribute,  or  the  restitution  of  captives 
and  deserters:  and  the  majesty  of  the  empire  was  almost 
equally  degraded  by  a  base  compliance,  or  by  the  false  and 
fearful  excuses  with  which  they  eluded  such  insolent  de- 
mands. The  chagan  had  never  seen  an  elephant ;  and  his 
curiosity  was  excited  by  the  strange,  and  perhaps  fabulous, 
portrait  of  that  wonderful  animal.  At  his  command,  one  of 
the  largest  elephants  of  the  imperial  stables  was  equipped 
with  stately  caparisons,  and  conducted  by  a  numerous  train 
to  the  royal  village  in  the  plains  of  Hungary.  He  surveyed 
the  enormous  loeast  with  surprise,  with  disgust,  and  possibly 
with  terror ;  and  smiled  at  the  vain  industry  of  the  Romans, 
who  in  search  of  such  useless  rarities  could  explore  the  limits 
of  the  land  and  sea.  He  wished,  at  the  expense  of  the  emper- 
or, to  repose  in  a  golden  bed.  The  wealth  of  Constantino- 
ple, and  the  skilful  diligence  of  her  artists,  were  instantly  de- 
voted to  the  gratification  of  his  caprice ;  but  when  the  work 
was  finished,  he  rejected  with  scorn  a  present  so  unworthy 
the  majesty  of  a  great  king."    These  were  the  casual  sallies 

54  Theophylact,  L  i.  c.  5, 6. 


582  PEIDE,  POLICY,  AND  POWEE  OF  [Ch.  XLVL 

of  his  pride ;  but  the  avarice  of  the  chagan  was  a  more  steady 
and  tractable  passion :  a  rich  and  regular  supply  of  silk  ap- 
parel, furniture,  and  plate  introduced  the  rudiments  of  art 
and  luxury  among  the  tents  of  the  Scythians ;  their  appetite 
was  stimulated  by  the  pepper  and  cinnamon  of  India;"  the 
annual  subsidy  or  tribute  was  raised  from  fourscore  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pieces  of  gold ;  and,  after  each 
hostile  interruption,  the  payment  of  the  arrears,  with  exorbi- 
tant interest,  was  always  made  the  first  condition  of  the  new 
treaty.  In  the  language  of  a  barbarian,  without  guile,  the 
prince  of  the  Avars  affected  to  complain  of  the  insincerity  of 
the  Greeks;28  yet  he  was  not  inferior  to  the  most  civilized 
nations  in  the  refinements  of  dissimulation  and  perfidy.  As 
the  successor  of  the  Lombards,  the  chagan  asserted  his  claim 
to  the  important  city  of  Sirmium,  the  ancient  bulwark  of  the 
Illyrian  provinces.27  The  plains  of  the  Lower  Hungary  were 
covered  with  the  Avar  horse ;  and  a  fleet  of  large  boats  was 
built  in  the  Hercynian  wood,  to  descend  the  Danube,  and  to 
transport  into  the  Save  the  materials  of  a  bridge.  But  as  the 
strong  garrison  of  Singidunum,  which  commanded  the  con- 
flux of  the  two  rivers,  might  have  stopped  their  passage  and 
baffled  his  designs,  he  dispelled  their  apprehensions  by  a  sol- 
emn oath  that  his  views  were  not  hostile  to  the  empire.  He 
swore  by  his  sword,  the  symbol  of  the  god  of  war,  that  he  did 
not,  as  the  enemy  of  Rome,  construct  a  bridge  upon  the  Save. 
"  If  I  violate  my  oath,"  pursued  the  intrepid  Baian,  "  may  I 

25  Even  in  the  field  the  chagan  delighted  in  the  use  of  these  aromatics.  He 
solicited,  as  a  gift,  'lvfiacag  icapvictiac,  and  received  nkTrtpi  Kai  (pvXkov  'IvSwv,  kcc- 
ciav  te  Kai  tov  Xey6p.evov  kogtov.  Theophylact,  1.  vii.  c.  13  [p.  294,  edit.  Bonn]. 
The  Europeans  of  the  ruder  ages  consumed  more  spices  in  their  meat  and  drink 
than  is  compatible  with  the  delicacy  of  a  modern  palate.  Vie  Privee  des  Fran- 
cois, torn.  ii.  p.  162-163. 

26  Theophylact,  1.  vi.  c.  6  ;  1.  vii.  c.  15  [p.  251,  299,  edit.  Bonn].  The  Greek  his- 
torian confesses  the  truth  and  justice  of  his  reproach. 

27  Menander  (in  Excerpt.  Legat.  p.  126-132,  174,  175  [p.  332-342,  424,  425, 
edit.  Bonn])  describes  the  perjury  of  Baian  and  the  surrender  of  Sirmium.  We 
have  lost  his  account  of  the  siege,  which  is  commended  by  Theophylact,  1.  i.  c.  3. 
To  o"  orrwff  Mtvavdptp  T<p  irtpupavu  acupwc  8 iqy optvTat*  [p.  38,  edit.  Bonn]. 


Compare  throughout  Schlozer,  Nordische  Geschichte,  p.  362-372. — M. 


a.d.  570-600.]     THE  CHAGAN  OF  THE  AVARS.  588 

myself,  and  the  last  of  my  nation,  perish  by  the  sword  !  May 
the  heavens,  and  fire,  the  deity  of  the  heavens,  fall  upon  our 
heads!  May  the  forests  and  mountains  bury  us  in  their 
ruins !  and  the  Save,  returning,  against  the  laws  of  nature, 
to  his  source,  overwhelm  us  in  his  angry  waters !"  After  this 
barbarous  imprecation  he  calmly  inquired  what  oath  wa3 
most  sacred  and  venerable  among  the  Christians ;  what  guilt 
of  perjury  it  was  most  dangerous  to  incur.  The  Bishop  of 
Singidunum  presented  the  Gospel,  which  the  chagan  received 
with  devout  reverence.  "  I  swear,"  said  he,  "  by  the  God 
who  has  spoken  in  this  holy  book,  that  I  have  neither  false- 
hood on  my  tongue  nor  treachery  in  my  heart."  As  soon  as 
he  rose  from  his  knees  he  accelerated  the  labor  of  the  bridge, 
and  despatched  an  envoy  to  proclaim  what  he  no  longer  wish- 
ed to  conceal.  "Inform  the  emperor,"  said  the  perfidious 
Baian,  "  that  Sirmium  is  invested  on  every  side.  Advise  his 
prudence  to  withdraw  the  citizens  and  their  effects,  and  to  re- 
sign a  city  which  it  is  now  impossible  to  relieve  or  defend." 
Without  the  hope  of  relief,  the  defence  of  Sirmium  was  pro- 
longed above  three  years :  the  walls  were  still  untouched ; 
but  famine  was  enclosed  within  the  walls,  till  a  merciful  ca- 
pitulation allowed  the  escape  of  the  naked  and  hungry  in- 
habitants. Singidunum,  at  the  distance  of  fifty  miles,  expe- 
rienced a  more  cruel  fate :  the  buildings  were  razed,  and  the 
vanquished  people  was  condemned  to  servitude  and  exile. 
Yet  the  ruins  of  Sirmium  are  no  longer  visible ;  the  advan- 
tageous situation  of  Singidunum  soon  attracted  a  new  colony 
of  Sclavonians ;  and  the  conflux  of  the  Save  and  Danube  is 
still  guarded  by  the  fortifications  of  Belgrade,  or  the  White 
City,  so  often  and  so  obstinately  disputed  by  the  Christian 
and  Turkish  arms.28  From  Belgrade  to  the  walls  of  Constan- 
tinople a  line  may  be  measured  of  six  hundred  miles:  that 
line  was  marked  with  flames  and  with  blood;  the  horses  of 
the  Avars  were  alternately  bathed  in  the  Euxine  and  the  Adri- 

88  See  D'Anville,  in  the  Me*moires  de  l'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxviii.  p.  412- 
443.  The  Sclavonic  name  of  Belgrade  is  mentioned  in  the  tenth  century  by  Con- 
stantine  Porphyrogenitus :  the  Latin  appellation  of  Alba  Grceca  is  used  by  the 
Franks  in  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  (p.  414). 


584  BAIAN,  CHAGAN  OF  THE  AVARS.  [Ch.  XLVL 

atic;  and  the  Roman  pontiff,  alarmed  by  the  approach  of  a 
more  savage  enemy,28  was  reduced  to  cherish  the  Lombards  as 
the  protectors  of  Italy.  The  despair  of  a  captive  whom  his 
country  refused  to  ransom  disclosed  to  the  Avars  the  inven- 
tion and  practice  of  military  engines.30  But  in  the  first  at- 
tempts they  were  rudely  framed  and  awkwardly  managed; 
and  the  resistance  of  Diocletianopolis  and  Bercea,  of  Philip- 
popolis  and  Adrianople,  soon  exhausted  the  skill  and  patience 
of  the  besiegers.  The  warfare  of  Baian  was  that  of  a  Tartar  5 
yet  his  mind  was  susceptible  of  a  humane  and  generous  sen- 
timent :  he  spared  Anchialus,  whose  salutary  waters  had  re- 
stored the  health  of  the  best  beloved  of  his  wives ;  and  the 
Romans  confess  that  their  starving  army  was  fed  and  dis- 
missed by  the  liberality  of  a  foe.  His  empire  extended  over 
Hungary,  Poland,  and  Prussia,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Dan- 
ube to  that  of  the  Oder  ;31  and  his  new  subjects  were  divided 
and  transplanted  by  the  jealous  policy  of  the  conqueror.32 
The  eastern  regions  of  Germany,  which  had  been  left  vacant 
by  the  emigration  of  the  Vandals,  were  replenished  with  Scla- 
vonian  colonists ;  the  same  tribes  are  discovered  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Adriatic  and  of  the  Baltic ;  and  with  the  name 
of  Baian  himself,  the  Illyrian  cities  of  Neyss  and  Lissa  are 
again  found  in  the  heart  of  Silesia.  In  the  disposition  both 
of  his  troops  and  provinces  the  chagan  exposed  the  vassals, 
whose  lives  he  disregarded,33  to   the  first  assault;   and  the 

29  Baron.  Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  600,  No.  1.  Paul  Warnefrid  (1.  iv.  c.  38)  relates 
their  irruption  into  Friuli,  and  (c.  39)  the  captivity  of  his  ancestors,  about  a.d.  632. 
The  Sclavi  traversed  the  Adriatic  "  cum  multitudine  navium,"and  made  a  descent 
in  the  territory  of  Sipontum  (c.  47). 

80  Even  the  helepolis,  or  movable  turret.     Theophylact,  1.  ii.  16, 17. 

81  The  arms  and  alliances  of  the  chagan  reached  to  the  neighborhood  of  a  west- 
ern sea,  fifteen  months' journey  from  Constantinople.  The  Emperor  Maurice  con- 
versed  with  some  itinerant  harpers  from  that  remote  country,  and  only  seems  to  have 
mistaken  a  trade  for  a  nation.     Theophylact,  1.  vi.  c.  2  [p.  243  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]. 

32  This  is  one  of  the  most  probable  and  luminous  conjectures  of  the  learned 
Count  de  Buat  (Hist,  des  Peuples  Barbares,  torn.  xi.  p.  546-568).  The  Tzechi 
and  Serbi  are  found  together  near  Mount  Caucasus,  in  Ulyricum,  and  on  the 
lower  Elbe.  Even  the  wildest  traditions  of  the  Bohemians,  etc.,  afford  some 
color  to  his  hypothesis. 

33  See  Fredegarlus,  in  the  Historians  of  France,  torn.  ii.  p.  432.     Baian  did  not 


a.d.  595-602.]  WARS  OF  MAURICE  AGAINST  THE  AVARS.  585 

swords  of  the  enemy  were  blunted  before  they  encountered 
the  native  valor  of  the  Avars. 

The  Persian  alliance  restored  the  troops  of  the  East  to 
the  defence  of  Europe;  and  Maurice,  who  had  supported  ten 
WarsofMau-  years  the  insolence  of  the  chagan,  declared  his  res 
theeivara.st  olution  to  march  in  person  against  the  barbarians. 
a.d.  595-602.  jn  £jie  Space  0f  tWo  centuries  none  of  the  succes- 
sors of  Theodosius  had  appeared  in  the  field;  their  lives 
were  supinely  spent  in  the  palace  of  Constantinople ;  and  the 
Greeks  could  no  longer  understand  that  the  name  of  emperor, 
in  its  primitive  sense,  denoted  the  chief  of  the  armies  of  the 
republic.  The  martial  ardor  of  Maurice  was  opposed  by  the 
grave  flattery  of  the  senate,  the  timid  superstition  of  the  pa- 
triarch, and  the  tears  of  the  Empress  Constantina ;  and  they 
all  conjured  him  to  devolve  on  some  meaner  general  the  fa- 
tigues and  perils  of  a  Scythian  campaign.  Deaf  to  their  ad- 
vice and  entreaty,  the  emperor  boldly  advanced34  seven  miles 
from  the  capital ;  the  sacred  ensign  of  the  cross  was  displayed 
in  the  front,  and  Maurice  reviewed  with  conscious  pride  the 
arms  and  numbers  of  the  veterans  who  had  fought  and  con- 
quered beyond  the  Tigris.  Anchiaius  was  the  last  term  of 
his  progress  by  sea  and  land ;  he  solicited  without  success  a 
miraculous  answer  to  his  nocturnal  prayers;  his  mind  was 
confounded  by  the  death  of  a  favorite  horse,  the  encounter  of 
a  wild-boar,  a  storm  of  wind  and  rain,  and  the  birth  of  a  mon- 
strous child ;  and  he  forgot  that  the  best  of  omens  is  to  un- 
sheath  our  sword  in  the  defence  of  our  country.36  Under  the 
pretence  of  receiving  the  ambassadors  of  Persia,  the  emperor 
returned  to  Constantinople,  exchanged  the  thoughts  of  war 
for  those  of  devotion,  and  disappointed  the  public  hope  by 

conceal  his  proud  insensibility.  "On  toiovtovq  (not  tovovtovq,  according  to  a 
foolish  emendation)  eTrafijircn  ry  'PajfidiKy,  wg  el  (cat  <w/i€aiij  ye  otyioi  $avar<ji  dXai- 
vai,  d\\'  tf.ioi  ye  fxfj  ykveaOai  avva'iadrjaiv. 

34  See  the  march  and  return  of  Maurice,  in  Theophylact,  1.  v.  c.  16;  L  vi.  c.  1, 
2,  3.  If  he  were  a  writer  of  taste  or  genius,  we  might  suspect  him  of  an  elegant 
irony :  but  Theophylact  is  surely  harmless. 

35  Etc  oi'wvoc  apiaroQ  dfivveaQat  Trf.pl  irarptic. — Iliad,  xii.  243. 

This  noble  verse,  which  unites  the  spirit  of  a  hero  with  the  reason  of  a  sage,  may 
prove  that  Homer  was  in  every  light  superior  to  his  age  and  country. 


588  WARS  OF  MAUEICE  AGAINST  THE  AVARS.   [Ch.  XLVL 

his  absence  and  the  choice  of  his  lieutenants.  The  blind 
partiality  of  fraternal  love  might  excuse  the  promotion  of 
his  brother  Peter,  who  fled  with  equal  disgrace  from  the  bar- 
barians, from  his  own  soldiers,  and  from  the  inhabitants  of  a 
Roman  city.  That  city,  if  we  may  credit  the  resemblance 
of  name  and  character,  was  the  famous  Azimuutiuui,36  which 
had  alone  repelled  the  tempest  of  Attila.  The  example  of 
her  warlike  youth  was  propagated  to  succeeding  generations  ; 
and  they  obtained,  from  the  first  or  the  second  Justin,  an  hon- 
orable privilege  that  their  valor  should  be  always  reserved 
for  the  defence  of  their  native  country.  The  brother  of 
Maurice  attempted  to  violate  this  privilege,  and  to  mingle  a 
patriot  band  with  the  mercenaries  of  his  camp  ;  they  retired 
to  the  church ;  he  was  not  awed  by  the  sanctity  of  the  place ; 
the  people  rose  in  their  cause,  the  gates  were  shut,  the  ram- 
parts were  manned ;  and  the  cowardice  of  Peter  was  found 
equal  to  his  arrogance  and  injustice.  The  military  fame  of 
Commentiolus37  is  the  object  of  satire  or  comedy  rather  than 
of  serious  history,  since  he  was  even  deficient  in  the  vile  and 
vulgar  qualification  of  personal  courage.  His  solemn  coun- 
sels, strange  evolutions,  and  secret  orders  always  supplied  an 
apology  for  flight  or  delay.  If  he  marched  against  the  ene- 
my, the  pleasant  valleys  of  Mount  Hsemus  opposed  an  insu- 
perable barrier ;  but  in  his  retreat  he  explored  with  fearless 
curiosity  the  most  difficult  and  obsolete  paths,  which  had  al- 
most escaped  the  memory  of  the  oldest  native.  The  only 
blood  which  he  lost  was  drawn,  in  a  real  or  affected  malady, 
by  the  lancet  of  a  surgeon  ;  and  his  health,  which  felt  with 
exquisite  sensibility  the  approach  of  the  barbarians,  was  uni- 
formly restored  by  the  repose  and  safety  of  the  winter  sea- 
son.    A  prince  who  could  promote  and  support  this  unwor- 


36  Theophylact,  1.  vii.  c.  3  [p.  274,  edit.  Bonn].  On  the  evidence  of  this  fact, 
which  had  not  occurred  to  my  memory,  the  candid  reader  will  correct  and  excuse 
a  note  in  vol.  iii.  ch.  xxxiv.  note  36,  of  this  History,  which  hastens  the  decay  of 
Asimus,  or  Azimuntium  :  another  century  of  patriotism  and  valor  is  cheaply  pur- 
chased by  such  a  confession. 

31  See  the  shameful  conduct  of  Commentiolus,  in  Theophylact,  1.  ii.  c.  10-15: 
1.  vii.  c.  13, 14 ;  1.  viii.  c.  2,  4. 


a.d.  602.]  STATE  OF  Till  ROMAN  ARMIES.  587 

thy  favorite  must  derive  no  glory  from  the  accidental  merit 
of  his  colleague  Priscus.38  In  five  successive  battles,  which 
seem  to  have  been  conducted  with  skill  and  resolution,  seven- 
teen thousand  two  hundred  barbarians  were  made  prisoners : 
near  sixty  thousand,  with  four  sons  of  the  chagan,  were  slain : 
the  Roman  general  surprised  a  peaceful  district  of  the  Ge- 
pidse,  who  slept  under  the  protection  of  the  Avars ;  and  his 
last  trophies  were  erected  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  and 
the  Theiss.  Since  the  death  of  Trajan  the  arms  of  the  em- 
pire had  not  penetrated  so  deeply  into  the  old  Dacia  ;  yet  the 
success  of  Priscus  was  transient  and  barren,  and  he  was  soon 
recalled  by  the  apprehension  that  Baian,  with  dauntless  spirit 
and  recruited  forces,  was  preparing  to  avenge  his  defeat  un- 
der the  walls  of  Constantinople.39 

The  theory  of  war  was  not  more  familiar  to  the  camps  of 
Csesar  and  Trajan  than  to  those  of  Justinian  and  Maurice.** 

The  iron  of  Tuscany  or  Pontus  still  received  the 
the  Roman      keenest  temper  from   the  skill  of  the  Byzantine 

workmen.  The  magazines  were  plentifully  stored 
with  every  species  of  offensive  and  defensive  arms.  In  the 
construction  and  use  of  ships,  engines,  and  fortifications,  the 
barbarians  admired  the  superior  ingenuity  of  a  people  whom 
they  so  often  vanquished  in  the  field.  The  science  of  tactics, 
the  order,  evolutions,  and  stratagems  of  antiquity,  was  tran- 
scribed and  studied  in  the  books  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
But  the  solitude  or  degeneracy  of  the  provinces  could  no  lon- 
ger supply  a  race  of  men  to  handle  those  weapons,  to  guard 
those  walls,  to  navigate  those  ships,  and  to  reduce  the  theory 
of  war  into  bold  and  successful  practice.     The  genius  of  Beli- 

88  See  the  exploits  of  Priscus,  1.  viii.  c.  2,  3. 

89  The  general  detail  of  the  war  against  the  Avars  may  be  traced  in  the  first, 
second,  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  books  of  the  History  of  the  Emperor  Maurice, 
by  Theophylact  Simocatta.  As  he  wrote  in  the  reign  of  Heraclins,  he  had  no 
temptation  to  flatter ;  but  his  want  of  judgment  renders  him  diffuse  in  trifles,  and 
concise  in  the  most  interesting  facts. 

40  Maurice  himself  composed  twelve  books  on  the  military  art,  which  are  still 
extant,  and  have  been  published  (Upsal,  1664)  by  John  Scheffer,  at  the  end  of  the 
Tactics  of  Arrian  (Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Graca,  1.  iv.  c.  8,  torn.  iii.  p.  278),  who 
promises  to  speak  more  fully  of  his  work  in  its  proper  place. 


688  DISCONTENT  OF  THE  ROMAN  ARMIES.      [Ch.  XLVi. 

sarius  and  Narses  had  been  formed  without  a  master,  and  ex- 
pired without  a  disciple.  Neither  honor,  nor  patriotism,  nor 
generous  superstition  could  animate  the  lifeless  bodies  of 
slaves  and  strangers  who  had  succeeded  to  the  honors  of  the 
legions :  it  was  in  the  camp  alone  that  the  emperor  should 
have  exercised  a  despotic  command;  it  was  only  in  the  camps 
that  his  authority  was  disobeyed' and  insulted:  he  appeased 
and  inflamed  with  gold  the  licentiousness  of  the  troops ;  but 
their  vices  were  inherent,  their  victories  were  accidental,  and 
their  costly  maintenance  exhausted  the  substance  of  a  state 
which  they  were  unable  to  defend.  After  a  long  and  per- 
nicious indulgence,  the  cure  of  this  inveterate  evil  was  under- 
taken by  Maurice ;  but  the  rash  attempt,  which  drew  destruc- 
tion on  his  own  head,  tended  only  to  aggravate  the  disease. 
A  reformer  should  be  exempt  from  the  suspicion  of  interest, 
and  he  must  possess  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  those  whom 
he  proposes  to  reclaim.  The  troops  of  Maurice  might  listen 
to  the  voice  of  a  victorious  leader ;  they  disdained  the  admo- 
nitions of  statesmen  and  sophists;  and  when  they  received 
their  dis-  an  e^ict  which  deducted  from  their  pay  the  price 
content,  0-f  their  arms  and  clothing,  they  execrated  the  ava- 
rice of  a  prince  insensible  of  the  dangers  and  fatigues  from 
which  he  had  escaped.  The  camps  both  of  Asia  and  Europe 
were  agitated  with  frequent  and  furious  seditions  ;41  the  en- 
raged soldiers  of  Edessa  pursued  with  reproaches,  with  threats, 
with  wounds,  their  trembling  generals ;  they  overturned  the 
statues  of  the  emperor,  cast  stones  against  the  miraculous  im- 
age of  Christ,  and  either  rejected  the  yoke  of  all  civil  and 
military  laws,  or  instituted  a  dangerous  model  of  voluntary 
subordination.  The  monarch,  always  distant,  and  often  de- 
ceived, was  incapable  of  yielding  or  persisting,  according  to 
the  exigence  of  the  moment.  But  the  fear  of  a  general  re- 
volt induced  him  too  readily  to  accept  any  act  of  valor,  or  any 
expression  of  loyalty,  as  an  atonement  for  the  popular  offence ; 
the  new  reform  was  abolished  as  hastily  as  it  had  been  an- 


41  See  the  mutinies  under  the  reign  of  Maurice,  in  Theophylact,  L  iii.  c.  l-4j 
Lvi.  c.  7,  8, 10;  1.  vii.  c.  1 ;  friii.  c.  6,  etc. 


A.D.  602.]  ELECTION  OF  PHOCAS.  589 

nounced ;  and  the  troops,  instead  of  punishment  and  restraint, 
were  agreeably  surprised  by  a  gracious  proclamation  of  immu- 
nities and  rewards.  But  the  soldiers  accepted  without  grati- 
tude the  tardy  and  reluctant  gifts  of  the  emperor:  their  inso- 
lence was  elated  by  the  discovery  of  his  weakness  and  their 
own  strength,  and  their  mutual  hatred  was  inflamed  beyond 
the  desire  of  forgiveness  or  the  hope  of  reconciliation.  The 
historians  of  the  times  adopt  the  vulgar  suspicion,  that  Mau- 
rice conspired  to  destroy  the  troops  whom  he  had  labored  to 
reform ;  the  misconduct  and  favor  of  Commentiolus  are  im- 
puted to  this  malevolent  design ;  and  every  age  must  condemn 
the  inhumanity  or  avarice43  of  a  prince  who,  by  the  trifling 
ransom  of  six  thousand  pieces  of  gold,  might  have  prevented 
the  massacre  of  twelve  thousand  prisoners  in  the  hands  of 
ana  re-  *ne  chagan.     In  the  just  fervor  of  indignation,  an 

beiiion.  order  was  signified  to  the  army  of  the  Danube  that 
they  should  spare  the  magazines  of  the  province,  and  estab- 
lish their  winter-quarters  in  the  hostile  country  of  the  Avars. 
The  measure  of  their  grievances  was  full :  they  pronounced 
Maurice  unworthy  to  reign,  expelled  or  slaughtered  his  faith- 
ful adherents,  and  under  the  command  of  Phocas,  a  simple 
centurion,  returned  by  hasty  marches  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Constantinople.  After  a  long  series  of  legal  succession,  the 
Election  military  disorders  of  the  third  century  were  again 
^602,as*  revived ;  yet  such  was  the  novelty  of  the  enterprise 
October.  fljaf.  the  insurgents  were  awed  by  their  own  rash- 
ness. They  hesitated  to  invest  their  favorite  with  the  vacant 
purple ;  and  while  they  rejected  all  treaty  with  Maurice  him- 
self, they  held  a  friendly  correspondence  with  his  son  Theo- 
dosius  and  with  Germanus,  the  father-in-law  of  the  royal 
youth.  So  obscure  had  been  the  former  condition  of  Phocas, 
that  the  emperor  was  ignorant  of  the  name  and  character  of 

42  Theophylact  and  Theophanes  seem  ignorant  of  the  conspiracy  and  avarice 
of  Maurice.  These  charges,  so  unfavorable  to  the  memory  of  that  emperor,  are 
first  mentioned  by  the  author  of  the  Paschal  Chronicle  (p.  379,  380  [edit.  Par.  ; 
torn.  i.  p.  695,  edit.  Bonn]) ;  from  whence  Zonaras  (torn.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  13]  p.  77, 
78)  has  transcribed  them.  Cedrenus  (p.  399  [torn.  i.  p.  700,  edit.  BonnJ)  has 
followed  another  computation  of  the  ransom. 


590  REVOLT  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  [Ch.XLVI. 

his  rival ;  but  as  soon  as  he  learned  that  the  centurion,  though 
bold  in  sedition,  was  timid  in  the  face  of  danger,  "Alas!" 
cried  the  desponding  prince, "  if  he  is  a  coward,  he  will  sure- 
ly be  a  murderer." 

Yet  if  Constantinople  had  been  firm  and  faithful,  the  mur- 
derer might  have  spent  his  fury  against  the  walls;  and  the 
rebel  army  would  have  been  gradually  consumed 

Revolt  of  M-»ii  i  P     ,  t 

constan-  or  reconciled  by  the  prudence  01  the  emperor.  In 
the  games  of  the  circus,  which  he  repeated  with 
unusual  pomp,  Maurice  disguised  with  smiles  of  confidence 
the  anxiety  of  his  heart,  condescended  to  solicit  the  applause 
of  the  factions,  and  flattered  their  pride  by  accepting  from 
their  respective  tribunes  a  list  of  nine  hundred  blues  and  fif- 
teen hundred  greens,  whom  he  affected  to  esteem  as  the  solid 
pillars  of  his  throne.  Their  treacherous  or  languid  support 
betrayed  his  weakness  and  hastened  his  fall:  the  green  fac- 
tion were  the  secret  accomplices  of  the  rebels,  and  the  blues 
recommended  lenity  and  moderation  in  a  contest  with  their 
Eoman  brethren.  The  rigid  and  parsimonious  virtues  of 
Maurice  had  long  since  alienated  the  hearts  of  his  subjects : 
as  he  walked  barefoot  in  a  religious  procession  he  was  rudely 
assaulted  with  stones,  and  his  guards  were  compelled  to  pre- 
sent their  iron  maces  in  the  defence  of  his  person.  A  fanatic 
monk  ran  through  the  streets  with  a  drawn  sword,  denounc- 
ing against  him  the  wrath  and  the  sentence  of  God;  and  a 
vile  Plebeian,  who  represented  his  countenance  and  apparel, 
was  seated  on  an  ass  and  pursued  by  the  imprecations  of  the 
multitude.43  The  emperor  suspected  the  popularity  of  Ger- 
manus  with  the  soldiers  and  citizens  :  he  feared,  he  threaten- 
ed, but  he  delayed  to  strike ;  the  Patrician  fled  to  the  sanctu- 
ary of  the  Church ;  the  people  rose  in  his  defence,  the  walls 
were  deserted  by  the  guards,  and  the  lawless  city  was  aban- 
doned to  the  flames  and  rapine  of  a  nocturnal  tumult.     In  a 

43  In  their  clamors  against  Maurice,  the  people  of  Constantinople  branded  him 
with  the  name  of  Marcionite  or  Marcionist ;  a  heresy  (says  Theophylact,  1.  viii. 
c.  9  [p.  331,  edit.  Bonn]  fiera  Tivog  fnopag  £v\a€etag,  evi]0)]Q  re  icai  KarayiXaoTog. 
Did  they  only  cast  out  a  vague  reproach — or  had  the  emperor  really  listened  te 
some  obscure  teacher  of  those  ancient  Gnostics? 


a.d.  602.]  REVOLT  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  591 

small  bark  the  unfortunate  Maurice,  witli  Lis  wife  and  nine 
children,  escaped  to  the  Asiatic  shore,  but  the  violence  of  the 
wind  compelled  him  to  land  at  the  Church  of  St.  Autono- 
mus,44  near  Chalcedon,  from  whence  he  despatched  Theodo- 
sius,  his  eldest  son,  to  implore  the  gratitude  and  friendship  of 
the  Persian  monarch.  For  himself,  he  refused  to  fly :  his 
body  was  tortured  with  sciatic  pains,46  his  mind  was  enfeebled 
by  superstition  ;  he  patiently  awaited  the  event  of  the  revo- 
lution, and  addressed  a  fervent  and  public  prayer  to  the  Al- 
mighty, that  the  punishment  of  his  sins  might  be  inflicted  in 
this  world  rather  than  in  a  future  life.  After  the  abdication 
of  Maurice,  the  two  factions  disputed  the  choice  of  an  em- 
peror ;  but  the  favorite  of  the  blues  was  rejected  by  the  jeal- 
ousy of  their  antagonists,  and  Germanus  himself  was  hurried 
along  by  the  crowds  who  rushed  to  the  palace  of  Hebdomon, 
seven  miles  from  the  city,  to  adore  the  majesty  of  Phocas  the 
centurion.  A  modest  wish  of  resigning  the  purple  to  the 
rank  and  merit  of  Germanus  was  opposed  by  his  resolution, 
more  obstinate  and  equally  sincere;  the  senate  and  clergy 
obeyed  his  summons;  and  as  soon  as  the  patriarch  was  as- 
sured of  his  orthodox  belief,  he  consecrated  the  successful 
usurper  in  the  Church  of  St.  John  the  Baptist.  On  the  third 
day,  amidst  the  acclamations  of  a  thoughtless  people,  Phocas 
made  his  public  entry  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  white 
horses :  the  revolt  of  the  troops  was  rewarded  by  a  lavish 
donative,  and  the  new  sovereign,  after  visiting  the  palace,  be- 
held from  his  throne  the  games  of  the  hippodrome.  In  a  dis- 
pute of  precedency  between  the  two  factions,  his  partial  judg- 
ment inclined  in  favor  of  the  greens.    "  Eemember  that  Mau- 

44  The  Church  of  St.  Autonomus  (whom  I  have  not  the  honor  to  know)  was 
150  stadia  from  Constantinople  (Theophylact,  1.  viii.  c.  9).  The  port  of  Eutro. 
pius,  where  Maurice  and  his  children  were  murdered,  is  described  by  Gyllius  (De 
Bosphoro  Thracio,  1.  iii.  c.  xi.)  as  one  of  the  two  harbors  of  Chalcedon. 

45  The  inhabitants  of  Constantinople  were  generally  subject  to  the  voaoi  apQpi- 
TiSeg;  and  Theophylact  insinuates  (1.  viii.  c.  9  [p.  332,  edit.  Bonn])  that,  if  it  were 
consistent  with  the  rules  of  history,  he  could  assign  the  medical  cause.  Yet  such 
a  digression  would  not  have  been  more  impertinent  than  his  inquiry  (1.  vii.  c.  16, 
17)  into  the  annual  inundations  of  the  Nile,  and  all  the  opinions  of  the  Greek 
philosophers  on  that  subject. 


592  DEATH  OF  MAUEICE  AND  HIS  CHILDREN.   [Ch.  XLYL 

rice  is  still  alive  "  resounded  from  the  opposite  side ;  and  tha 
indiscreet  clamor  of  the  blues  admonished  and  stimulated  the 
cruelty  of  the  tyrant.  The  ministers  of  death  were  despatch- 
ed to  Chalcedon :  they  dragged  the  emperor  from  his  sanctu- 
ary, and  the  five  sons  of  Maurice  were  successively  murdered 
before  the  eyes  of  their  agonizing  parent.     At  each  stroke, 

which  he  felt  in  his  heart,  he  found  strength  to  re- 
Maurice  and  hearse  a  pious  ejaculation :  "  Thou  art  just,  0  Lord ! 
A!D.cco2,ren'    and  thy  judgments  are  righteous."    And  such  in 

the  last  moments  was  his  rigid  attachment  to  truth 
and  justice,  that  he  revealed  to  the  soldiers  the  pious  false- 
hood of  a  nurse  who  presented  her  own  child  in  the  place  of 
a  royal  infant.49  The  tragic  scene  was  finally  closed  by  tha 
execution  of  the  emperor  himself,  in  the  twentieth  year  of 
his  reign  and  the  sixty-third  of  his  age.  The  bodies  of  the 
father  and  his  five  sons  were  cast  into  the  sea;  their  heads 
were  exposed  at  Constantinople  to  the  insults  or.  pity  of  the 
multitude ;  and  it  was  not  till  some  signs  of  putrefaction  had 
appeared  that  Phocas  connived  at  the  private  burial  of  these 
venerable  remains.  In  that  grave  the  faults  and  errors  of 
Maurice  were  kindly  interred.  His  fate  alone  was  remem- 
bered ;  and  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  in  the  recital  of  the 
history  of  Theophylact,  the  mournful  tale  was  interrupted  by 
the  tears  of  the  audience.47 

Such  tears  must  have  flowed  in  secret,  and  such  compas- 
sion would  have  been  criminal,  under  the  reign  of  Phocas, 
who  was  peaceably  acknowledged  in  the  provinces  of  the  East 
and  "West.  The  images  of  the  emperor  and  his  wife  Leontia 
were  exposed  in  the  Lateran  to  the  veneration  of  the  clergy 

46  From  this  generous  attempt  Corneille  hais  deduced  the  intricate  web  of  his 
tragedy  of  Heraclius,  which  requires  more  than  one  representation  to  be  clearly 
understood  (Corneille  de  Voltaire,  torn.  v.  p.  300) ;  and  which,  after  an  interval  of 
some  years,  is  said  to  have  puzzled  the  author  himself  (Anecdotes  Dramatiques, 
torn.  i.  p.  422). 

47  The  revolt  of  Phocas  and  death  of  Maurice  are  told  by  Theophylact  Simo- 
catta  (1.  viii.  c.  7-12),  the  Paschal  Chronicle  (p.  379,  380  [torn.  i.  p.  694  seq.,  edit. 
Bonn]),  Theophanes  (Chronograph,  p.  238-244  [torn.  i.  p.  432-448,  edit.  Bonn]), 
Zonaras  (torn.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  13,  14]  p.  77-80),  and  Cedrenus  (p.  399-404  [torn,  i 
p.  700-708,  edit.  Bonn]). 


A.D.  602-610.]  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EMPEROR  PHOCAS.      593 

and  senate  of  Eome,  and  afterwards  deposited  in  the  palace  of 
phocas  *ne  Caesars,  between  those  of  Constantine  and  The- 

.tTeo^"  odosius.  As  a  subject  and  a  Christian,  it  was  the 
a.d!6io~  duty  °f  Gregory  to  acquiesce  in  the  established 
October*.  government;  but  the  joyful  applause  with  which 
he  salutes  the  fortune  of  the  assassin  has  sullied,  with  indeli- 
ble disgrace,  the  character  of  the  saint.  The  successor  of  the 
apostles  might  have  inculcated  with  decent  firmness  the  guilt 
of  blood,  and  the  necessity  of  repentance ;  he  is  content  to 
celebrate  the  deliverance  of  the  people  and  the  fall  of  the 
oppressor ;  to  rejoice  that  the  piety  and  benignity  of  Phocas 
have  been  raised  by  Providence  to  the  imperial  throne;  to 
pray  that  his  hands  may  be  strengthened  against  all  his  ene- 
mies ;  and  to  express  a  wish,  perhaps  a  prophecy,  that,  after  a 
long  and  triumphant  reign,  he  may  be  transferred  from  a  tem- 
poral to  an  everlasting  kingdom.43  I  have  already  traced  the 
steps  of  a  revolution  so  pleasing,  in  Gregory's  opinion,  both 
to  heaven  and  earth ;  and  Phocas  does  not  appear  less  hateful 
in  the  exercise  than  in  the  acquisition  of  power.  The  pencil 
of  an  impartial  historian  has  delineated  the  portrait 
is  c  arac  er,  ^  ^  monster  :49  his  diminutive  and  deformed  per- 
son, the  closeness  of  his  shaggy  eyebrows,  his  red  hair,  his 
beardless  chin,  and  his  cheek  disfigured  and  discolored  by  a 
formidable  scar.  Ignorant  of  letters,  of  laws,  and  even  of 
arms,  he  indulged  in  the  supreme  rank  a  more  ample  privi- 
lege of  lust  and  drunkenness,  and  his  brutal  pleasures  were 
either  injurious  to  his  subjects  or  disgraceful  to  himself. 
Without  assuming  the  office  of  a  prince,  he  renounced  the 
profession  of  a  soldier,  and  the  reign  of  Phocas  afflicted  Eu- 

48  Gregor.  1.  xi.  Epist.  38  [1.  xiii.  Ep.  31,  edit.  Bened.]  indict,  vi.  "Benigni- 
tatem  vestrse  pietatis  ad  Imperiale  fastigiura  pervenisse  gaudemus.  L«etentur 
coeli  et  exultet  terra,  et  de  vestris  benignis  actibus  universal  reipublieas  populus 
nunc  usque  vehementer  afflictus  hilarescat,"  etc.  This  base  flattery,  the  topic  of 
Protestant  invective,  is  justly  censured  by  the  philosopher  Bayle  (Dictionnaire 
Critique,  Gregoire  I.  Not.  H.  torn.  ii.  p.  597,  698).  Cardinal  Baronius  justifies  the 
pope  at  the  expense  of  the  fallen  emperor. 

49  The  images  of  Phocas  were  destroyed ;  but  even  the  malice  of  his  enemies 
would  suffer  one  copy  of  such  a  portrait  or  caricature  (Cedrenus,  p.  404  £tom.  L 
p.  708,  edit.  Bonn  J)  to  escape  the  flames. 

,  IY.— 38 


594  TYKANNY  OF  PHOCAS.         [Ch.  XLVL 

rope  with  ignominious  peace  and  Asia  with  desolating  war. 
His  savage  temper  was  inflamed  by  passion,  hardened  by  fear, 
exasperated  by  resistance  or  reproach.  The  flight  of  Theo- 
dosius  to  the  Persian  court  had  been  intercepted  by  a  rapid 
pursuit  or  a  deceitful  message :  he  was  beheaded  at  Nice,  and 
the  last  hours  of  the  young  prince  were  soothed  by  the  com- 
forts of  religion  and  the  consciousness  of  innocence.  Yet  his 
phantom  disturbed  the  repose  of  the  usurper ;  a  whisper  was 
circulated  through  the  East  that  the  son  of  Maurice  was  still 
alive ;  the  people  expected  their  avenger,  and  the  widow  and 
daughters  of  the  late  emperor  would  have  adopted  as  their 
son  and  brother  the  vilest  of  mankind.  In  the  massacre  of 
the  imperial  family,60  the  mercy,  or  rather  the  discretion,  of 
Phocas  had  spared  these  unhappy  females,  and  they  were  de- 
cently confined  to  a  private  house.  But  the  spirit  of  the  Em- 
press Constantina,  still  mindful  of  her  father,  her  husband, 
and  her  sons,  aspired  to  freedom  and  revenge.  At  the  dead 
of  night  she  escaped  to  the  sanctuary  of  St.  Sophia,  but  her 
tears  and  the  gold  of  her  associate  Germanus  were  insuffi- 
cient to  provoke  an  insurrection.  Her  life  was  forfeited  to 
revenge,  and  even  to  justice ;  but  the  patriarch  obtained  and 
pledged  an  oath  for  her  safety,  a  monastery  was  allotted  for 
her  prison,  and  the  widow  of  Maurice  accepted  and  abused 
the  lenity  of  his  assassin.  The  discovery  or  the  suspicion  of 
a  second  conspiracy  dissolved  the  engagements,  and  rekindled 
the  fury,  of  Phocas.  A  matron  who  commanded  the  respect 
and  pity  of  mankind,  the  daughter,  wife,  and  mother  of  em- 
perors, was  tortured  like  the  vilest  malefactor,  to  force  a  con- 
fession of  her  designs  and  associates :  and  the  Em- 

aud  tyranny.  ..,''',  ,  .  ,         , 

press  Constantina,  with  her  three  innocent  daugh- 
ters, was  beheaded  at  Chalcedon,  on  the  same  ground  which 
had  been  stained  with  the  blood  of  her  husband  and  five 
sons.    After  such  an  example,  it  would  be  superfluous  to  enu- 

60  The  family  of  Maurice  is  represented  by  Ducange  (Familiae  Byzantinse,  p.  106, 
107,  108) :  his  eldest  son  Theodosius  had  been  crowned  emperor  when  he  was  no 
more  than  four  years  and  a  half  old,  and  he  is  always  joined  with  his  father  in  the 
salutations  of  Gregory.  With  the  Christian  daughters,  Anastasia  and  Theocteste. 
I  am  surprised  to  find  the  pagan  name  of  Cleopatra. 


«UD.  610.]  HIS  FALL  AND  DEATH.  595 

merate  the  names  and  sufferings  of  meaner  victims.  Theil 
condemnation  was  seldom  preceded  by  the  forms  of  trial,  and 
their  punishment  was  embittered  by  the  refinements  of  cruel" 
ty:  their  eyes  were  pierced,  their  tongues  were  torn  from  the 
root,  the  hands  and  feet  were  amputated ;  some  expired  un- 
der the  lash,  others  in  the  flames,  others  again  were  transfix- 
ed with  arrows,  and  a  simple  speedy  death  was  mercy  which 
they  could  rarely  obtain.  The  hippodrome,  the  sacred  asy- 
lum of  the  pleasures  and  the  liberty  of  the  Romans,  was  pol- 
luted with  heads  and  limbs  and  mangled  bodies;  and  the 
companions  of  Phocas  were  the  most  sensible  that  neither  his 
favor  nor  their  services  could  protect  them  from  a  tyrant,  the 
worthy  rival  of  the  Caligulas  and  Domitians  of  the  first  age 
of  the  empire.61 

A  daughter  of  Phocas,  his  only  child,  was  given  in  mar- 
riage to  the  Patrician  Crispus,68  and  the  royal  images  of  the 
His  fail  and  bride  and  bridegroom  were  indiscreetly  placed  in 
A^eio,  the  circu8  by  the  side  of  the  emperor.  The  father 
October^  must  desire  that  his  posterity  should  inherit  the 
fruit  of  his  crimes,  but  the  monarch  was  offended  by  this 
premature  and  popular  association ;  the  tribunes  of  the  green 
faction,  who  accused  the  officious  error  of  their  sculptors,  were 
condemned  to  instant  death ;  their  lives  were  granted  to  the 
prayers  of  the  people,  but  Crispus  might  reasonably  doubt 
whether  a  jealous  usurper  could  forget  and  pardon  his  invol- 
untary competition.  The  green  faction  was  alienated  by  the 
ingratitude  of  Phocas  and  the  loss  of  their  privileges :  every 
province  of  the  empire  was  ripe  for  rebellion ;  and  Hera- 
clius,  exarch  of  Africa,  persisted  above  two  years  in  refusing 
all  tribute  and  obedience  to  the  centurion  who  disgraced  the 
throne  of  Constantinople.     By  the  secret  emissaries  of  Cris- 

61  Some  of  the  cruelties  of  Phocas  are  marked  by  Theophylact,  1.  viii.  c.  13, 14, 
15.  George  of  Pisidia,  the  poet  of  Heraclius,  styles  him  (Bell.  Abaricum,  p.  46, 
Rome,  1777)  rrjc  Tvpavvidog  6  dvGicaQsKrog  km  (3io<p96pog  cpaKwv  [v.  49].  The 
latter  epithet  is  just — but  the  corrupter  of  life  was  easily  vanquished. 

52  In  the  writers,  and  in  the  copies  of  those  writers,  there  is  such  hesitation  be- 
tween  the  names  of  Priscus  and  Crispus  (Ducange,  Fam.  Byzant.  p.  Ill),  that  I 
have  been  tempted  to  identify  the  son-in-law  of  Phocas  with  the  hero  five  times 
victorious  over  the  Avars. 


596  FALL  AND  DEATH  OF  PHOCAS.  [Ch.XLVI 

pus  and  the  senate,  the  independent  exarch  was  solicited  to 
save  and  to  govern  his  country :  but  his  ambition  was  chilled 
by  age,  and  he  resigned  the  dangerous  enterprise  to  his  son 
Heraclius,  and  to  Nicetas,  the  son  of  Gregory,  his  friend  and 
lieutenant.  The  powers  of  Africa  were  armed  by  the  two 
adventurous  youths:  they  agreed  that  the  one  should  navi- 
gate the  fleet  from  Carthage  to  Constantinople,  that  the  other 
should  lead  an  army  through  Egypt  and  Asia,  and  that  the 
imperial  purple  should  be  the  reward  of  diligence  and  suc- 
cess. A  faint  rumor  of  their  undertaking  was  conveyed  to 
the  ears  of  Phocas,  and  the  wife  and  mother  of  the  younger 
Heraclius  were  secured  as  the  hostages  of  his  faith ;  but  the 
treacherous  heart  of  Crispus  extenuated  the  distant  peril,  the 
means  of  defence  were  neglected  or  delayed,  and  the  tyrant 
supinely  slept  till  the  African  navy  cast  anchor  in  the  Helles- 
pont. Their  standard  was  joined  at  Abydus  by  the  fugitives 
and  exiles  who  thirsted  for  revenge :  the  ships  of  Heraclius, 
whose  lofty  masts  were  adorned  with  the  holy  symbols  of  re- 
ligion,68 steered  their  triumphant  course  through  the  Propon« 
tis ;  and  Phocas  beheld  from  the  windows  of  the  palace  his  ap- 
proaching and  inevitable  fate.  The  green  faction  was  tempt- 
ed, by  gifts  and  promises,  to  oppose  a  feeble  and  fruitless  re- 
sistance to  the  landing  of  the  Africans ;  but  the  people,  and 
even  the  guards,  were  determined  by  the  well-timed  defection 
of  Crispus,  and  the  tyrant  was  seized  by  a  private  enemy, 
who  boldly  invaded  the  solitude  of  the  palace.  Stripped  of 
the  diadem  and  purple,  clothed  in  a  vile  habit,  and  loaded 
with  chains,  he  was  transported  in  a  small  boat  to  the  impe- 
rial galley  of  Heraclius,  who  reproached  him  with  the  crimes 
of  his  abominable  reign.  "  Wilt  thou  govern  better  ?"  were 
the  last  words  of  the  despair  of  Phocas.  After  suffering  each 
variety  of  insult  and  torture,  his  head  was  severed  from  his 


88  According  to  Theophanes  [torn.  i.  p.  459,  edit.  Bonn],  ntiaria  and  tltcovaQ 
fVijjc]  SrtofifjTopoc.  Cedrenus  adds  an  axtipoirolt]rov  eiicova  tov  Kvplov,  which 
Heraclius  bore  as  a  banner  in  the  first  Persian  expedition  [torn.  i.  p.  719].  See 
George  Pisid.  Acroas.  i.  140.  The  manufacture  seems  to  have  flourished  ;  but 
Foggini,  the  Ron.an  editor  (p.  26),  is  at  a  loss  to  determine  whether  this  picture 
was  an  original  or  a  copy. 


A.D.  610-642.  J 


REIGN  OF  HERACLIUS. 


597 


body,  the  mangled  trunk  was  cast  into  the  flames,  and  the 
same  treatment  was  inflicted  on  the  statues  of  the  vain  usurp- 
er and  the  seditious  banner  of  the  green  faction.  The  voice 
of  the  clergy,  the  senate,  and  the  people  invited  Heraclius  to 
ascend  the  throne  which  he  had  purified  from  guilt  and  igno- 
fieign  of  miny ;  after  some  graceful  hesitation  he  yielded  to 
^n?6io"8'  their  entreaties.  His  coronation  was  accompanied 
ACv.m,  by  that  of  his  wife  Eudoxia,  and  their  posterity, 
Feb.  11.  till  the  fourth  generation,  continued  to  reign  over 

the  empire  of  the  East.a  The  voyage  of  Heraclius  had  been 
easy  and  prosperous  ;  the  tedious  march  of  Nicetas  was  not 
accomplished  before  the  decision  of  the  contest,  but  he  sub- 
mitted without  a  murmur  to  the  fortune  of  his  friend,  and 
his  laudable  intentions  were  rewarded  with  an  equestrian 
etatue  and  a  daughter  of  the  emperor.  It  was  more  difficult 
to  trust  the  fidelity  of  Crispus,  whose  recent  services  were 
Recompensed  by  the   command   of  the   Cappadocian  army. 


•  The  following  is  the  genealogical  table  of  the  family  of  Heraclius : 

Heraclius, 
Exarch  of  Africa. 

Eudocia  =  Heraclius  I.,  =  Martina. 
I  Imp.  ob.  641.  J 


Epiphania 

6ive  Eudocia, 

b.  611. 


CONSTANS  n. 

Imp.  b.  630, 

ob.  668. 

I 


CONSTANTINUS  III 

s.  Heraclius  II., 

m.  Gregoria, 

b.  612,  ob.  641. 

I 

Theodosiua, 
murdered  by  hia 


Heracleonas,    Augustina. 
b.  626,  ob.  641. 


brother,  661. 


CONSTANTINUS  IV. 
POGONATUS, 

Imp.  m.  Anastasia, 
ob.  685. 

I 


Heraclius, 


Tiberius. 


justinianus  il 
Rhlnotmetus, 
Imp.  ob.  111. 


Heraclius. 


598  CHOSROES  INVADES  THE  SOMAN  EMPIRE.   [Cn.XLVL 

His  arrogance  soon  provoked,  and  seemed  to  excuse,  the  in- 
gratitude of  his  new  sovereign.  In  the  presence  of  the  sen- 
ate, the  son-in-law  of  Phocas  was  condemned  to  embrace  the 
monastic  life ;  and  the  sentence  was  justified  by  the  weighty 
observation  of  Heraclius,  that  the  man  who  had  betrayed  his 
father  could  never  be  faithful  to  his  friend.64 

Even  after  his  death  the  republic  was  afflicted  by  the  crimes 
of  Phocas,  which  armed  with  a  pious  cause  the  most  formida- 
ble of  her  enemies.     According;  to  the  friendly  and 

Chogroes  .  ^i-r,  .  i   -i-i        • 

invades  the     equal  forms  of  the  Byzantine  and  Persian  courts, 

Roman  x  J      .  .  .* 

empire.  he  announced  his  exaltation  to  the  throne:  and  his 

a.i>.  003,  etc  ill  .         i 

ambassador  Linus,  who  had  presented  him  with  the 
heads  of  Maurice  and  his  sons,  was  the  best  qualified  to  de- 
scribe the  circumstances  of  the  tragic  scene.55  However  it 
might  be  varnished  by  fiction  or  sophistry,  Chosroes  turned 
with  horror  from  the  assassin,  imprisoned  the  pretended  en- 
voy, disclaimed  the  usurper,  and  declared  himself  the  avenger 
of  his  father  and  benefactor.  The  sentiments  of  grief  and 
resentment,  which  humanity  would  feel  and  honor  would  dic- 
tate, promoted  on  this  occasion  the  interest  of  the  Persian 
king,  and  his  interest  was  powerfully  magnified  by  the  national 
and  religious  prejudices  of  the  Magi  and  satraps.  In  a  strain 
of  artful  adulation,  which  assumed  the  language  of  freedom, 
they  presumed  to  censure  the  excess  of  his  gratitude  and 
friendship  for  the  Greeks,  a  nation  with  whom  it  was  danger- 
ous to  conclude  either  peace  or  alliance,  whose  superstition 
was  devoid  of  truth  and  justice,  and  who  must  be  incapable 
of  any  virtue  since  they  could  perpetrate  the  most  atrocious 

64  See  the  tyranny  of  Phocas  and  the  elevation  of  Heraclius,  in  Chron.  Pas- 
chal, p.  380-383  [torn.  i.  p.  694-701,  edit.  Bonn];  Theophancs,  p.  242-250 
[torn.  i.  p.  446-459,  edit.  Bonn];  Nicephorus,  p.  3-7  [edit.  Par.  1648];  Cedre- 
nus,  p.  404-407  [torn.  i.  p.  708-714,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Zonaras,  torn.  ii.  1.  xiv.  [c.  14, 
15]  p.  80-82. 

65  Theophylact,  1.  viii.  c.  15  [p.  346,  edit.  Bonn].  The  Life  of  Maurice  was 
composed  about  the  year  628  (1.  viii.  c.  13)  by  Theophylact  Simocatta,  ex-praefect, 
a  native  of  Egypt.  Photius,  who  gives  an  ample  extract  of  the  work  (cod.  lxv. 
p.  81-100  [p.  27-33,  edit.  Bekk.]),  gently  reproves  the  affectation  and  allegory  of 
the  style.  His  preface  is  a  dialogue  between  Philosophy  and  History  ;  they  seat 
themselves  under  a  plane-tree,  and  the  latter  touches  her  lyre. 


A.D.G03.]      CHOSROES  INVADES  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  599 

of  crimes,  the  impious  murder  of  their  sovereign.68  For  the 
crime  of  an  ambitious  centurion  the  nation  which  he  oppress- 
ed was  chastised  with  the  calamities  of  war,  and  the  same  ca- 
lamities, at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  were  retaliated  and  re- 
doubled on  the  heads  of  the  Persians."  The  general  who 
had  restored  Chosroes  to  the  throne  still  commanded  in  the 
East,  and  the  name  of  JSTarses  was  the  formidable  sound  with 
which  the  Assyrian  mothers  were  accustomed  to  terrify  their 
infants.  It  is  not  improbable  that  a  native  subject  of  Per- 
sia should  encourage  his  master  and  his  friend  to  deliver  and 
possess  the  provinces  of  Asia.  It  is  still  more  probable  that 
Chosroes  should  animate  his  troops  by  the  assurance  that  the 
sword  which  they  dreaded  the  most  would  remain  in  its  scab- 
bard or  be  drawn  in  their  favor.  The  hero  could  not  depend 
on  the  faith  of  a  tyrant,  and  the  tyrant  was  conscious  how  lit- 
tle he  deserved  the  obedience  of  a  hero.  Narses  was  removed 
from  his  military  command ;  he  reared  an  independent  stand- 
ard at  Hierapolis,  in  Syria;  he  was  betrayed  by  fallacious  prom- 
ises, and  burned  alive  in  the  market-place  of  Constantinople. 
Deprived  of  the  only  chief  whom  they  could  fear  or  esteem, 
the  bands  which  he  had  led  to  victory  were  twice  broken  by 
the  cavalry,  trampled  by  the  elephants,  and  pierced  by  the  ar- 
rows of  the  barbarians ;  and  a  great  number  of  the  captives 
were  beheaded  on  the  field  of  battle  by  the  sentence  of  the 
victor,  who  might  justly  condemn  these  seditious  mercenaries 
as  the  authors  or  accomplices  of  the  death  of  Maurice.  Un- 
der the  reign  of  Phocas,  the  fortifications  of  Merdin,  Dara, 


66  "Christianis  nee  pactum  esse,  nee  fidera  nee  fcedus***  quod  si  ulla  ipsis 
fides  fuisset,  regem  suum  non  occidissent"  (Eutych.  Annales,  torn.  ii.  p.  211,  vers. 
Pocock). 

67  We  must  now,  for  some  ages,  take  our  leave  of  contemporary  historians,  and 
descend,  if  it  be  a  descent,  from  the  affectation  of  rhetoric  to  the  rude  simplicity 
of  chronicles  and  abridgments.  Those  of  Theophanes  (Chronograph,  p.  244-279 
[torn.  i.  p.  449-516,  edit.  Bonn]  and  Nicephorus  (p.  3-16)  supply  a  regular,  but 
imperfect,  series  of  the  Persian  war ;  and  for  any  additional  facts  I  quote  my  spe- 
cial authorities.  Theophanes,  a  courtier  who  became  a  monk,  was  born  a.d.  748  ; 
Nicephorus,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  died  a.d.  829,  was  somewhat  young 
er :  they  both  suffered  in  the  cause  of  images.  Hankius,  De  Scriptoribus  Byzan« 
tinis,  p.  200-246. 


600  CONQUESTS  OF  CHOSROES.  [Ch.  XLV1, 

Amida,  and  Edessa  were  successively  besieged,  reduced,  and 
destroyed  by  the  Persian  monarch;  he  passed  the 

His  conquest    _       ,   J  J  .    ,    ,.        _.      .  .'.         JL.  .. 

of  Syria,  Euphrates,  occupied  the  byrian  cities,  Hierapolis, 
Chalcis,  and  Berrhcea  or  Aleppo,  and  soon  encom- 
passed the  walls  of  Antioch  with  his  irresistible  arms.  The 
rapid  tide  of  success  discloses  the  decay  of  the  empire,  the  in- 
capacity of  Phocas,  and  the  disaffection  of  his  subjects ;  and 
Chosroes  provided  a  decent  apology  for  their  submission  or 
revolt  by  an  impostor  who  attended  his  camp  as  the  son  of 
Maurice68  and  the  lawful  heir  of  the  monarchy. 

The  first  intelligence  from  the  East  which  Heraclius  re- 
ceived69 was  that  of  the  loss  of  Antiocli ;  but  the  aged  me- 
tropolis, so  often  overturned  by  earthquakes  and  pillaged  by 
the  enemy,  could  supply  but  a  small  and  languid  stream  of 
treasure  and  blood.  The  Persians  were  equally  successful 
and  more  fortunate  in  the  sack  of  Csesarea,  the  capital  of  Cap- 
padocia;  and  as  they  advanced  beyond  the  ramparts  of  the 
frontier,  the  boundary  of  ancient  war,  they  found  a  less  obsti- 
nate resistance  and  a  more  plentiful  harvest.  The  pleasant 
vale  of  Damascus  has  been  adorned  in  every  age  with  a  royal 
city :  her  obscure  felicity  has  hitherto  escaped  the  historian  of 
the  Koman  empire :  but  Chosroes  reposed  his  troops  in  the 
of  Palestine,  paradise  of  Damascus  before  he  ascended  the  hills 
a.d.614;  0£  inarms  or  invaded  the  cities  of  the  Phoenician 
coast.    The  conquest  of  Jerusalem,60  which  had  been  meditated 

s8  The  Persian  historians  have  been  themselves  deceived ;  but  Theophanes 
(p.  244  [torn.  i.  p.  449,  edit.  Bonn])  accuses  Chosroes  of  the  fraud  and  falsehood; 
and  Eutychius  believes  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  211)  that  the  son  of  Maurice,  who  was 
saved  from  the  assassins,  lived  and  died  a  monk  on  Mount  Sinai. 

6'  Eutychius  dates  all  the  losses  of  the  empire  under  the  reign  of  Phocas ;  an 
error  which  saves  the  honor  of  Heraclius,  whom  he  brings  not  from  Carthage,  but 
Salonica,  with  a  fleet  laden  with  vegetables  for  the  relief  of  Constantinople  (An- 
nal. torn.  ii.  p.  223,  224).  The  other  Christians  of  the  East,  Barhebraus  (apud 
Asseman,  Bibliothec.  Oriental,  torn.  iii.  p.  412,  413),  Elmacin  (Hist.  Saracen. 
p.  13-16),  Abulpharagius  (Dynast,  p.  98,  99),  are  more  sincere  and  accurate. 
The  years  of  the  Persian  war  are  disposed  in  the  chronology  of  Pagi. 

60  On  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  an  event  so  interesting  to  the  Church,  see  the 
Annals  of  Eutychius  (torn.  ii.  p.  212-223),  and  the  lamentations  of  the  monk  Anti- 
ochus  (apud  Baronium,  Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  614,  No.  16-26),  whose  one  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  homilies  are  still  extant,  if  what  no  one  reads  may  be  said  to  be « 


a.d.  616.]  CONQUESTS  OF  CHOSROES.  601 

by  Nushirvan,  was  achieved  by  the  zeal  and  avarice  of  hia 
grandson  ;  the  ruin  of  the  proudest  monument  of  Christianity 
was  vehemently  urged  by  the  intolerant  spirit  of  the  Mag7* ; 
and  he  could  enlist  for  this  holy  warfare  an  army  of  six-and- 
twenty  thousand  Jews,  whose  furious  bigotry  might  compen- 
sate in  some  degree  for  the  want  of  valor  and  discipline.* 
After  the  reduction  of  Galilee  and  the  region  beyond  the 
Jordan,  whose  resistance  appears  to  have  delayed  the  fate  of 
the  capital,  Jerusalem  itself  was  taken  by  assault.  The  sep- 
ulchre of  Christ  and  the  stately  churches  of  Helena  and  Con- 
stantine  were  consumed,  or  at  least  damaged,  by  the  flames; 
the  devout  offerings  of  three  hundred  years  were  rifled  in  one 
sacrilegious  day  ;  the  Patriarch  Zachariah  and  the  true  cross 
were  transported  into  Persia;  and  the  massacre  of  ninety 
thousand  Christians  is  imputed  to  the  Jews  and  Arabs,  who 
swelled  the  disorder  of  the  Persian  march.  The  fugitives  of 
Palestine  were  entertained  at  Alexandria  by  the  charity  of 
John  the  Archbishop,  who  is  distinguished  among  a  crowd  of 
saints  by  the  epithet  of  alms-giver  ;ei  and  the  revenues  of  the 
Church,  with  a  treasure  of  three  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
were  restored  to  the  true  proprietors,  the  poor  of  every  coun- 
try and  every  denomination.  But  Egypt  itself,  the  only 
province  which  had  been  exempt  since  the  time  of  Diocletian 
from  foreign  and  domestic  war,  was  again  subdued  by  the 
of  Egypt,  successors  of  Cyrus.  Pelusium,  the  key  of  that  im- 
a.b.616;  pervious  country,  was  surprised  by  the  cavalry  of 
the  Persians:  they  passed  with  impunity  the  innumerable 
channels  of  the  Delta,  and  explored  the  long  valley  of  the 
JSTile  from  the  pyramids  of  Memphis  to  the  confines  of  ^Ethi- 
opia. Alexandria  might  have  been  relieved  by  a  naval  force, 
but  the  archbishop  and  the  praefect  embarked  for  Cyprus; 
and  Chosroes  entered  the  second  city  of  the  empire,  which 
still  preserved  a  wealthy  remnant  of  industry  and  commerce. 

41  The  Life  of  this  worthy  saint  is  composed  by  Leontius,  a  contemporary  bish- 
op; and  I  find  in  Baronius  (Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  610,  No.  10,  etc.)  and  Fleurj 
(torn.  viii.  p  235-242)  sufficient  extracts  of  this  edifying  work. 


•  See  Hist,  of  Jews,  vol.  iii.  p.  240.— M. 


602  REIGN  AND  MAGNIFICENCE  OF  CHOSROES.  [Ch.XLVL 

His  western  trophy  was  erected,  not  on  the  walls  of  Carthage," 
but  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tripoli :  the  Greek  colonies  of 
Cyrene  were  finally  extirpated ;  and  the  conqueror,  treading 
in  the  footsteps  of  Alexander,  returned  in  triumph  through 
the  sands  of  the  Libyan  desert.  In  the  same  cam- 
Minor,  paign  another  army  advanced  from  the  Euphrates 
to  the  Thracian  Bosphorus ;  Chalcedon  surrendered 
after  a  long  siege,  and  a  Persian  camp  was  maintained  above 
ten  years  in  the  presence  of  Constantinople.  The  sea-coast 
of  Pontus,  the  city  of  Ancyra,  and  the  Isle  of  Rhodes  are 
enumerated  among  the  last  conquests  of  the  Great  King;  and 
if  Chosroes  had  possessed  any  maritime  power,  his  boundless 
ambition  would  have  spread  slavery  and  desolation  over  the 
provinces  of  Europe. 

From  the  long-disputed  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates, 
the  reign  of  the  grandson  of  Nushirvan  was  suddenly  extend- 
ed to  the  Hellespont  and  the  Nile,  the  ancient  lim- 
sind  mag-  its  of  the  Persian  monarchy.  But  the  provinces, 
which  had  been  fashioned  by  the  habits  of  six  hun- 
dred years  to  the  virtues  and  vices  of  the  Roman  government, 
supported  with  reluctance  the  yoke  of  the  barbarians.  The 
idea  of  a  republic  was  kept  alive  by  the  institutions,  or  at  least 
by  the  writings,  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  the  subjects 
of  Heraclius  had  been  educated  to  pronounce  the  words  of 
liberty  and  law.  But  it  has  always  been  the  pride  and  policy 
of  Oriental  princes  to  display  the  titles  and  attributes  of  their 
omnipotence ;  to  upbraid  a  nation  of  slaves  with  their  true 
name  and  abject  condition ;  and  to  enforce,  by  cruel  and  in- 
solent threats,  the  rigor  of  their  absolute  commands.  The 
Christians  of  the  East  were  scandalized  by  the  worship  of  fire 
and  the  impious  doctrine  of  the  two  principles :  the  Magi 
were  not  less  intolerant  than  the  bishops ;  and  the  martyrdom 
of  some  native  Persians  who  had  deserted  the  religion  of  Zo- 

•*  The  error  of  Baronius,  and  many  others  who  have  carried  the  arms  of  Chos- 
roes to  Carthage  instead  of  Chalcedon,  is  founded  on  the  near  resemblance 
of  the  Greek  words  KaXxn^ova  and  Kapxhdova,  in  the  text  of  Theophanes, 
etc.,  which  have  been  sometimes  confounded  by  transcribers,  and  sometimes  bv 
critics. 


A.D.  616.]     EEIGN  AND  MAGNIFICENCE  OF  CHOSBOES.  6  33 

roaster*3  was  conceived  to  be  the  prelude  of  a  fierce  and  gen- 
eral persecution.  By  the  oppressive  laws  of  Justinian  the  ad- 
versaries of  the  Church  were  made  the  enemies  of  the  State; 
the  alliance  of  the  Jews,  Nestorians,  and  Jacobites  had  con- 
tributed to  the  success  of  Chosroes,  and  his  partial  favor  to 
the  sectaries  provoked  the  hatred  and  fears  of  the  Catholic 
clergy.  Conscious  of  their  fear  and  hatred,  the  Persian  con- 
queror governed  his  new  subjects  with  an  iron  sceptre ;  and, 
as  if  he  suspected  the  stability  of  his  dominion,  he  exhausted 
their  wealth  by  oxorbitant  tributes  and  licentious  rapine ;  de- 
spoiled or  demolished  the  temples  of  the  East ;  and  transport- 
ed to  his  hereditary  realms  the  gold,  the  silver,  the  precious 
marbles,  the  arts,  and  the  artists  of  the  Asiatic  cities.  In  the 
obscure  picture  of  the  calamities  of  the  empire64  it  is  not  easy 
to  discern  the  figure  of  Chosroes  himself,  to  separate  his  ac- 
tions from  those  of  his  lieutenants,  or  to  ascertain  his  person- 
al merit  in  the  general  blaze  of  glory  and  magnificence.  He 
enjoyed  with  ostentation  the  fruits  of  victory,  and  frequently 
retired  from  the  hardships  of  war  to  the  luxury  of  the  palace. 
But,  in  the  space  of  twenty-four  years,  he  was  deterred  by  su- 
perstition or  resentment  from  approaching  the  gates  of  Ctes- 
iphon :  and  his  favorite  residence  of  Artemita,  or  Dastagerd, 
was  situate  beyond  the  Tigris,  about  sixty  miles  to  the  north 
of  the  capital.65  The  adjacent  pastures  were  covered  with 
flocks  and  herds :  the  paradise  or  park  was  replenished  with 
pheasants,  peacocks,  ostriches,  roebucks,  and  wild-boars  ;  and 
the  noble  game  of  lions  and  tigers  was  sometimes  turned 
loose  for  the  bolder  pleasures  of  the  chase.  Nine  hundred 
and  sixty  elephants  were  maintained  for  the  use  or  splendor 
of  the  Great  King ;  his  tents  and  baggage  were  carried  into 


63  The  genuine  acts  of  St.  Anastasius  are  published  in  those  of  the  seventh  gen- 
eral council,  from  whence  Baronius  (Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  614,  626,  627)  and  But- 
ler (Lives  of  the  Saints,  vol.  i.  p.  242-248)  have  taken  their  accounts.  The  holy 
martyr  deserted  from  the  Persian  to  the  Roman  army,  became  a  monk  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  insulted  the  worship  of  the  Magi,  which  was  then  established  at  Caesarea, 
in  Palestine. 

64  Abulpharagius,  Dynast,  p.  99  ;  Elmacin,  Hist.  Saracen,  p.  14. 

u  D'Anville*  Me'ro.  de  TAcademie  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxxii,  p.  568-571. 


604  REIGN  AND  MAGNIFICENCE  OF  CHOSROES.   [Ch.  XLVI 

the  field  by  twelve  thousand  great  camels  and  eight  thousand 
of  a  smaller  size  ;66  and  the  royal  stables  were  filled  with  six 
thousand  mules  and  horses,  among  whom  the  names  of  Sheb- 
diz  and  Barid  are  renowned  for  their  speed  or  beauty .a  Six 
thousand  guards  successively  mounted  before  the  palace  gate ; 
the  service  of  the  interior  apartments  was  performed  by 
twelve  thousand  slaves;  and  in  the  number  of  three  thou- 
sand virgins,  the  fairest  of  Asia,  some  happy  concubine  might 
console  her  master  for  the  age  or  the  indifference  of  Sira„ 
The  various  treasures  of  gold,  silver,  gems,  silk,  and  aromatics 
were  deposited  in  a  hundred  subterraneous  vaults ;  and  the 
chamber  Badaverd  denoted  the  accidental  gift  of  the  winds 
which  had  wafted  the  spoils  of  Heraclius  into  one  of  the  Syr- 
ian harbors  of  his  rival.  The  voice  of  flattery,  and  perhaps 
of  fiction,  is  not  ashamed  to  compute  the  thirty  thousand  rich 
hangings  that  adorned  the  walls ;  the  forty  thousand  columns 
of  silver,  or  more  probably  of  marble,  and  plated  wood,  that 
supported  the  roof;  and  the  thousand  globes  of  gold  sus- 
pended in  the  dome,  to  imitate  the  motions  of  the  planets 
and  the  constellations  of  the  zodiac.67  While  the  Persian 
monarch  contemplated  the  wonders  of  his  art  and  power,  he 
received  an  epistle  from  an  obscure  citizen  of  Mecca,  inviting 
him  to  acknowledge  Mahomet  as  the  apostle  of  God.  He  re- 
jected the  invitation,  and  tore  the  epistle.  "  It  is  thus,"  ex- 
claimed the  Arabian  prophet, "  that  God  will  tear  the  king- 


66  The  difference  between  the  two  races  consists  in  one  or  two  humps;  the 
dromedary  has  only  one ;  the  size  of  the  proper  camel  is  larger ;  the  country  h6 
comes  from,  Turkistan  or  Bactriana ;  the  dromedary  is  confined  to  Arabia  and 
Africa.  Buffon,  Hist.  Naturelle,  torn.  xi.  p.  211,  etc. ;  Aristot.  Hist.  Animal,  torn. 
i.  1.  ii.  c.  1 ;  torn.  ii.  p.  185. 

61  Theophanes,  Chronograph,  p.  268  [torn.  i.  p.  494,  edit.  Bonn].  D'Herbelot, 
Bibliotheque  Orientale,  p.  997.  The  Greeks  describe  the  decay,  the  Persians  the 
splendor,  of  Dastagerd ;  but  the  former  speak  from  the  modest  witness  of  the  eye, 
the  latter  from  the  vague  report  of  the  ear. 


■  The  ruin9  of  these  scenes  of  Khoosroo's  magnificence  have  been  visited  by 
Sir  R.  K.  Porter.  At  the  ruins  of  Tokht  i  Bostan  he  saw  a  gorgeous  picture 
of  a  hunt  singularly  illustrative  of  this  passage.  Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  204.  Kisra 
Shirene,  which  he  afterwards  examined,  appears  to  have  been  the  palace  of  Das- 
tagerd, vol.  ii.  p.  173-175.— M. 


a.d.  610-622.]  DISTRESS  OF  HERACLIUS.  C05 

dom  and  reject  the  supplications  of  Chosroes."8**  Placed  on 
the  verge  of  the  two  great  empires  of  the  East,  Mahomet 
observed  with  secret  joy  the  progress  of  their  mutual  de- 
struction ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the  Persian  triumphs  he  vent- 
ured to  foretell  that,  before  many  years  should  elapse,  victory 
would  again  return  to  the  banners  of  the  Romans.8* 

At  the  time  when  this  prediction  is  said  to  have  been  de- 
livered, no  prophecy  could  be  more  distant  from  its  accom- 
plishment, since  the  first  twelve  years  of  Hera.clius 
HeraciiuB.  announced  the  approaching  dissolution  of  the  em- 
pire. If  the  motives  of  Chosroes  had  been  pure 
and  honorable,  he  must  have  ended  the  quarrel  with  the  death 
of  Phocas,  and  he  would  have  embraced,  as  his  best  ally,  the 
fortunate  African  who  had  so  generously  avenged  the  inju- 
ries of  his  benefactor  Maurice.  The  prosecution  of  the  war 
revealed  the  true  character  of  the  barbarian ;  and  the  suppli- 
ant embassies  of  Heraclius  to  beseech  his  clemency,  that  he 
would  spare  the  innocent,  accept  a  tribute,  and  give  peace  to 
the  world,  were  rejected  with  contemptuous  silence  or  inso- 
lent menace.     Syria,  Egypt,  and  the  provinces  of  Asia  were 

68  The  historians  of  Mahomet,  Abulfeda  (in  Vit.  Mohammed,  p.  92,  93)  and 
Gagmer  (Vie  de  Mahomet,  torn.  ii.  p.  247),  date  this  embassy  in  the  seventh  rear 
of  the  Hegira,  which  commences  a.d.  628,  May  11.  Their  chronology  is  errone- 
ous, since  Chosroes  died  in  the  month  of  February  of  the  same  year  (Pagi,  Criti- 
ca,  torn.  ii.  p.  779).  The  Count  de  Boulainvilliers  (Vie  de  Mahomed,  p.  327,  328) 
places  this  embassy  about  a.d.  615,  soon  after  the  conquest  of  Palestine.  Yet 
Mahomet  would  scarcely  have  ventured  so  soon  on  so  bold  a  step. 

69  See  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  the  Koran,  entitled  the  Greeks.  Our  honest  and 
learned  translator,  Sale  (p.  330,  331),  fairly  states  this  conjecture,  guess,  wager,  of 
Mahomet ;  but  Boulainvilliers  (p.  329-34-1),  with  wicked  intentions,  labors  to  es- 
tablish this  evident  prophecy  of  a  future  event,  which  must,  in  his  opinion,  embar- 
rass the  Christian  polemics. 


a  Khoosroo  Purveez  was  encamped  on  the  banks  of  the  Karasoo  River  when  he 
received  the  letter  of  Mahomed.  He  tore  the  letter  and  threw  it  into  the  Karasoo. 
For  this  action  the  moderate  author  of  the  Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh  calls  him  a  wretch, 
and  rejoices  in  all  his  subsequent  misfortunes.  These  impressions  still  exist.  I 
remarked  to  a  Persian,  when  encamped  near  the  Karasoo.  in  1800,  that  the  banks 
were  very  high,  which  must  make  it  difficult  to  apply  its  waters  to  irrigation.  "It 
once  fertilized  the  whole  country,1'  said  the  zealous  Mahometan,  ''but  its  channel 
sunk  with  horror  from  its  banks  when  that  madman,  Khoosroo,  threw  our  holy 
Prophet's  letter  into  its  stream  ;  which  has  ever  since  been  accursed  and  useless." 
Malcolm's  Persia,  vol.  L  p.  126.— M. 


606  DISTRESS  OF  HERACLIUS.  [Ch.  XLVL 

subdued  by  the  Persian  arms ;  while  Europe,  from  the  con- 
fines of  Istria  to  the  long  wall  of  Thrace,  was  oppressed  by 
the  Avars,  unsatiated  with  the  blood  and  rapine  of  the  Italian 
war.  They  had  coolly  massacred  their  male  captives  in  the 
eacred  field  of  Pannonia;  the  women  and  children  were  re- 
duced to  servitude,  and  the  noblest  virgins  were  abandoned 
to  the  promiscuous  lust  of  the  barbarians.  The  amorous  ma- 
tron who  opened  the  gates  of  Friuli  passed  a  short  night  in 
the  arms  of  her  royal  lover;  the  next  evening  Komilda  was 
condemned  to  the  embraces  of  twelve  Avars ;  and,  the  third 
day,  the  Lombard  princess  was  impaled  in  the  sight  of  the 
camp,  while  the  chagan  observed,  with  a  cruel  smile,  that  such 
a  husband  was  the  fit  recompense  of  her  lewdness  and  per- 
fidy.70 By  these  implacable  enemies  Heraclius,  on  either  side, 
was  insulted  and  besieged :  and  the  Roman  empire  was  re- 
duced to  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  with  the  remnant  of 
Greece,  Italy,  and  Africa,  and  some  maritime  cities,  from  Tyre 
to  Trebizond,  of  the  Asiatic  coast.  After  the  loss  of  Egypt 
the  capital  was  afflicted  by  "famine  and  pestilence;  and  the 
emperor,  incapable  of  resistance  and  hopeless  of  relief,  had 
resolved  to  transfer  his  person  and  government  to  the  more 
secure  residence  of  Carthage.  His  ships  were  already  laden 
with  the  treasures  of  the  palace ;  but  his  flight  was  arrested 
by  the  patriarch,  who  armed  the  powers  of  religion  in  the  de- 
fence of  his  country,  led  Heraclius  to  the  altar  of  St.  Sophia, 
and  extorted  a  solemn  oath  that  he  would  live  and  die  with 
the  people  whom  God  had  intrusted  to  his  care.  The  cha- 
gan was  encamped  in  the  plains  of  Thrace ;  but  he  dissembled 
his  perfidious  designs,  and  solicited  an  interview  with  the  em- 
peror near  the  town  of  Heraclea.  Their  reconciliation  was 
celebrated  with  equestrian  games ;  the  senate  and  people,  in 
their  gayest  apparel,  resorted  to  the  festival  of  peace ;  and 
the  Avars  beheld,  with  envy  and  desire,  the  spectacle  of  Ro- 
man luxury.  On  a  sudden  the  hippodrome  was  encompass- 
ed by  the  Scythian  cavalry,  who  had  pressed  their  secret  and 
nocturnal  march:  the  tremendous  sound  of  the  chagan's  whip 

10  Paul  Warnefrid,  De  Gestis  Langobardoium,  1.  iv.  c.  38,  42 ;  Muratori,  An- 
nali  d'ltalia,  torn.  v.  p.  305,  etc. 


A.D.  610-6S2.]  HE  SOLICITS  PEACE.  607 

gave  the  signal  of  the  assault;  and  Heraclius,  wrapping  his 
diadem  round  his  arm,  was  saved,  with  extreme  hazard,  by 
the  fleetness  of  his  horse.  So  rapid  was  the  pursuit,  that  the 
Avars  almost  entered  the  golden  gate  of  Constantinople  with 
the  flying  crowds :"  but  the  plunder  of  the  suburbs  rewarded 
their  treason,  and  they  transported  beyond  the  Danube  two 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  captives.  On  the  shore  of 
Chalcedon  the  emperor  held  a  safer  conference  with  a  more 
honorable  foe,  who,  before  Heraclius  descended  from  his  gal- 
ley, saluted  with  reverence  and  pity  the  majesty  of  the  pur- 
ple. The  friendly  offer  of  Sain,  the  Persian  general,  to  con- 
He  solicits  duct  an  embassy  to  the  presence  of  the  Great  King 
peace-  was  accepted  with  the  warmest  gratitude;  and  the 

prayer  for  pardon  and  peace  was  humbly  presented  by  the 
praetorian  praefect,  the  praefect  of  the  city,  and  one  of  the 
first  ecclesiastics  of  the  patriarchal  Church."  But  the  lieu- 
tenant of  Chosroes  had  fatally  mistaken  the  intentions  of  his 
master.  "  It  was  not  an  embassy,"  said  the  tyrant  of  Asia ; 
"it  was  the  person  of  Heraclius,  bound  in  chains,  that  he 
should  have  brought  to  the  foot  of  my  throne.  I  will  never 
give  peace  to  the  Emperor  of  Rome  till  he  has  abjured  his 
crucified  God  and  embraced  the  worship  of  the  sun."  Sain 
was  flayed  alive,  according  to  the  inhuman  practice  of  his 
country;  and  the  separate  and  rigorous  confinement  of  the 
ambassadors  violated  -the  law  of  nations  and  the  faith  of  an 
express  stipulation.  Yet  the  experience  of  six  years  at  length 
persuaded  the  Persian  monarch  to  renounce  the  conquest  of 
Constantinople,  and  to  specify  the  annual  tribute  or  ransom 
of  the  Roman  empire :  a  thousand  talents  of  gold,  a  thousand 
talents  of  silver,  a  thousand  silk  robes,  a  thousand  horses,  and 
a  thousand  virgins.     Heraclius  subscribed  these  ignominious 

71  The  Paschal  Chronicle,  which  sometimes  introduces  fragments  of  history  into 
a  barren  list  of  names  and  dates,  gives  the  best  account  of  the  treason  of  the  Avars, 
p.  389,  390  [torn.  i.  p.  712  seq.,  edit.  Bonn].  The  number  of  captives  is  added  by 
Nicephorus. 

72  Some  original  pieces,  such  as  the  speech  or  letter  of  the  Eoman  ambassadors 
(p.  386-388  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  707-709,  edit.  Bonn]),  likewise  constitute  the 
merit  of  the  Paschal  Chronicle,  which  was  composed,  perhaps  at  Alexandria,  un« 
der  the  reign  of  Heraclius. 


608  HERACLIUS  PREPARES  FOR  WAR.  [Ch.  XLVt 

terms ;  but  the  time  and  space  which  he  obtained  to  collect 

Such  treasures  from  the  poverty  of  the  East  was  industriously 

employed  in  the  preparations  of  a  bold  and  desperate  attack. 

Of  the  characters  conspicuous  in  history,  that  of  Heraclius 

is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  inconsistent.     In  the 

first  and  the  last  years  of  a  long  reign  the  emperor 

tions  for  war.  appears  to  be  the  slave  of  sloth,  of  pleasure,  or  of 
A.D.  621.  l  r        .  .  ,  n  ,    .         r 

superstition;  the  careless  and  impotent  spectator 

of  the  public  calamities.  But  the  languid  mists  of  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  are  separated  by  the  brightness  of  the  me- 
ridian sun :  the  Arcadius  of  the  palace  arose  the  Csesar  of  the 
camp;  and  the  honor  of  Rome  and  Heraclius  was  gloriously 
retrieved  by  the  exploits  and  trophies  of  six  adventurous 
campaigns.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  Byzantine  historians  to 
fcave  revealed  the  causes  of  his  slumber  and  vigilance.  At 
this  distance  we  can  only  conjecture  that  he  was  endowed 
with  more  personal  courage  than  political  resolution ;  that  he 
was  detained  by  the  charms,  and  perhaps  the  arts,  of  his  niece 
Martina,  with  whom,  after  the  death  of  Eudocia,  he  contract- 
ed an  incestuous  marriage ;"  and  that  he  yielded  to  the  base 
advice  of  the  counsellors  who  urged,  as  a  fundamental  law, 
that  the  life  of  the  emperor  should  never  be  exposed  in  the 
field.74  Perhaps  he  was  awakened  by  the  last  insolent  de- 
mand of  the  Persian  conqueror ;  but  at  the  moment  when 
Heraclius  assumed  the  spirit  of  a  hero,  the  only  hopes  of  the 
Romans  were  drawn  from  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  which 
might  threaten  the  proud  prosperity  of  Chosroes,  and  must 
be  favorable  to  those  who  had  attained  the  lowest  period  of 
depression."    To  provide  for  the  expenses  of  war  was  the 

,3  Nicephorus  (p.  10, 11),  who  brands  this  marriage  with  the  names  of  dOttr/iov 
and  a9s[iiTov,  is  happy  to  observe,  that  of  two  sons,  its  incestuous  fruit,  the  elder 
Was  marked  by  Providence  with  a  stiff  neck,  the  younger  with  the  loss  of  hearing. 
14  George  of  Pisidia  (Acroas.  i.  112-125,  p.  5),  who  states  the  opinions,  acquits 
the  pusillanimous  counsellors  of  any  sinister  views.  Would  he  have  excused  the 
proud  and  contemptuous  admonition  of  Crispus  ?  'Eiri9(i)7rTaZ(ov  ovtc  'i'iov  fiaoiXti 
i<paoK&  xaraXtp-irdvup  fiaoikua,  Km.  toZq  iroppoj  tirixt»piaZ,uv  Svvajuotv. 
1    **  Et  Tag  £ir'  aicpov  ijpfikvag  tvtZiag 

'EofaXfisvag  \syovmv  ovk  airtiKOTuig, 

KeiaOu)  to  Xoittov  iv  kukoIq  to.  HspaiSoQ, 

'4vnoTp6$w£  Stf  etc. — George  Pisid.  Acroas.  L  £1,  etc.,  p.  4» 


A.D.621.]  HEKACLIUS  PREPAEES  FOR  WAR.  609 

first  care  of  the  emperor ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  collecting 
the  tribute  he  was  allowed  to  solicit  the  benevolence  of  the 
Eastern  provinces.  But  the  revenue  no  longer  flowed  in  the 
usual  channels;  the  credit  of  an  arbitrary  prince  is  annihi- 
lated by  his  power ;  and  the  courage  of  Heraclius  was  first 
displayed  in  daring  to  borrow  the  consecrated  wealth  of 
churches,  under  the  solemn  vow  of  restoring,  with  usury, 
whatever  he  had  been  compelled  to  employ  in  the  service  of 
religion  and  of  the  empire.  The  clergy  themselves  appear  to 
have  sympathized  with  the  public  distress ;  and  the  discreet 
patriarch  of  Alexandria,  without  admitting  the  precedent  of 
sacrilege,  assisted  his  sovereign  by  the  miraculous  or  seasona- 
ble revelation  of  a  secret  treasure.76  Of  the  soldiers  who  had 
conspired  with  Phocas,  only  two  were  found  to  have  survived 
the  stroke  of  time  and  of  the  barbarians ;"  the  loss  even  of 
these  seditious  veterans  was  imperfectly  supplied  by  the  new 
levies  of  Heraclius ;  and  the  gold  of  the  sanctuary  united,  in 
the  same  camp,  the  names,  and  arms,  and  languages  of  the 
East  and  "West.  He  would  have  been  content  with  the  neu- 
trality of  the  Avars ;  and  his  friendly  entreaty  that  the  cha- 
gan  would  act  not  as  the  enemy,  but  as  the  guardian  of  the 
empire,  was  accompanied  with  a  more  persuasive  donative  of 
two  hundred  thousand  pieces  of  gold.  Two  days  after  the 
festival  of  Easter,  the  emperor,  exchanging  his  purple  for  the 
simple  garb  of  a  penitent  and  warrior,78  gave  the  signal  of  his 

The  Orientals  are  not  less  fond  of  remarking  this  strange  vicissitude ;  and  I  re- 
member some  story  of  Khosrou  Parviz,  not  very  unlike  the  ring  of  Polycrates  of 
Samos. 

,6  Baronins  gravely  relates  this  discovery,  or  rather  transmutation,  of  barrels, 
not  of  honey,  but  of  gold  (Annal.  Eccles.  a.  d.  620,  No.  3,  etc.).  Yet  the  loan  was 
arbitrary,  since  it  was  collected  by  soldiers,  who  were  ordered  to  leave  the  patri- 
arch of  Alexandria  no  more  than  one  hundred  pounds  of  gold.  Nicephorus  (p.  11), 
two  hundred  years  afterwards,  speaks  with  ill-humor  of  this  contribution,  which 
the  Church  of  Constantinople  might  still  feel. 

11  Tbeophylact  Simocatta,  1.  viii.  c.  12  [p.  340,  edit.  Bonn].  This  circumstance 
need  not  excite  our  surprise.  The  muster-roll  of  a  regiment,  even  in  time  of 
peace,  is  renewed  in  less  than  twenty  or  twenty-five  years. 

,8  He  changed  his  purple,  for  black,  buskins,  and  dyed  them  red  in  the  blooij 
of  the  Persians  (Georg.  Pisid.  Acroas.  iii.  118, 121, 122,  See  the  Notes  of  Fog- 
gini,  p.  35). 

IV.— 39 


610  FIRST  EXPEDITION  OF  HERACLIUS         [Ch  XLYI. 

departure.  To  the  faith  of  the  people  Heraclius  recommend- 
ed his  children  ;  the  civil  and  military  powers  were  vested  in 
the  most  deserving  hands ;  and  the  discretion  of  the  patriarch 
and  senate  was  authorized  to  save  or  surrender  the  city,  if 
they  should  be  oppressed  in  his  absence  by  the  superior  forces 
of  the  enemy. 

The  neighboring  heights  of  Chalcedon  were  covered  with 
tents  and  arms ;  but  if  the  new  levies  of  Heraclius  had  been 
First  expe-  rashly  led  to  the  attack,  the  victory  of  the  Persians 
Heracihfs  *n  tne  signt  of  Constantinople  might  have  been 
p?Ssthe  tne  last  day  of  the  Roman  empire.  As  imprudent 
a.d.622.  would  it  have  been  to  advance  into  the  provinces 
of  Asia,  leaving  their  innumerable  cavalry  to  intercept  his 
convoys,  and  continually  to  hang  on  the  lassitude  and  disor- 
der of  his  rear.  But  the  Greeks  were  still  masters  of  the 
sea ;  a  fleet  of  galleys,  transports,  and  store-ships  was  assem- 
bled in  the  harbor ;  the  barbarians  consented  to  embark ;  a 
steady  wind  carried  them  through  the  Hellespont ;  the  west- 
ern and  southern  coast  of  Asia  Minor  lay  on  their  left  hand ; 
the  spirit  of  their  chief  was  first  displayed  in  a  storm  ;  and 
even  the  eunuchs  of  his  train  were  excited  to  suffer  and  to 
work  by  the  example  of  their  master.  He  landed  his  troops 
on  the  confines  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  in  the  Gulf  of  Scande- 
roon,  where  the  coast  suddenly  turns  to  the  south;79  and  his 
discernment  was  expressed  in  the  choice  of  this  important 
post.80     From  all  sides  the  scattered  garrisons  of  the  marl- 


79  George  of  Pisidia  (Acroas.  ii.  10,  p.  8)  has  fixed  this  important  point  of  the 
Syrian  and  Cilician  gates.  They  are  elegantly  described  by  Xenophon,  who 
marched  through  them  a  thousand  years  before.  A  narrow  pass  of  three  stadia, 
between  steep  high  rocks  (irirpat  j/At'garoi)  and  the  Mediterranean,  was  closed  at 
each  end  by  strong  gates,  impregnable  to  the  land  (TraptXQtiv  ovk  rjv  f3ia),  accessi- 
ble by  sea  (Anabasis,  1.  i.  [c.  4]  p.  35,  36,  with  Hutchinson's  Geographical  Disser- 
tation, p.  vi.).  The  gates  were  thirty- five  parasangs,  or  leagues,  from  Tarsus 
(Anabasis,  1,  i.  [c.  4]  p.  33, 34),  and  eight  or  ten  from  Antioch.  Compare  Itinerar. 
Wesseling.  p.  580,  581 ;  Schultens,  Index  Geograph.  ad  calcem  Vit.  Saladin.  p.  9; 
Voyage  en  Turquie  et  en  Perse,  par  M.  Otter,  torn.  i.  p.  78,  79. 

80  Heraclius  might  write  to  a  friend  in  the  modest  words  of  Cicero :  "  Castra 
h;ibuimtts  ea  ipsa  quae  contra  Darium  habuerat  apud  Issum  Alexander,  imperator 
baud  paulo  melior  quam  aut  tu  aut  ego  "  (Ad  Atticum,  v.  20).    Issus,  a  rich  and 


A.D.622.]  AGAINST  THE   PERSIANS.  611 

time  cities  and  the  mountains  might  repair  with  speed  and 
safety  to  his  imperial  standard.  The  natural  fortifications  of 
Cilicia  protected  and  even  concealed  the  camp  of  Heraclius, 
which  was  pitched  near  Issus,  on  the  same  ground  where 
Alexander  had  vanquished  the  host  of  Darius.  The  angle 
which  the  emperor  occupied  was  deeply  indented  into  a  vast 
semicircle  of  the  Asiatic,  Armenian,  and  Syrian  provinces ; 
and  to  whatsoever  point  of  the  circumference  he  should  di- 
rect his  attack,  it  was  easy  for  him  to  dissemble  his  own  mo- 
tions, and  to  prevent  those  of  the  enemy.  In  the  camp  of 
Issus  the  Roman  general  reformed  the  sloth  and  disorder  of 
the  veterans,  and  educated  the  new  recruits  in  the  knowledge 
and  practice  of  military  virtue.  Unfolding  the  miraculous 
image  of  Christ,  he  urged  them  to  revenge  the  holy  altars 
which  had  been  profaned  by  the  worshippers  of  fire ;  address- 
ing them  by  the  endearing  appellations  of  sons  and  brethren, 
he  deplored  the  public  and  private  wrongs  of  the  republic. 
The  subjects  of  a  monarch  were  persuaded  that  they  fought 
in  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  a  similar  enthusiasm  was  com- 
municated to  the  foreign  mercenaries,  who  must  have  viewed 
with  equal  indifference  the  interest  of  Rome  and  of  Persia. 
Heraclius  himself,  with  the  skill  and  patience  of  a  centurion, 
inculcated  the  lessons  of  the  school  of  tactics,  and  the  soldiers 
were  assiduously  trained  in  the  use  of  their  weapons  and  the 
exercises  and  evolutions  of  the  field.  The  cavalry  and  infan- 
try, in  light  or  heavy  armor,  were  divided  into  two  parties ; 
the  trumpets  were  fixed  in  the  centre,  and  their  signals  direct- 
ed the  march,  the  charge,  the  retreat  or  pursuit,  the  direct  or 
oblique  order,  the  deep  or  extended  phalanx,  to  represent  in 
fictitious  combat  the  operations  of  genuine  war.  Whatever 
hardship  the  emperor  imposed  on  the  troops,  he  inflicted  with 
equal  severity  on  himself;  their  labor,  their  diet,  their  sleep, 
were  measured  by  the  inflexible  rules  of  discipline ;  and,  with- 
out despising  the  enemy,  they  were  taught  to  repose  an  im- 
plicit confidence  in  their  own  valor  and  the  wisdom  of  their 

flourishing  city  in  the  time  of  Xenophon,  was  ruined  by  the  prosperity  of  Alexan- 
dria or  Scanderoon,  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay. 


612  EXPEDITIONS  OF  HEKACLIUS  [Ch.  XLVL. 

leader.  Cilicia  was  soon  encompassed  with  the  Persian  arms, 
but  their  cavalry  hesitated  to  enter  the  defiles  of  Mount  Tau- 
rus till  they  were  circumvented  by  the  evolutions  of  Hera- 
clius,  who  insensibly  gained  their  rear,  whilst  he  appeared  to 
present  his  front  in  order  of  battle.  By  a  false  motion,  which 
seemed  to  threaten  Armenia,  he  drew  them,  against  their  wish- 
es, to  a  general  action.  They  were  tempted  by  the  artful  dis- 
order of  his  camp ;  but  when  they  advanced  to  combat,  the 
ground,  the  sun,  and  the  expectation  of  both  armies,  were  un- 
propitious  to  the  barbarians :  the  Romans  successfully  repeat- 
ed their  tactics  in  a  field  of  battle,81  and  the  event  of  the  day 
declared  to  the  world  that  the  Persians  were  not  invincible, 
and  that  a  hero  was  invested  with  the  purple.  Strong  in  vic- 
tory and  fame,  Heraclius  boldly  ascended  the  heights  of  Mount 
Taurus,  directed  his  march  through  the  plains  of  Cappadocia, 
and  established  his  troops  for  the  winter  season  in  safe  and 
plentiful  quarters  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Halys.82  His 
soul  was  superior  to  the  vanity  of  entertaining  Constantino- 
ple with  an  imperfect  triumph ;  but  the  presence  of  the  em- 
peror was  indispensably  required  to  soothe  the  restless  and 
rapacious  spirit  of  the  Avars. 

Since  the  days  of  Scipio  and  Hannibal,  no  bolder  enterprise 
has  been  attempted  than  that  which  Heraclius  achieved  for 
His  second  the  deliverance  of  the  empire.83  He  permitted  the 
AXD.e62?624,  Persians  to  oppress  for  awhile  the  provinces,  and 
625,  to  insult  with  impunity  the  capital  of  the  East, 

wftile  the  Roman  emperor  explored  his  perilous  way  through 


81  Foggini  (Annotat.  p.  31)  suspects  that  the  Persians  were  deceived  by  the  $<£- 
\ay£  TrtTrXijyuEvt)  of  iElian  (Tactic,  c.  48),  an  intricate  spiral  motion  of  the  army. 
He  observes  (p.  28)  that  the  military  descriptions  of  George  of  Pisidia  are  trait-, 
scribed  in  the  Tactics  of  the  Emperor  Leo. 

82  George  of  Pisidia,  an  eye-witness  (Acroas.  ii.  122,  etc.),  described,  in  three 
acroaseis  or  cantos,  the  first  expedition  of  Heraclius.  The  poem  has  been  lately 
(1777)  published  at  Rome ;  but  such  vague  and  declamatory  praise  is  far  from 
corresponding  with  the  sanguine  hopes  of  Pagi,  D'Anville,  etc. 

83  Theophanes  (p.  256)  carries  Heraclius  swiftly  (/car«  ra%6c)  into  Armenia. 
Nicephorus  (p.  11),  though  he  confounds  the  two  expeditions,  defines  the  province 
of  Lazica.  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  231)  has  given  the  5000  men,  with  tha 
more  probable  station  of  Trebizond. 


a.d.  623-625.]  AGAINST  THE  PERSIANS.  613 

the  Black  Sea8*  and  the  mountains  of  Armenia,  penetrated 
into  the  heart  of  Persia,85  and  recalled  the  armies  of  the  Great 
King  to  the  defence  of  their  bleeding  country.  "With  a  se- 
lect band  of  five  thousand  soldiers,  Heraclius  sailed  from  Con- 
stantinople to  Trebizond;  assembled  his  forces  which  had 
wintered  in  the  Pontic  regions;  and  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Phasis  to  the  Caspian  Sea,  encouraged  his  subjects  and  allies 
to  march  with  the  successor  of  Constantine  under  the  faith- 
ful and  victorious  banner  of  the  cross.  When  the  legions  of 
Lucullus  and  Pompey  first  passed  the  Euphrates,  they  blush- 
ed at  their  easy  victory  over  the  natives  of  Armenia.  But 
the  long  experience  of  war  had  hardened  the  minds  and  bodies 
of  that  effeminate  people ;  their  zeal  and  bravery  were  ap- 
proved in  the  service  of  a  declining  empire ;  they  abhorred 
and  feared  the  usurpation  of  the  House  of  Sassan,  and  the 
memory  of  persecution  envenomed  their  pious  hatred  of  the 
enemies  of  Christ.  The  limits  of  Armenia,  as  it  had  been 
ceded  to  the  Emperor  Maurice,  extended  as  far  as  the  Araxes : 
the  river  submitted  to  the  indignity  of  a  bridge,86  and  Hera- 
clius, in  the  footsteps  of  Mark  Antony,  advanced  towards  the 
city  of  Tauris  or  Gandzaca,87  the  ancient  and  modern  capital 

84  From  Constantinople  to  Trebizond,  with  a  fair  wind,  four  or  five  days ;  from 
thence  to  Erzeroum,  five ;  to  Eri van,  twelve;  to  Tauris,  ten:  in  all  thirty-two. 
Such  is  the  Itinerary  of  Taveruier  (Voyages,  torn.  i.  p.  12-56),  who  was  perfectly 
conversant  with  the  roads  of  Asia.  Tournefort,  who  travelled  with  a  pasha,  spent 
ten  or  twelve  days  between  Trebizond  and  Erzeroum  (Voyage  du  Levant,  torn, 
iii.  lettre  xviii.);  and  Chardin  (Voyages,  torn.  i.  p.  249-254)  gives  the  more  cor- 
rect distance  of  fifty-three  parasangs,  each  of  5000  paces  (what  paces  ?),  between 
Erivan  and  Tauris. 

85  The  expedition  of  Heraclius  into  Persia  is  finely  illustrated  by  M.  D'Anville 
(Memoires  de  l'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  torn,  xxviii.  p.  559-573).  He  discovers 
the  situation  of  Gandzaca,  Thebarma,  Dastagerd,  etc.,  with  admirable  skill  and 
learning ;  but  the  obscure  campaign  of  624  he  passes  over  in  silence. 

86  "  Et  pontem  indignatus  Araxes." — Virgil,  iEneid,  viii.  728. 

The  river  Araxes  is  noisy,  rapid,  vehement,  and,  with  the  melting  of  the  snows,  ir- 
resistible :  the  strongest  and  most  massy  bridges  are  swept  away  by  the  current ; 
and  its  indignation  is  attested  by  the  ruins  of  many  arches  near  the  old  town  of 
Zulfa.     Voyages  de  Chardin,  torn,  i,  p.  252. 

87  Chardin,  torn.  i.  p.  255-259.  With  the  Orientals  (D'Herbelot,  Biblioth.  Ori- 
ent, p.  834),  he  ascribes  the  foundation  of  Tauris,  or  Tebris,  to  Zobeide,  the  wife 
of  the  famous  Caliph  Haroun  Alrashid ;  but  it  appears  to  have  been  more  an- 


614:  EXPEDITIONS  OF  HERACLIUS  [CH.XLVL 

of  one  of  the  provinces  of  Media.  At  the  head  of  forty  thou- 
sand men,  Chosroes  himself  had  returned  from  some  distant 
expedition  to  oppose  the  progress  of  the  Koman  arms;  but 
he  retreated  on  the  approach  of  Heraclius,  declining  the  gen- 
erous alternative  of  peace  or  of  battle.  Instead  of  half  a  mill- 
ion of  inhabitants,  which  have  been  ascribed  to  Tauris  under 
the  reign  of  the  Sophys,  the  city  contained  no  more  than  three 
thousand  houses;  but  the  value  of  the  royal  treasures  was 
enhanced  by  a  tradition  that  they  were  the  spoils  of  Croesus, 
which  had  been  transported  by  Cyrus  from  the  citadel  of  Sar- 
des.  The  rapid  conquests  of  Heraclius  were  suspended  only 
by  the  winter  season ;  a  motive  of  prudence  or  superstition88 
determined  his  retreat  into  the  province  of  Albania,  along 
the  shores  of  the  Caspian  ;  and  his  tents  were  most  probably 
pitched  in  the  plains  of  Mogan,89  the  favorite  encampment  of 
Oriental  princes.  In  the  course  of  this  successful  inroad  he 
signalized  the  zeal  and  revenge  of  a  Christian  emperor :  at  his 
command  the  soldiers  extinguished  the  fire,  and  destroyed  the 
temples,  of  the  Magi ;  the  statues  of  Chosroes,  who  aspired  to 
divine  honors,  were  abandoned  to  the  flames ;  and  the  ruin 
of  Thebarma  or  Ormia,90  which  had  given  birth  to  Zoroaster 

cient ;  and  the  names  of  Gandzaca,  Gazaca,  Gaza,  are  expressive  of  the  royal 
treasure.  The  number  of  550,000  inhabitants  is  reduced  by  Chardin  from 
1,100,000,  the  popular  estimate. 

88  He  opened  the  Gospel  and  applied  or  interpreted  the  first  casual  passage  to 
the  name  and  situation  of  Albania.   Theophanes,  p.  258  [torn.  i.  p.  474,  edit.  Bonn]. 

89  The  heath  of  Mogan,  between  the  Cyrus  and  the  Araxes,  is  sixty  parasangs 
in  length,  and  twenty  in  breadth  (Olearius,  p.  1023, 1024),  abounding  in  waters  and 
fruitful  pastures  (Hist,  de  Nadir  Shah,  translated  by  Mr.  Jones  from  a  Persian 
MS.  part  ii.  p.  2,  3).  See  the  encampments  of  Timur  (Hist,  par  Shorefeddin  Ali, 
1.  v.  c.  37 ;  1.  vi.  c.  13)  and  the  coronation  of  Nadir  Shah  (Hist.  Persanne,  p.  3, 13, 
and  the  English  Life  by  Mr.  Jones,  p.  64,  65). 

90  Thebarma  and  Ormia,  near  the  lake  Spauta,  are  proved  to  be  the  same  city 
by  D'Anville  (Memoires  de  l'Acade'mie,  torn,  xxviii.  p.  564,  565).  It  is  honored 
as  the  birthplace  of  Zoroaster,  according  to  the  Persians  (Schultens,  Index  Gee 
graph,  p.  48) ;  and  their  tradition  is  fortified  by  M.  Perron  d'Anquetil  (Mem.  de 
lAcad.  des  Inscript.  torn.  xxxi.  p.  375),  with  some  texts  from  his,  or  their,  Zen 
da  vesta.*  

a  D'Anville  (Mem.  de  l'Acad.  des  Inscript.  torn,  xxxii.  p.  560)  labored  to  prove 
the  identity  of  these  two  cities;  but,  according  to  M.  St.  Martin,  vol.  xi.  p.  97, 
not  with  perfect  success.     Ourmiah,  called  Ariema  in  the  ancient  Pehlvi  books,  19 


*.D.  6523-635.]  AGAINST  THE  PERSIANS.  615 

himself,  made  some  atonement  for  the  injuries  of  the  holy 
sepulchre.  A  purer  spirit  of  religion  was  shown  in  the  relief 
and  deliverance  of  fifty  thousand  captives.  Heraclius  was  re- 
warded by  their  tears  and  grateful  acclamations  ;  but  this  wise 
measure,  which  spread  the  fame  of  his  benevolence,  diffused 
the  murmurs  of  the  Persians  against  the  pride  and  obstinacy 
of  their  own  sovereign. 

Amidst  the  glories  of  the  succeeding  campaign,  Heraclius 
is  almost  lost  to  our  eyes,  and  to  those  of  the  Byzantine  his- 
torians.91 From  the  spacious  and  fruitful  plains  of  Albania, 
the  emperor  appears  to  follow  the  chain  of  Hyrcanian  moun- 
tains, to  descend  into  the  province  of  Media  or  Irak,  and  to 
carry  his  victorious  arms  as  far  as  the  royal  cities  of  Casbin 
and  Ispahan,  which  had  never  been  approached  by  a  Roman 
conqueror.  Alarmed  by  the  danger  of  his  kingdom,  the  pow- 
ers of  Chosroes  were  already  recalled  from  the  Kile  and  the 
Bosphorus,  and  three  formidable  armies  surrounded,  in  a  dis- 
tant and  hostile  land,  the  camp  of  the  emperor.  The  Col- 
chian  allies  prepared  to  desert  his  standard ;  and  the  fears  of 
the  bravest  veterans  were  expressed,  rather  than  concealed,  by 
their  desponding  silence.  "  Be  not  terrified,"  said  the  intrep- 
id Heraclius,  "  by  the  multitude  of  your  foes.  With  the  aid 
of  Heaven,  one  Eoman  may  triumph  over  a  thousand  barba- 
rians. But  if  we  devote  our  lives  for  the  salvation  of  our 
brethren,  we  shall  obtain  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  and  our 
immortal  reward  will  be  liberally  paid  by  God  and  posterity." 
These  magnanimous  sentiments  were  supported  by  the  vigor 
of  his  actions.  He  repelled  the  threefold  attack  of  the  Per- 
sians, improved  the  divisions  of  their  chiefs,  and,  by  a  well- 
concerted  train   of  marches,  retreats,  and  successful  actions, 

91  I  cannot  find,  and  (what  is  much  more)  M.  D'Anville  does  not  attempt  to 
seek,  the  Salban,  Tarantum,  territory  of  the  Huns,  etc.,  mentioned  by  Theophanes 
(p.  260-262).  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  23 1 ,  232),  an  insufficient  author, 
names  Asphahan ;  and  Casbin  is  most  probably  the  city  of  Sapor.  Ispahan  is 
twenty-four  days'  journey  from  Tauris,  and  Casbin  half-way  between  them  (Voy- 
ages de  Tavernier,  torn.  i.  p.  63-82). 


considered,  both  by  the  followers  of  Zoroaster  and  by  the  Mahometans,  as  his 
birthplace.     It  is  situated  in  the  southern  part  of  Aderbidjan. — M. 


616  EXPEDITIONS  OF  IIERACLIU&  CCb.XLVI; 

finally  chased  them  from  the  field  into  the  fo-tified  cities  of 
Media  and  Assyria.  In  the  severity  of  the  winer  season,  Sar- 
baraza  deemed  himself  secure  in  the  walls  of  balban :  he  was 
surprised  by  the  activity  of  Heraclius,  who  dir..ded  his  troops, 
and  performed  a  laborious  march  in  the  silence  of  the  night. 
The  flat  roofs  of  the  houses  were  defended  wi^h  useless  valor 
against  the  darts  and  torches  of  the  Eomans  •  Che  satraps  and 
nobles  of  Persia,  with  their  wives  and  children,  and  the  flow- 
er of  their  martial  youth,  were  either  slain  or  made  prisoners. 
The  general  escaped  by  a  precipitate  flight,  but  his  golden 
armor  was  the  prize  of  the  conqueror;  and  the  soldiers  of 
Heraclius  enjoyed  the  wealth  and  repose  which  they  had  so 
nobly  deserved.  On  the  return  of  spring,  the  emperor  trav- 
ersed in  seven  days  the  mountains  of  Curdistan,  and  passed 
without  resistance  the  rapid  stream  of  the  Tigris.  Oppressed 
by  the  weight  of  their  spoils  and  captives,  the  Roman  army 
halted  under  the  walls  of  Amida ;  and  Heraclius  informed 
the  senate  of  Constantinople  of  his  safety  and  success,  which 
they  had  already  felt  by  the  retreat  of  the  besiegers.  The 
bridges  of  the  Euphrates  were  destroyed  by  the  Persians; 
but  as  soon  as  the  emperor  had  discovered  a  ford,  they  hastily 
retired  to  defend  the  banks  of  the  Sarus,98  in  Cilicia.  That 
river,  an  impetuous  torrent,  was  about  three  hundred  feet 
broad ;  the  bridge  was  fortified  with  strong  turrets ;  and  the 
banks  were  lined  with  barbarian  archers.  After  a  bloody 
conflict,  which  continued  till  the  evening,  the  Eomans  pre- 
vailed in  the  assault ;  and  a  Persian  of  gigantic  size  was  slain 
and  thrown  into  the  Sarus  by  the  hand  of  the  emperor  him- 
self. The  enemies  were  dispersed  and  dismayed ;  Heraclius 
pursued  his  march  to  Sebaste,in  Cappadocia;  and  at  the  expi- 
ration of  three  years,  the  same  coast  of  the  Euxine  applauded 
his  return  from  a  long  and  victorious  expedition.98 

M  At  ten  parasangs  from  Tarsus  the  army  of  the  younger  Cyrus  passed  the  Sa- 
rus,* three  plethra  in  breadth :  the  Pyramus,  a  stadium  in  breadth,  ran  five  para- 
sangs farther  to  the  east  (Xenophon,  Anabas.  1.  i.  p.  33,  34  [c.  4  init.]). 

98  George  of  Pisidia  (Bell.  Abaricum,  246-265,  p.  49)  celebrates  with  truth  the 
persevering  courage  of  the  three  campaigns  (Tpsig  TrepiSpofiovs)  against  (he  Persians. 

•  Now  the  Sihan.— M. 


A.D.G26.]  DELIVERANCE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  C17 

Instead  of  skirmishing  on  the  frontier,  the  two  monarcha 
who  disputed  the  empire  of  the  East  aimed  their  desperate 
Deliverance  strokes  at  the  heart  of  their  rival.  The  military 
£opieDfromU"  f°rce  of  Persia  was  wasted  by  the  marches  and  corn- 
KatX18  Dats  °f  twenty  years,  and  many  of  the  veterans,  who 
a.d.626.  had.  survived  the  perils  of  the  sword  and  the  cli- 
mate, were  still  detained  in  the  fortresses  of  Egypt  and  Syria. 
Cut  the  revenge  and  ambition  of  Chosroes  exhausted  his  king- 
dom ;  and  the  new  levies  of  subjects,  strangers,  and  slaves 
were  divided  into  three  formidable  bodies.84  The  first  army 
of  fifty  thousand  men,  illustrious  by  the  ornament  and  title 
of  the  golden  spears,  was  destined  to  march  against  Heraclius; 
the  second  was  stationed  to  prevent  his  junction  with  the 
troops  of  his  brother  Theodoras;  and  the  third  was  com- 
manded to  besiege  Constantinople,  and  to  second  the  opera- 
tions of  the  chagan,  with  whom  the  Persian  king  had  ratified 
a  treaty  of  alliance  and  partition.  Sarbar,  the  general  of  the 
third  army,  penetrated  through  the  provinces  of  Asia  to  the 
well-known  camp  of  Chalcedon,  and  amused  himself  with  the 
destruction  of  the  sacred  and  profane  buildings  of  the  Asiatic 
suburbs,  while  lie  impatiently  waited  the  arrival  of  his  Scyth- 
ian friends  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Bosphorus.  On  the 
twenty -ninth  of  June,  thirty  thousand  barbarians,  the  van- 
guard of  the  Avars,  forced  the  long  wall,  and  drove  into  the 
capital  a  promiscuous  crowd  of  peasants,  citizens,  and  soldiers. 
Fourscore  thousand95  of  his  native  subjects,  and  of  the  vassal 
tribes  of  Gepidas,  Russians,  Bulgarians,  and  Sclavonians,  ad- 
vanced under  the  standard  of  the  chagan ;  a  month  was  spent 
in  marches  and  negotiations,  but  the  whole  city  was  invested 
on  the  thirty-first  of  July,  from  the  suburbs  of  Pera  and  Ga- 
lata  to  the  Blachernse  and  seven  towers ;  and  the  inhabitants 
descried  with  terror  the  flaming  signals  of  the  European  and 

94  Petavius  (Annotationes  ad  Nicephorum,  p.  62, 63, 64)  discriminates  the  names 
and  actions  of  five  Persian  generals  who  were  successively  sent  against  Heraclius. 

95  This  number  of  eight  myriads  is  specified  by  George  of  Pisidia  (Bel.  Abar. 
219).  The  poet  (50-88)  clearly  indicates  that  the  old  chagan  lived  till  the  reign 
of  Heraclius,  and  that  his  son  and  successor  was  born  of  a  foreign  mother.  Yet 
Eoggini  (Annotat.  p.  57}  has  given  another  interpretation  to  this  passage. 


618  DELIVERANCE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.      [Ch.  XL VI 

Asiatic  shores.  In  the  mean  while  the  magistrates  of  Con- 
stantinople repeatedly  strove  to  purchase  the  retreat  of  the 
chagan ;  but  their  deputies  were  rejected  and  insulted ;  and 
he  suffered  the  patricians  to  stand  before  his  throne,  while 
the  Persian  envoys,  in  silk  robes,  were  seated  by  his  side. 
"  You  see,"  said  the  haughty  barbarian,  "  the  proofs  of  my 
perfect  union  with  the  Great  King ;  and  his  lieutenant  is 
ready  to  send  into  my  camp  a  select  band  of  three  thousand 
warriors.  Presume  no  longer  to  tempt  your  master  with  a 
partial  and  inadequate  ransom :  your  wealth  and  your  city 
are  the  only  presents  worthy  of  my  acceptance.  For  your- 
selves, I  shall  permit  you  to  depart,  each  with  an  under-gar- 
ment  and  a  shirt ;  and,  at  my  entreaty,  my  friend  Sarbar  will 
not  refuse  a  passage  through  his  lines.  Your  absent  prince, 
even  now  a  captive  or  a  fugitive,  has  left  Constantinople  to 
its  fate ;  nor  can  you  escape  the  arms  of  the  Avars  and  Per- 
sians, unless  you  could  soar  into  air  like  birds,  unless  like 
fishes  you  could  dive  into  the  waves."96  During  ten  succes- 
sive days  the  capital  was  assaulted  by  the  Avars,  who  had 
made  some  progress  in  the  science  of  attack ;  they  advanced 
to  sap  or  batter  the  wall,  under  the  cover  of  the  impenetrable 
tortoise;  their  engines  discharged  a  perpetual  volley  of  stones 
and  darts ;  and  twelve  lofty  towers  of  wood  exalted  the  com- 
batants to  the  height  of  the  neighboring  ramparts.  But  the 
senate  and  people  were  animated  by  the  spirit  of  Heraclius, 
who  had  detached  to  their  relief  a  body  of  twelve  thousand 
cuirassiers ;  the  powers  of  fire  and  mechanics  were  used  with 
superior  art  and  success  in  the  defence  of  Constantinople  ; 
and  the  galleys,  with  two  and  three  ranks  of  oars,  commanded 
the  Bosphorus,  and  rendered  the  Persians  the  idle  spectators 
of  the  defeat  of  their  allies.  The  Avars  were  repulsed ;  a 
fleet  of  Sclavonian  canoes  was  destroyed  in  the  harbor ;  the 


9«  A  bird,  a  frog,  a  mouse,  and  five  arrows  liad  been  the  present  of  the  Scyth- 
ian king  to  Darius  (  Herodot.  1.  Iv.  c.  131,  132).  "  Substituez  une  lettre  &  ces 
slgnes"(says  Bousseau,  with  much  good  taste),  "plus  elle  sera  menacante  moins 
elle  effrayera:  ce  ne  sera  qu'une  fanfaronnade  dont  Darius  n'eut  fait  que  rire" 
(Emile,  torn.  iii.  p.  146).  Yet  I  much  question  whether  the  senate  and  people  of 
Constantinople  laughed  at  this  message  of  the  chagan. 


a.d.  620.]    ALLIANCES  AND  CONQUESTS  OF  HERACLIUS.  G19 

vassals  of  the  chagan  threatened  to  desert,  his  provisions  were 
exhausted,  and,  after  burning  his  engines,  he  gave  the  signal 
of  a  slow  and  formidable  retreat.  The  devotion  of  the  Ro- 
mans ascribed  this  signal  deliverance  to  the  Yirgin  Mary; 
but  the  mother  of  Christ  would  surely  have  condemned  their 
inhuman  murder  of  the  Persian  envoys,  who  were  entitled 
to  the  rights  of  humanity,  if  they  were  not  protected  by  the 
laws  of  nations.97 

After  the  division  of  his  army,  Heraclius  prudently  retired 
to  the  banks  of  the  Phasis,  from  whence  he  maintained  a  de- 
fensive war  against  the  fifty  thousand  gold  spears 
conquests  of  of  Persia.  His  anxiety  was  relieved  by  the  deliv- 
erance of  Constantinople;  his  hopes  were  confirm- 
ed by  a  victory  of  his  brother  Theodoras ;  and  to  the  hostile 
league  of  Chosroes  with  the  Avars,  the  Roman  emperor  op- 
posed the  useful  and  honorable  alliance  of  the  Turks.  At 
his  liberal  invitation,  the  horde  of  Chozars98  transported  their 

»'  The  Paschal  Chronicle  (p.  392-397  [torn.  i.  p.  716-726,  edit.  Bonn])  gives  a 
minute  and  authentic  narrative  of  the  siege  and  deliverance  of  Constantinople. 
Theophanes  (p.  264)  adds  some  circumstances ;  and  a  faint  light  may  be  obtained 
from  the  smoke  of  George  of  Pisidia,  who  has  composed  a  poem  (De  Bello  Aba- 
rico,  p.  45-54)  to  commemorate  this  auspicious  event. 

88  The  power  of  the  Chozars  prevailed  in  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  cen- 
turies. They  were  known  to  the  Greeks,  the  Arabs,  and,  under  the  name  ol 
Kosa,  to  the  Chinese  themselves.  De  Guignes,  Hist,  des  Huns,  torn.  ii.  part  it. 
p.  507-509.* 

*  The  Chozars,  or,  more  correctly,  Khazars,  are  now  mentioned  for  the  first 
time  by  the  Greek  writers ;  but  according  to  Moses  of  Chorene  (1.  ii.  c.  62)  they 
invaded  Armenia  at  the  end  of  the  second  century  of  our  era.  At  that  time  they 
appear  to  have  inhabited  the  same  district  in  which  we  find  them  in  the  reign  of 
Heraclius,  namely,  on  the  Caspian  Sea  behind  the  Wolga.  This  is  the  country 
meant  by  Theophanes  (p.  298,  edit.  Paris ;  p.  547,  edit.  Bonn),  who  describes  them 
as  coming  from  the  innermost  parts  of  Berzilia,  when  they  invaded  the  country  of 
the  Bulgarians  on  the  Mseotis.  In  the  eighth  century  they  settled  in  the  south  of 
Russia;  and  in  the  ninth,  when  their  power  was  at  its  height,  their  dominions  ex- 
tended from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  Dnieper,  and  many  Slavonic  tribes  were  trib- 
utary to  them.  They  were  afterwards  pressed  from  the  side  of  the  Dnieper  by  the 
Pectcheneges,  against  whom  their  last  frontier  town  was  Sarkel,  on  the  Donetz. 
St.  Martin  and  other  modern  writers  have  supposed  that  the  Khazars  belonged  to 
the  Finnish  race,  but  this  conjecture  is  of  no  value  in  opposition  to  the  direct  tes- 
timony of  Theophanes,  who  calls  them  Eastern  Turks  (Tovpieoi  curb  ri]Q  tioae,  oi)ff 
Ka^dpovc  6vo(ici£,ovgiv,  p.  263,  edit.  Paris  ;  p.  485,  edit.  Bonn).  There  are,  more- 
over, several  other  circumstances  which  prove  them  to  have  been  Turks.  Their 
ruler  bore  the  Turkish  title  of  chagan;  and  the  Arabic  writer,  Ibn-Haukal,  saya 
that  they  were  a  divided  people,  and  that  one  tribe  of  them  were  called  Kara* 


620       ALLIANCES  AND  CONQUESTS  OF  HERACLIUS.  [Ch.  XLYL 

tents  from  the  plains  of  the  Volga  to  the  mountains  of  Geor- 
gia; Heraclius  received  them  in  the  neighborhood  of  Teflis, 
and  the  khan,  with  his  nobles,  dismounted  from  their  horses, 
if  we  may  credit  the  Greeks,  and  fell  prostrate  on  the  ground 
to  adore  the  purple  of  the  Csesar.  Such  voluntary  homage 
and  important  aid  were  entitled  to  the  warmest  acknowledg- 
ments, and  the  emperor,  taking  off  his  own  diadem,  placed  it 
on  the  head  of  the  Turkish  prince,  whom  he  saluted  with  a 
tender  embrace  and  the  appellation  of  son.  After  a  sumptu- 
ous banquet  he  presented  Ziebel  with  the  plate  and  ornaments, 
the  gold,  the  gems,  and  the  silk  which  had  been  used  at  the 
imperial  table,  and,  with  his  own  hand,  distributed  rich  jewels 
and  ear-rings  to  his  new  allies.  In  a  secret  interview  he  pro- 
duced the  portrait  of  his  daughter  Eudocia,"  condescended  to 
flatter  the  barbarian  with  the  promise  of  a  fair  and  august 
bride,  obtained  an  immediate  succor  of  forty  thousand  horse, 
and  negotiated  a  strong  diversion  of  the  Turkish  arms  on  the 
side  of  the  Oxus.100  The  Persians,  in  their  turn,  retreated 
with  precipitation ;  in  the  camp  of  Edessa  Heraclius  review- 
ed an  army  of  seventy  thousand  Romans  and  strangers ;  and 
some  months  were  successfully  employed  in  the  recovery  of 
the  cities  of  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  and  Armenia,  whose  fortifi- 

99  Epiphania,  or  Eudocia,  the  only  daughter  of  Heraclius  and  his  first  wife  Eu- 
docia, was  born  at  Constantinople  on  the  7th  of  July,  a.d.  611,  baptized  the  15th 
of  August,  and  crowned  (in  the  oratory  of  St.  Stephen  in  the  palace)  the  4th  of 
October  of  the  same  year.  At  this  time  she  was  about  fifteen.  Eudocia  was  af. 
terwards  sent  to  her  Turkish  husband,  but  the  news  of  his  death  stopped  her  jour- 
ney, and  prevented  the  consummation  (Ducange,  Familiae  Byzantin.  p.  118). 

100  Elmacin  (Hist.  Saracen,  p.  13-16)  gives  some  curious  and  probable  facts: 
but  his  numbers  are  rather  too  high — 300,000  Romans  assembled  at  Edessa— 
600,000  Persians  killed  at  Nineveh.  The  abatement  of  a  cipher  is  scarcely 
enough  to  restore  his  sanity. 


Khazars,  or  Black  Khazars,  kara  being  the  Turkish  word  for  black.  Another 
Arabic  writer  says  that  the  language  of  the  Khazars  was  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Bulgarians,  who  were  undoubtedly  Turks.  The  southern  parts  of  Russia  were 
visited  by  Arabic  merchants  in  the  tenth  century ;  and  hence  we  obtain  some  in- 
formation about  the  Khazars  from  Arabic  sources.  Fiahn,  De  Chasaris,  Excerpt, 
ex  Histor.  Arab.  Petrop.  1822;  St.  Martin,  Notes  to  Le  Beau,  vol.  xi.  p.  115; 
Zeuss,  Die  Deutschen  und  die  Nachbarstamme,  p.  721  seq.,  742;  Neumann,  Die 
Volker  des  siidlicheu  Russlands,  p.  99  seq.  ;  Prichard,  Physical  History  of  Man* 
kind,  vol.  iv.  p.  322.— S. 


A.D.  627.]  HIS  THIRD  EXPEDITION.  621 

cations  bad  been  imperfectly  restored.  Sarbar  still  maintain- 
ed the  important  station  of  Chalcedon,  but  the  jealousy  of 
Chosroes,  or  the  artifice  of  Heraclius,  soon  alienated  the  mind 
of  that  powerful  satrap  from  the  service  of  his  king  and  coun- 
try. A  messenger  was  intercepted  with  a  real  or  fictitious 
mandate  to  the  cadarigan,  or  second  in  command,  directing 
him  to  send,  without  delay,  to  the  throne  the  head  of  a  guilty 
or  unfortunate  general.  The  despatches  were  transmitted  to 
Sarbar  himself,  and,  as  soon  as  he  read  the  sentence  of  his 
own  death,  he  dexterously  inserted  the  names  of  four  hun- 
dred officers,  assembled  a  military  council,  and  asked  the  ca- 
darigan whether  he  was  prepared  to  execute  the  commands 
of  their  tyrant?  The  Persians  unanimously  declared  that 
Chosroes  had  forfeited  the  sceptre ;  a  separate  treaty  was  con- 
cluded with  the  government  of  Constantinople ;  and  if  some 
considerations  of  honor  or  policy  restrained  Sarbar  from  join- 
ing the  standard  of  Heraclius,  the  emperor  was  assured  that 
he  might  prosecute  without  interruption  his  designs  of  vic- 
tory and  peace. 

Deprived  of  his  firmest  support,  and  doubtful  of  the  fideli- 
ty of  his  subjects,  the  greatness  of  Chosroes  was  still  conspic- 
uous  in  its  ruins.     The  number  of  five  hundred 
expedition,     thousand  may  be  interpreted  as  an  Oriental  rneta- 

a.d.  62T;  i  m         -I  i 

phor  to  describe  the  men  and  arms,  the  horses  and 
elephants,  that  covered  Media  and  Assyria  against  the  inva- 
sion of  Heraclius.  Yet  the  Romans  boldly  advanced  from 
the  Araxes  to  the  Tigris,  and  the  timid  prudence  of  Rhazates 
was  content  to  follow  them  by  forced  marches  through  a  des- 
olate country,  till  he  received  a  peremptory  mandate  to  risk 
the  fate  of  Persia  in  a  decisive  battle.  Eastward  of  the  Ti- 
gris, at  the  end  of  the  bridge  of  Mosul,  the  great  Nineveh  had 
formerly  been  erected  :101  the  city,  and  even  the  ruins  of  the 

101  Ctesias  (apud  Diodor.  Sicul.  torn.  i.  1.  ii.  [c.  3]  p.  115,  edit.  Wesseling)  assigns 
480  stadia  (perhaps  only  32  miles)  for  the  circumference  of  Nineveh.  Jonas  talks 
of  three  days'  journey :  the  120,000  persons  described  by  the  prophet  as  incapable 
of  discerning  their  right  hand  from  their  left  may  afford  about  700,000  persons  of 
all  ages  for  the  inhabitants  of  that  ancient  capital  (Goguet,  Origines  des  Loix,  etc., 
torn.  iii.  part  i.  p.  92, 93),  which  ceased  to  exist  600  years  before  Christ.    The  west* 


622  THIRD  EXPEDITION  OF  HERACLIUS.        [Ch.  XLYL 

city,  bad  long  since  disappeared  ;loa  the  vacant  space  afforded 
a  spacious  field  for  the  operations  of  the  two  armies.  But 
these  operations  are  neglected  by  the  Byzantine  historians, 
and,  like  the  authors  of  epic  poetry  and  romance,  they  ascribe 
the  victory,  not  to  the  military  conduct,  but  to  the  personal 
valor,  of  their  favorite  hero.  On  this  memorable  day  Hera- 
clius,  on  his  horse  Phallas,  surpassed  the  bravest  of  his  war- 
riors ;  his  lip  was  pierced  with  a  spear,  the  steed  was  wound- 
and  victories.  e&  i*1  tne  thigh,  but  he  carried  his  master  safe  and 
Dec.  1,  etc.  victorious  through  the  triple  phalanx  of  the  bar- 
barians. In  the  heat  of  the  action  three  valiant  chiefs  were 
successively  slain  by  the  sword  and  lance  of  the  emperor: 
among  these  was  Rhazates  himself  ;  he  fell  like  a  soldier,  but 
the  sight  of  his  head  scattered  grief  and  despair  through  the 
fainting  ranks  of  the  Persians.  His  armor  of  pure  and  massy 
gold,  the  shield  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  plates,  the  sword 
and  belt,  the  saddle  and  cuirass,  adorned  the  triumph  of 
Heraclius ;  and  if  he  had  not  been  faithful  to  Christ  and  his 
mother,  the  champion  of  Rome  might  have  offered  the  fourth 
qpime  spoils  to  the  Jupiter  of  the  Capitol.103  In  the  battle 
of  Nineveh,  which  was  fiercely  fought  from  daybreak  to  the 
eleventh  hour,  twenty- eight  standards,  besides  those  which 
might  be  broken  or  torn,  were  taken  from  the  Persians ;  the 
greatest  part  of  their  army  was  cut  in  pieces;  and  the  vic- 
tors, concealing  their  own  loss,  passed  the  night  on  the  field. 
They  acknowledged  that,  on  this  occasion,  it  was  less  difficult 


em  suburb  still  subsisted,  and  is  mentioned  under  the  name  of  Mosul,  in  the  first 
age  of  the  Arabian  caliphs. 

102  Niebuhr  (Voyage  en  Arabie,  etc.,  torn.  ii.  p.  286)  passed  over  Nineveh  with- 
out perceiving  it.  He  mistook  for  a  ridge  of  hills  the  old  rampart  of  brick  or 
earth.  It  is  said  to  have  been  100  feet  high,  flanked  with  1500  towers,  each  of 
the  height  of  200  feet. 

103  "  Rex  regia  arma  fero  "  (says  Romulus,  in  the  first  consecration)  "  *  *  *  bina 
postea  "  (continues  Livy,  i.  10)  "  inter  tot  bella,  opima  parta  sunt  spolia,  adeo  rara 
ejus  fortuna  decoris."  If  Varro  (apud  Pomp.  Festum,  p.  306,  edit.  Dacier)  could 
justify  his  liberality  in  granting  the  opime  spoils  even  to  a  common  soldier  who 
had  slain  the  king  or  general  of  the  enemy,  the  honor  would  have  been  much  mora 
cheap  and  common. 


A.D.  627]  HIS   VICTORIES.  623 

bodies  of  their  friends,  no  more  than  two  bow-shot  from  the 
enemy,  the  remnant  of  the  Persian  cavalry  stood  firm  till  the 
seventh  hour  of  the  night;  about  the  eighth  hour  they  re- 
tired to  their  unrifled  camp,  collected  their  baggage,  and  dis- 
persed on  all  sides  from  the  want  of  orders  rather  than  of 
resolution.  The  diligence  of  Heraclius  was  not  less  admira- 
ble in  the  use  of  victory  ;  by  a  march  of  forty-eight  miles  in 
four-and-twenty  hours  his  vanguard  occupied  the  bridges  of 
the  great  and  the  lesser  Zab,  and  the  cities  and  palaces  of  As- 
syria were  open  for  the  first  time  to  the  Romans.  By  a  just 
gradation  of  magnificent  scenes  they  penetrated  to  the  royal 
seat  of  Dastagerd,a  and,  though  much  of  the  treasure  had 
been  removed  and  much  had  been  expended,  the  remaining 
wealth  appears  to  have  exceeded  their  hopes,  and  even  to 
have  satiated  their  avarice.  Whatever  could  not  be  easily 
transported  they  consumed  with  fire,  that  Chosroes  might 
feel  the  anguish  of  these  wounds  which  he  had  so  often  in- 
flicted on  the  provinces  of  the  empire;  and  justice  might  al- 
low the  excuse,  if  the  desolation  had  been  confined  to  the 
works  of  regal  luxury — if  national  hatred,  military  license, 
and  religious  zeal  had  not  wasted  with  equal  rage  the  habita- 
tions and  the  temples  of  the  guiltless  subject.  The  recovery 
of  three  hundred  Roman  standards  and  the  deliv€rance  of 
the  numerous  captives  of  Edessa  and  Alexandria  reflect  a 
purer  glory  on  the  arms  of  Heraclius.  From  the  palace  of 
Dastagerd  he  pursued  his  march  within  a  few  miles  of  Mo- 
dain  or  Ctesiphon,  till  he  was  stopped,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Arba,  by  the  difficulty  of  the  passage,  the  rigor  of  the  season, 
and  perhaps  the  fame  of  an  impregnable  capital.  The  return 
of  the  emperor  is  marked  by  the  modern  name  of  the  city 
of  Sherhzour  :  he  fortunately  passed  Mount  Zara  before  the 
snow,  which  fell  incessantly  thirty-four  days;  and  the  citizens 
of  Gandzaca,  or  Tauris,  were  compelled  to  entertain  his  sol- 
diers and  their  horses  with  a  hospitable  reception.104 

104  In  describing  this  last  expedition  of  Heraclius,  the  facts,  the  places,  and  the 

a  Macdonald  Kinneir  places  Dastagerd  at  Kasr  e  Shirin,  the  palace  of  Sira  on 
the  banks  of  the  Diala  between  Holwan  and  Kanabee.  Kinneir,  Geograph.  Mem. 
p,3C8.— M. 


624  FLIGHT  OF  CHOSROES.  [Ch.  XL VI 

When  the  ambition  of  Chosroes  was  reduced  to  the  de- 
fence of  his  hereditary  kingdom,  the  love  of  glory,  or  even 
night  of  tne  sense  of  shame,  should  have  urged  him  to  meet 
aSt?8 "  his  rival  in  tne  field-  In  tne  battle  of  Nineveh  his 
Dec.  29.  courage  might  have  taught  the  Persians  to  van- 

quish, or  he  might  have  fallen  with  honor  by  the  lance  of  a 
Roman  emperor.  The  successor  of  Cyrus  chose  rather,  at  a 
secure  distance,  to  expect  the  event,  to  assemble  the  relics  of 
the  defeat,  and  to  retire  by  measured  steps  before  the  march 
of  Heraclius,  till  he  beheld  with  a  sigh  the  once  loved  man- 
sions of  Dastagerd.  Both  his  friends  and  enemies  were  per- 
suaded that  it  was  the  intention  of  Chosroes  to  bury  himself 
under  the  ruins  of  the  city  and  palace:  and  as  both  might 
have  been  equally  adverse  to  his  flight,  the  monarch  of  Asia, 
with  Siraa  and  three  concubines,  escaped  through  a  hole  in 
the  wall  nine  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  Romans.  The 
slow  and  stately  procession  in  which  he  showed  himself  to 
the  prostrate  crowd  was  changed  to  a  rapid  and  secret  jour- 
ney ;  and  the  first  evening  he  lodged  in  the  cottage  of  a  peas- 
ant, whose  humble  door  would  scarcely  give  admittance  to 
the  Great  King.105  His  superstition  was  subdued  by  fear :  on 
the  third  day  he  entered  with  joy  the  fortifications  of  Ctesi- 
phon ;  yet  he  still  doubted  of  his  safety  till  he  had  opposed 
the  river  Tigris  to  the  pursuit  of  the  Romans.  The  discov- 
ery of  his  flight  agitated  with  terror  and  tumult  the  palace, 
the  city,  and  the  camp  of  Dastagerd :  the  satraps  hesitated 
whether  they  had  most  to  fear  from  their  sovereign  or  the 

dates  of  Theophanes  (p.  265-271  [torn.  i.  p.  487-502,  edit.  Bonn])  are  so  accurate 
and  authentic  that  he  must  have  followed  the  original  letters  of  the  emperor,  of 
which  the  Paschal  Chronicle  has  preserved  (p.  398-402  [torn.  i.  p.  727-734,  edit. 
Bonn])  a  very  curious  specimen. 

106  The  words  of  Theophanes  are  remarkable :  elar]\9iv  Xoaporjq  elg  oTkov  yewp- 
yov  /itjSafiivov  fiEivai, /xoXiq  \^PV^e,S  tv  TV  tovtov  Srvpg.,  ijv  i8<l>v  iax<iTOv'E.pdic\tioQ 
iQav/jiaaev  (p.  269  [p.  496,  edit.  Bonn]).  Young  princes  who  discover  a  propensi- 
ty to  war  should  repeatedly  transcribe  and  translate  such  salutary  texts. 

*  The  Schirin  of  Persian  poetry.  The  love  of  Chosru  and  Schirin  rivals  in  Per- 
sian romance  that  of  Joseph  with  Zuleika,  the  wife  of  Potiphar,  of  Solomon  with 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and  that  of  Mejnoun  and  Leila.  The  number  of  Persian 
poems  on  the  subject  may  be  seen  in  M.  vou  Hammer's  preface  to  his  poem  of 
Schirin.— M. 


a.d.627.]  FLIGHT  OF  CHOSROES.  625 

enemy ;  and  the  females  of  the  harem  were  astonished  and 
pleased  by  the  sight  of  mankind,  till  the  jealous  husband  of 
three  thousand  wives  again  confined  them  to  a  more  distant 
castle.  At  his  command  the  army  of  Dastagerd  retreated  to 
a  new  camp :  the  front  was  covered  by  the  Arba  and  a  line 
of  two  hundred  elephants;  the  troops  of  the  more  distant 
provinces  successively  arrived;  and  the  vilest  domestics  of 
the  king  and  satraps  were  enrolled  for  the  last  defence  of  the 
throne.  It  was  still  in  the  power  of  Chosroes  to  obtain  a  rea- 
sonable peace  ;  and  he  was  repeatedly  pressed  by  the  messen- 
gers of  Heraclins  to  spare  the  blood  of  his  subjects,  and  to 
relieve  a  humane  conqueror  from  the  painful  duty  of  carry- 
ing fire  and  sword  through  the  fairest  countries  of  Asia. 
.But  the  pride  of  the  Persian  had  not  yet  sunk  to  the  level  of 
his  fortune ;  he  derived  a  momentary  confidence  from  the  re- 
treat of  the  emperor ;  he  wept  with  impotent  rage  over  the 
ruins  of  his  Assyrian  palaces;  and  disregarded  too  long  the 
rising  murmurs  of  the  nation,  who  complained  that  their  lives 
and  fortunes  were  sacrificed  to  the  obstinacy  of  an  old  man. 
That  unhappy  old  man  was  himself  tortured  with  the  sharp- 
est pains  both  of  mind  and  body ;  and,  in  the  consciousness 
of  his  approaching  end,  he  resolved  to  fix  the  tiara  on  the 
head  of  Merdaza,  the  most  favored  of  his  sons.  But  the  will 
of  Chosroes  was  no  longer  revered,  and  Siroes,a  who  gloried 
in  the  rank  and  merit  of  his  mother  Sira,  had  conspired  with 
the  malcontents  to  assert  and  anticipate  the  rights  of  primo- 
geniture.106 Twenty-two  satraps  (they  styled  themselves  pa- 
triots) were  tempted  by  the  wealth  and  honors  of  a  new  reign  : 
to  the  soldiers  the  heir  of  Chosroes  promised  an  increase  of 
pay ;  to  the  Christians,  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  ;  to 
the  captives,  liberty  and  rewards ;  and  to  the  nation,  instant 
peace  and  the  reduction  of  taxes.     It  was  determined  by  the 

106  The  authentic  narrative  of  the  fall  of  Chosroes  is  contained  in  the  letter  of 
Heraclius  (Chron.  Paschal,  p.  398  [torn.  i.  p.  727,  edit.  Bonn])  and  the  history  of 
Theophanes  (p.  271  [torn.  i.  p.  500  seq.,  edit.  Bonn]). 


a  His  name  was  Kabad  (as  appears  from  an  official  letter  in  the  Paschal  Chron- 
icle, p.  402).  St.  Martin  considers  the  name  Shoes,  Schirouieh,  or  Schirwey, 
derived  from  the  word  schir^  royal.    -St.  Martin,  xi.  153. — M. 

IY.-40 


626  MURDER  OF  CHOSEOES.  [Ch.  XLVL 

conspirators  that  Siroes,  with  the  ensigns  of  royalty,  should 
appear  in  the  camp;  and  if  the  enterprise  should  fail, his  es* 
Heisde-  caPe  was  contrived  to  the  imperial  court.  But  the 
A°i»e628,  new  monarch  was  saluted  with  unanimous  accla- 
Feb.25;  mations ;  the  flight  of  Chosroes  (yet  where  could 
he  have  fled?)  was  rudely  arrested,  eighteen  sons  were  mas- 
sacreda  before  his  face,  and  he  was  thrown  into  a  dungeon, 
andmur-  where  he  expired  on  the  fifth  day.  The  Greeks 
foifsiraes,'8  an(^  modern  Persians  minutely  describe  how  Chos- 
Feb.28.  roeg  was  jnsilited,  and  famished,  and  tortured  by 

the  command  of  an  inhuman  son,  who  so  far  surpassed  the 
example  of  his  father;  but  at  the  time  of  his  death  what 
tongue  would  relate  the  story  of  the  parricide?  what  eye 
could  penetrate  into  the  tower  of  darkness?  According  to 
the  faith  and  mercy  of  his  Christian  enemies,  he  sunk  with- 
out hope  into  a  still  deeper  abyss,107  and  it  will  not  be  denied 
that  tyrants  of  every  age  and  sect  are  the  best  entitled  to  such 
infernal  abodes.  The  glory  of  the  House  of  Sassan  ended 
with  the  life  of  Chosroes ;  his  unnatural  son  enjoyed  only 
eight  months  the  fruit  of  his  crimes ;  and  in  the  space  of  four 
years  the  regal  title  was  assumed  by  nine  candidates,  who  dis- 
puted, with  the  sword  or  dagger,  the  fragments  of  an  exhaust- 
ed monarchy.  Every  province  and  each  city  of  Persia  was 
the  scene  of  independence,  of  discord,  and  of  blood ;  and  the 

107  On  the  first  rumor  of  the  death  of  Chosroes,  an  Heracliad  in  two  cantos  was 
instantly  published  at  Constantinople  by  George  of  Pisidia  (p.  97-105).  A  priest 
and  a  poet  might  very  properly  exult  in  the  damnation  of  the  public  enemy  (i/j,Tre- 
cibv  T(f  Taprapiii,  v.  56) :  but  such  mean  revenge  is  unworthy  of  a  king  and  a  con- 
queror ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  find  so  much  black  superstition  (Srsofiaxog  XoapjTjg 
iTTEOEV  Kal  tTTTtiiiiariaQri  elg  to.  KaraxOovia  ***  elg  to  irvp  to  aKaTavtzoTOv,  etc.) 
in  the  letter  of  Heraclius  [Chron.  Pasch.  p.  728  seq.,  edit.  Bonn] :  he  almost  ap- 
plauds the  parricide  of  Siroes  as  an  act  of  piety  and  justice. b 


a  According  to  Le  Bean,  this  massacre  was  perpetrated  at  Mahiua,  in  Babylo- 
nia, not  in  the  presence  of  Chosroes.  The  Syrian  historian,  Thomas  of  Maraga, 
gives  Chosroes  twenty-four  sons  ;  Mirkhond  (translated  by  De  Sacy),  fifteen ;  the 
inedited  Modjmel -alte-warikh,  agreeing  with  Gibbon,  eighteen,  with  their  names. 
Le  Beau  and  St.  Martin,  xi.  146. — M. 

b  The  Mahometans  show  no  more  charity  towards  the  memory  of  Chosroes 
or  Khoosroo  Purveez.  All  his  reverses  are  ascribed  to  the  just  indignation  of 
God  upon  a  monarch  who  had  dared  with  impious  and  accursed  hands  to  tea* 
the  letter  of  the  Holy  Prophet  Mahomed,     Compare  note,  p.  605. — M. 


A..D.638.]  TREATY  OF  PEACE.  627 

state  of  anarchy  prevailed  about  eight  years  longer,8  till  the 
factions  were  silenced  and  united  under  the  common  yoke  of 
the  Arabian  caliphs.108 

As  soon  as  the  mountains  became  passable  the  emperor  re- 
ceived the  welcome  news  of  the  success  of  the  conspiracy,  the 
Treaty  of  death  of  Chosroes,  and  the  elevation  of  his  eldest 
tweeu'the  son  to  tne  throne  of  Persia.  The  authors  of  the 
1"d.  1 2s,pires"    revolution,  eager  to  display  their  merits  in  the  court 


March,  etc. 


or  camp  of  Tauris,  preceded  the  ambassadors  of  Si- 
roes,  who  delivered  the  letters  of  their  master  to  his  brother 
the  Emperor  of  the  Romans.109  In  the  language  of  the  usurp- 
ers of  every  age,  he  imputes  his  own  crimes  to  the  Deity,  and, 
without  degrading  his  equal  majesty,  he  offers  to  reconcile 
the  long  discord  of  the  two  nations  by  a  treaty  of  peace  and 
alliance  more  durable  than  brass  or  iron.  The  conditions  of 
the  treaty  were  easily  defined  and  faithfully  executed.  In 
the  recovery  of  the  standards  and  prisoners  which  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  Persians,  the  emperor  imitated  the  ex- 
ample of  Augustus ;  their  care  of  the  national  dignity  was 
celebrated  by  the  poets  of  the  times,  but  the  decay  of  genius 
may  be  measured  by  the  distance  between  Horace  and  George 
of  Pisidia ;  the  subjects  and  brethren  of  Heraclius  were  re- 
deemed from  persecution,  slavery,  and  exile ;  but,  instead  of 
the  Roman  eagles,  the  true  wood  of  the  holy  cross  was  re- 
stored to  the  importunate  demands  of  the  successor  of  Con- 
stantine.  The  victor  was  not  ambitious  of  enlarging  the 
weakness  of  the  empire ;  the  son  of  Chosroes  abandoned  with- 

108  The  best  Oriental  accounts  of  this  last  period  of  the  Sassanian  kings  are 
found  in  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  251-256),  who  dissembles  the  parricide  of 
Shoes,  D'Herbelot  (Bibliotheque  Orientate,  p.  789),  and  Assemanni  (Bibliothec. 
Oriental,  torn.  hi.  p.  415-420). 

109  The  letter  of  Shoes  in  the  Paschal  Chronicle  (p.  402  [torn.  i.  p.  735,  edit. 
Bonn])  unfortunately  ends  before  he  proceeds  to  business.5  The  treaty  appears 
in  its  execution  in  the  histories  of  Theophanes  and  Nicephorus. 


a  Yet  Gibbon  himself  places  the  flight  and  death  of  Yesdegird  III.,  the  last 
king  of  Persia,  in  651.  The  famous  era  of  Yesdegird  dates  from  his  accession, 
June  16,  632.— M. 

b  M.  Mai,  Script.  Vet.  Nova  Collectio,  vol.  i.  pt.  2,  p.  223,  has  added  some  lines, 
but  no  clear  sense  can  be  made  out  of  the  fragment. — M. 


628       PILGEIMAGE  OF  HERACLIUS  TO  JERUSALEM.   [Ch.  XLVL 

out  regret  the  conquests  of  his  father ;  the  Persians  who  evac- 
uated the  cities  of  Syria  and  Egypt  were  honorably  conducted 
to  the  frontier ;  and  a  war  which  had  wounded  the  vitals  of 
the  two  monarchies  produced  no  change  in  their  external  and 
relative  situation.  The  return  of  Heraclius  from  Tauris  to 
Constantinople  was  a  perpetual  triumph,  and  after  the  ex- 
ploits of  six  glorious  campaigns  he  peaceably  enjoyed  the 
Sabbath  of  his  toils.  After  a  long  impatience,  the  senate,  the 
clergy,  and  the  people  went  forth  to  meet  their  hero  with 
,ears  and  acclamations,  with  olive-branches  and  innumerable 
lamps ;  he  entered  the  capital  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  ele- 
phants, and,  as  soon  as  the  emperor  could  disengage  himself 
from  the  tumult  of  public  joy,  he  tasted  more  genuine  satis- 
faction in  the  embraces  of  his  mother  and  his  son."0 

The  succeeding  year  was  illustrated  by  a  triumph  of  a  very 
different  kind,  the  restitution  of  the  true  cross  to  the  holy 
sepulchre.  Heraclius  performed  in  person  the  pilgrimage  of 
Jerusalem:  the  identity  of  the  relic  was  verified  by  the  dis- 
creet patriarch,111  and  this  august  ceremony  has  been  com- 
memorated by  the  annual  festival  of  the  exaltation  of  the 
cross.  Before  the  emperor  presumed  to  tread  the  consecrated 
ground  he  was  instructed  to  strip  himself  of  the  diadem  and 
purple,  the  pomp  and  vanity  of  the  world ;  but  in  the  judg- 
ment of  his  clergy,  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  was  more  ea- 
sily reconciled  with  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel.a     He  again 

110  The  burden  of  Corneille's  song, 

"Montrez  Heraclius  au  peuple  qui  l'attend," 
is  much  better  suited  to  the  present  occasion.  See  his  triumph  in  Theophanes 
(p.  272,  273  [torn.  i.  p.  503  seq.,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Nicephorus  (p.  15,  16).  The 
life  of  the  mother  and  tenderness  of  the  son  are  attested  by  George  of  Pisidia 
(Bell.  Abar.  255,  etc.,  p.  49).  The  metaphor  of  the  Sabbath  is  used,  somewhat 
profanely,  by  these  Byzantine  Christians. 

111  See  Baronius  (Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  628,  No.  1-4),  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn,  it 
p.  240-248),  Nicephorus  (Brev.  p.  15).  The  seals  of  the  case  had  never  been 
broken  ;  and  this  preservation  of  the  cross  is  ascribed  (under  God)  to  the  devotion 
of  Queen  Sira.  

*  If  the  clergy  imposed  upon  the  kneeling  and  penitent  emperor  the  persecution 
of  the  Jews,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  provocation  was  not  wanting;  for  how 
many  of  them  had  been  eye-witnesses  of,  perhaps  sufferers  in,  the  horrible  atroci- 
ties committed  on  the  capture  of  the  city  !  Yet  we  have  no  authentic  account  of 
great  severities  exercised  by  Heraclius,    The  law  of  Hadrian  was  re-enacted,  which 


a.d.  628.]  INCURSION  OF  THE  SAEACENS.  629 

ascended  his  throne  to  receive  the  congratulations  of  the  am- 
bassadors of  France  and  India ;  and  the  fame  of  Moses,  Alex- 
ander, and  Hercules1"  was  eclipsed,  in  the  popular  estimation, 
by  the  superior  merit  and  glory  of  the  great  Heraclius.  Yet 
the  deliverer  of  the  East  was  indigent  and  feeble.  Of  the 
Persian  spoils  the  most  valuable  portion  had  been  expended 
in  the  war,  distributed  to  the  soldiers,  or  buried,  by  an  unlucky 
tempest,  in  the  waves  of  the  Euxine.  The  conscience  of  the 
emperor  was  oppressed  by  the  obligation  of  restoring  the 
wealth  of  the  clergy,  which  he  had  borrowed  for  their  own  de- 
fence :  a  perpetual  fund  was  required  to  satisfy  these  inexora- 
ble creditors ;  the  provinces,  already  wasted  by  the  arms  and 
avarice  of  the  Persians,  were  compelled  to  a  second  payment 
of  the  same  taxes ;  and  the  arrears  of  a  simple  citizen,  the 
treasurer  of  Damascus,  were  commuted  to  a  fine  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  pieces  of  gold.  The  loss  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand soldiers,113  who  had  fallen  by  the  sword,  was  of  less  fatal 
importance  than  the  decay  of  arts,  agriculture,  and  population 
in  this  long  and  destructive  war;  and  although  a  victorious 
army  had  been  formed  under  the  standard  of  Heraclius,  the 
unnatural  effort  appears  to  have  exhausted  rather  than  exer- 
cised their  strength.  "While  the  emperor  triumphed  at  Con- 
stantinople or  Jerusalem,  an  obscure  town  on  the  confines  of 
Syria  was  pillaged  by  the  Saracens,  and  they  cut  in  pieces 
some  troops  who  advanced  to  its  relief ;  an  ordinary  and  tri- 
fling occurrence,  had  it  not  been  the  prelude  of  a  mighty  rev- 
olution. These  robbers  were  the  apostles  of  Mahomet ;  their 
fanatic  valor  had  emerged  from  the  desert ;  and  in  the  last 
eight  years  of  his  reign  Heraclius  lost  to  the  Arabs  the  same 
provinces  which  he  had  rescued  from  the  Persians. 

113  George  of  Pisidia,  Acroas.  iii.  de  Expedit.  contra  Persas,  415,  etc.  [p.  21j, 
and  Heracliad.  Acroas.  i.  65-138.  I  neglect  the  meaner  parallels  of  Daniel,  Ti» 
motheus,  etc. ;  Chosroes  and  the  chagan  were  of  course  compared  to  Belshazzar, 
Pharaoh,  the  old  serpent,  etc. 

113  Suidas  (in  Excerpt.  Hist.  Byzant.  p.  46)  gives  this  number ;  but  either  the 
Persian  must  be  read  for  the  Isaurian  war,  or  this  passage  does  not  belong  to  the 
Emperor  Heraclius.         

prohibited  the  Jews  from  approaching  within  three  miles  of  the  city — a  law  which, 
in  the  present  exasperated  state  of  the  Christians,  might  be  a  measure  of  security 
or  mercy,  rather  than  of  oppression.     Milman,  Hist,  of  Jews,  iii.  2i2. — M. 


630  THE  INCARNATION  OF  CHRIST.  [Ch.  XLVIL 


CHAPTER  XLYIL 

Theological  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Incarnation. — The  Human  and  Divine 
Nature  of  Christ. — Enmity  of  the  Patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and  Constantino- 
ple.— St.  Cyril  and  Nestorius.—  Third  General  Council  of  Ephesus. — Heresy 
of  Eutyches.—  Fourth  General  Council  of  Chalcedon. — Civil  and  Ecclesiastical 
Discord. — Intolerance  of  Justinian. — The  Three  Chapters. — The  Monothelite 
Controversy. — State  of  the  Oriental  Sects:  —  I.  The  Nestorians. — II.  The 
Jacobites. — III.  The  Maronites. — IV.  The  Armenians. — V.  The  Copts  and 
Abyssinians. 

After  the  extinction  of  paganism,  the  Christians  in  peace 
and  piety  might  have  enjoyed  their  solitary  triumph.  But 
The  iucarna-  tne  principle  of  discord  was  alive  in  their  bosom, 
tion  of  Christ.  an(j  fa^  were  more  solicitous  to  explore  the  nat- 
ure than  to  practise  the  laws  of  their  founder.  I  have  al- 
ready observed  that  the  disputes  of  the  Trinity  were  suc- 
ceeded by  those  of  the  Incarnation  ;  alike  scandalous  to  the 
Church,  alike  pernicious  to  the  State,  still  more  minute  in 
their  origin,  still  more  durable  in  their  effects.  It  is  my  de- 
sign to  comprise  in  the  present  chapter  a  religious  war  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  to  represent  the  ecclesiastical  and 
political  schism  of  the  Oriental  sects,  and  to  introduce  their 
clamorous  or  sanguinary  contests,  by  a  modest  inquiry  into 
the  doctrines  of  the  primitive  Church.1 


1  By  what  means  shall  I  authenticate  this  previous  inquiry,  which  I  have  studied 
to  circumscribe  and  compress  ? — If  I  persist  in  supporting  each  fact  or  reflection 
by  its  proper  and  special  evidence,  every  line  would  demand  a  string  of  testimo- 
nies, and  every  note  would  swell  to  a  critical  dissertation.  But  the  numberless 
passages  of  antiquity  which  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  are  Compiled,  digested, 
and  illustrated  by  Petavius  and  Le  Clerc,  by  Beausobre  and  Mosheim.  I  shall  be 
content  to  fortify  my  narrative  by  the  names  and  characters  of  these  respectable 
guides;  and  in  the  contemplation  of  a  minute  or  remote  object,  I  am  not  ashamed 
to  borrow  the  aid  of  the  strongest  glasses  :  1.  The  Dogmata  Theologica  of  Peta- 
vius are  a  work  of  incredible  labor  and  compass  ;  the  volumes  which  relate  solely 
to  the  Incarnation  (two  folios,  fifth  and  sixth,  of  837  pages)  are  divided  into  six- 
teen books — the  first,  of  history ;  the  remainder,  of  controversy  and  doctrine.    The 


Cn.XLVIL]  CHKIST  A  PURE  MAN  TO  THE  EBIONITES.  631 

I.  A  laudable  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  first  proselytes 
has  countenanced  the  belief,  the  hope,  the  wish,  that  the  Ebi- 
onites,  or  at  least  the  Nazarenes,  were  distinguish- 
man  to  the  ed  only  by  their  obstinate  perseverance  in  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Mosaic  rites.  Their  churches  have  dis- 
appeared, their  books  are  obliterated :  their  obscure  freedom 
might  allow  a  latitude  of  faith,  and  the  softness  of  their  in- 
fant creed  would  be  variously  moulded  by  the  zeal  or  pru- 
dence of  three  hundred  years.  Yet  the  most  charitable  criti- 
cism must  refuse  these  sectaries  any  knowledge  of  the  pure 
and  proper  divinity  of  Christ.  Educated  in  the  school  of 
Jewish  prophecy  and  prejudice,  they  had  never  been  taught 
to  elevate  their  hopes  above  a  human  and  temporal  Messiah.2 

Jesuit's  learning  is  copious  and  correct ;  his  Latinity  is  pure,  his  method  clear,  his 
argument  profound  and  well  connected ;  but  he  is  the  slave  of  the  fathers,  the 
scourge  of  heretics,  and  the  enemy  of  truth  and  candor,  as  often  as  they  are  inim- 
ical to  the  Catholic  cause.  2.  The  Arminian  Le  Clerc,  who  has  composed  in  a 
quarto  volume  (Amsterdam,  1716)  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  two  first  centu- 
ries, was  free  both  in  his  temper  and  situation  ;  his  sense  is  clear,  but  his  thoughts 
are  narrow ;  he  reduces  the  reason  or  folly  of  ages  to  the  standard  of  his  private 
judgment,  and  his  impartiality  is  sometimes  quickened,  and  sometimes  tainted, 
by  his  opposition  to  the  fathers.  See  the  heretics  (Cerinthians,  Ixxx. ;  Ebionites, 
ciii. ;  Carpocratians,  cxx.  ;  Valentinians,  cxxi. ;  Basilidians,  cxxiii. ;  Marcio- 
nites,  cxli.,  etc.)  under  their  propev  dates.  3.  The  Histoire  Critique  du  Mani- 
che'isme  (Amsterdam,  1734, 1739,  in  two  vols,  in  4to,  with  a  posthumous  disserta- 
tion sur  les  Nazarenes,  Lausanne,  1745)  of  M.  de  Beausobre,  is  a  treasure  of  an- 
cient philosophy  and  theology.  The  learned  historian  spins  with  incomparable 
art  the  systematic  thread  of  opinion,  and  transforms  himself  by  turns  into  the 
person  of  a  saint,  a  sage,  or  a  heretic.  Yet  his  refinement  is  sometimes  excessive : 
he  betrays  an  amiable  partiality  in  favor  of  the  weaker  side,  and,  while  he  guards 
against  calumny,  he  does  not  allow  sufficient  scope  for  superstition  and  fanaticism. 
A  copious  table  of  contents  will  direct  the  reader  to  any  point  that  he  wishes  to 
examine.  4.  Less  profound  than  Petavius,  less  independent  than  Le  Clerc,  less 
ingenious  than  Beausobre,  the  historian  Mosheim  is  full,  rational,  correct,  and 
moderate.  In  his  learned  work,  De  Rebus  Christianis  ante  Constantinum  (Helm- 
stadt,  1753,  in  4to),  see  the  Nazarenes  and  Ebionites,  p.  172-179,  328-332;  the 
Gnostics  in  general,  p.  179,  etc. ;  Cerinthus,  p.  196-202;  Basilides,  p.  352-361 ; 
Carpocrates,  p.  363-367;  Valentinus,  p.  371-389  ;  Marcion,  p.  404-410;  the 
Manichseans,  p.  829-837,  etc. 

2  JLal  yap  ttcivtzq  rifius  rbv  Xpiarbv  avQpwirov  s£  avOpwiruv  irpoff§oicwp:ev  y«i*= 
tjaeoOai,  says  the  Jew  Tryphon  (Justin.  Dialog,  p.  207a  [p.  142,  edit.  Jebb]),  in  th« 


See  on  this  passage  Bp.  Kaye,  Justin  Martyr,  p.  25.—  M. 


632  CHRIST  A  PUEE  MAN  TO  THE  EBIONITES.  [CH.XLVH. 

If  they  had  courage  to  hail  their  king  when  he  appeared  in 
a  plebeian  garb,  their  grosser  apprehensions  were  incapable  of 
discerning  their  God,  who  had  studiously  disguised  his  celes- 
tial character  under  the  name  and  person  of  a  mortal.3  The 
familiar  companions  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  conversed  with 
their  friend  and  countryman,  who,  in  all  the  actions  of  ra- 
tional and  animal  life,  appeared  of  the  same  species  with 
themselves.  His  progress  from  infancy  to  youth  and  man- 
hood was  marked  by  a  regular  increase  in  stature  and  wis- 
dom ;  and  after  a  painful  agony  of  mind  and  body,  he  expired 
on  the  cross.  He  lived  and  died  for  the  service  of  mankind : 
but  the  life  and  death  of  Socrates  had  likewise  been  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  religion  and  justice;  and  although  the  stoic 
or  the  hero  may  disdain  the  humble  virtues  of  Jesus,  the 
tears  which  he  shed  over  his  friend  and  country  may  be  es- 
teemed the  purest  evidence  of  his  humanity.  The  miracles 
of  the  Gospel  could  not  astonish  a  people  who  held  with  in- 
trepid faith  the  more  splendid  prodigies  of  the  Mosaic  law. 
The  prophets  of  ancient  days  had  cured  diseases,  raised  the 
dead,  divided  the  sea,  stopped  the  sun,  and  ascended  to  heav- 
en in  a  fiery  chariot.  And  the  metaphorical  style  of  the  He- 
brews might  ascribe  to  a  saint  and  martyr  the  adoptive  title 
of  Son  of  God. 

Yet  in  the  insufficient  creed  of  the  Nazarenes  and  the  Ebi- 
onites  a  distinction  is  faintly  noticed  between  the  heretics, 
who  confounded  the  generation  of  Christ  in  the  common  or- 

name  of  his  countrymen  ;  and  the  modern  Jews,  the  few  who  divert  their  thoughts 
from  money  to  religion,  still  hold  the  same  language,  and  allege  the  literal  sense 
of  the  prophets.* 

3  Chrysostom  (Basnage,  Hist,  des  Juifs,  torn.  v.  c.  9,  p.  183)  and  Athanasius 
(Petav.  Dogmat.  Theolog.  torn.  v.  1.  i.  c.  2,  p.  3)  are  obliged  to  confess  that  the 
divinity  of  Christ  is  rarely  mentioned  by  himself  or  his  apostles. 


*  Most  of  the  modern  writers,  who  have  closely  examined  this  subject,  and  who 
will  not  be  suspected  of  any  theological  bias — Rosenmiiller  on  Isaiah  ix.  5,  and  on 
Psalm  xlv.  7,  and  Bertholdt,  Christologia  Judaaorum,  c.  xx. — rightly  ascribe  much 
higher  notions  of  the  Messiah  to  the  Jews.  In  fact,  the  dispute  seems  to  rest  on 
the  notion  that  there  was  a  definite  and  authorized  notion  of  the  Messiah  among 
the  Jews,  whereas  it  was  probably  so  vague  as  to  admit  every  shade  of  difference, 
from  the  vulgar  expectation  of  a  mere  temporal  king,  to  the  philosophic  notion  of 
an  emanation  from  the  Deity. — M. 


Ch.XLVIL]  HIS  BIRTH  AND  ELEVATION.  C33 

der  of  nature,  and  the  less  guilty  schismatics,  who  revered  the 
„.  ..  .         virginity  of  his  mother,  and  excluded  the  aid  of  an 

His  birth  i  i       ,.     i  mi        •  1. 

andeieva-  earthly  father.  The  incredulity  of  the  former  was 
countenanced  by  the  visible  circumstances  of  his 
birth,  the  legal  marriage  of  his  reputed  parents,  Joseph  and 
Mary,  and  his  lineal  claim  to  the  kingdom  of  David  and  the 
inheritance  of  Judah.  But  the  secret  and  authentic  history 
has  been  recorded  in  several  copies  of  the  Gospel  according 
to  St.  Matthew,4  which  these  sectaries  long  preserved  in  the 
original  Hebrew,6  as  the  sole  evidence  of  their  faith.  The 
natural  suspicions  of  the  husband,  conscious  of  his  own  chas- 
tity, were  dispelled  by  the  assurance  (in  a  dream)  that  his 
wife  was  pregnant  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  and  as  this  distant  and 
domestic  prodigy  could  not  fall  under  the  personal  observa- 
tion of  the  historian,  he  must  have  listened  to  the  same  voice 
which  dictated  to  Isaiah  the  future  conception  of  a  virgin. 
The  son  of  a  virgin,  generated  by  the  ineffable  operation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  was  a  creature  without  example  or  resem- 
blance, superior  in  every  attribute  of  mind  and  body  to  the 
children  of  Adam.     Since  the  introduction  of  the  Greek  or 

4  The  two  first  chapters  of  St.  Matthew  did  not  exist  in  the  Ebionite  copies 
(Epiphan.  Hares,  xxx.  13)  ;  and  the  miraculous  conception  is  one  of  the  last  ar- 
ticles which  Dr.  Priestley  has  curtailed  from  his  scanty  creed.* 

6  It  is  probable  enough  that  the  first  of  the  gospels  for  the  use  of  the  Jewish 
converts  was  composed  in  the  Hebrew  or  Syriac  idiom :  the  fact  is  attested  by  a 
chain  of  fathers — Papias,  Ireuseus,  Origen,  Jerom,  etc.  It  is  devoutly  believed  by 
the  Catholics,  and  admitted  by  Casaubon,  Grotius,  and  Isaac  Vossius,  among  the 
Protestant  critics.  But  this  Hebrew  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  is  most  unaccounta- 
bly lost;  and  we  may  accuse  the  diligence  or  fidelity  of  the  primitive  churches, 
who  have  preferred  the  unauthorized  version  of  some  nameless  Greek.  Erasmus 
and  his  followers,  who  respect  our  Greek  text  as  the  original  gospel,  deprive  them- 
selves of  the  evidence  which  declares  it  to  be  the  work  of  an  apostle.  See  Simon, 
Hist.  Critique,  etc.,  torn.  iii.  c.  5-9,  p.  47-101,  and  the  Prolegomena  of  Mill  and 
Wetstein  to  the  New  Testament.15 


a  The  distinct  allusion  to  the  facts  related  in  the  two  first  chapters  of  the  Gos- 
pel, in  a  work  evidently  written  about  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Nero,  the  Ascensio 
Isaias,  edited  by  Archbishop  Lawrence,  seems  convincing  evidence  that  they  are 
integral  parts  of  the  authentic  Christian  history. — M. 

b  Surely  the  extinction  of  the  Judseo-Christian  community,  related  from  Mos- 
heim  by  Gibbon  himself  (ch.  xv.),  accounts  both  simply  and  naturally  for  the  loss 
of  a  composition  which  had  become  of  no  use — nor  does  it  follow  that  the  Greek 
Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  is  unauthorized. — M. 


634  BIRTH  AND  ELEVATION  OF  CHRIST.      [Ch.  XLVI1 

Chaldean  philosophy,8  the  Jews7  were  persuaded  of  the  pre« 
existence,  transmigration,  and  immortality  of  souls :  and  Prov« 
idence  was  justified  by  a  supposition  that  they  were  confined 
in  their  earthly  prisons  to  expiate  the  stains  which  they  had 
contracted  in  a  former  state.8  But  the  degrees  of  purity  and 
corruption  are  almost  immeasurable.  It  might  be  fairly  pre- 
sumed that  the  most  sublime  and  virtuous  of  human  spirits 
was  infused  into  the  offspring  of  Mary  and  the  Holy  Ghost  ;9 
that  his  abasement  was  the  result  of  his  voluntary  choice ; 
and  that  the  object  of  his  mission  was  to  purify,  not  his  own, 
but  the  sins  of  the  world.  On  his  return  to  his  native  skies 
he  received  the  immense  reward  of  his  obedience :  the  ever- 
lasting kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  which  had  been  darkly  fore- 
told by  the  prophets,  under  the  carnal  images  of  peace,  of 
conquest,  and  of  dominion.  Omnipotence  could  enlarge  the 
human  faculties  of  Christ  to  the  extent  of  his  celestial  office. 
In  the  language  of  antiquity,  the  title  of  God  has  not  been  se- 
verely confined  to  the  first  parent;  and  his  incomparable  min- 
ister, his  only  begotten  Son,  might  claim,  without  presumption, 
the  religious,  though  secondary,  worship  of  a  subject  world. 


8  The  metaphysics  of  the  soul  are  disengaged  by  Cicero  (Tuscnlan.  1.  i.)  and 
Maximus  of  Tyre  (Dissertat.  xvi.)  from  the  intricacies  of  dialogue,  which  some- 
times amuse,  and  often  perplex,  the  readers  of  the  Phcedrus,  the  Phoedon%  and 
the  Laws  of  Plato. 

7  The  disciples  of  Jesus  were  persuaded  that  a  man  might  have  sinned  before 
he  was  born  (John  ix.  2),  and  the  Pharisees  held  the  transmigration  of  virtuous 
souls  (Joseph,  de  Bell.  Judaico,  1.  ii.  c.  7  [c.  8,  §  14]) ;  and  a  modern  Rabbi  is 
modestly  assured  that  Hermes,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  etc. ,  derived  their  metaphysics 
from  his  illustrious  countrymen. 

8  Four  different  opinions  have  been  entertained  concerning  the  origin  of  human 
souls.  1.  That  they  are  eternal  and  divine.  2.  That  they  were  created,  in  a  sep- 
rate  state  of  existence,  before  their  union  with  the  body.  3.  That  they  have  been 
propagated  from  the  original  stock  of  Adam,  who  contained  in  himself  the  men- 
tal as  well  as  the  corporeal  seed  of  his  posterity.  4.  That  each  soul  is  occasion- 
ally created  and  embodied  in  the  moment  of  conception. — The  last  of  these  senti- 
ments appears  to  have  prevailed  among  the  moderns ;  and  our  spiritual  history  is 
grown  less  sublime,  without  becoming  more  intelligible. 

9  "On  fj  tev  SwTTJpoQ  ipvxv,  v  tov  'Addfi  yv,  was  one  of  the  fifteen  heresies  im- 
puted to  Origen,  and  denied  by  his  apologist  (Fhotius,  Bibliothec.  cod.  cxvii. 
p.  296  [p.  92,  edit.  Bekk.]).  Some  of  the  Rabbies  attribute  one  and  the  same  soul 
to  the  persons  of  Adam,  David,  and  the  Messiah. 


CH.XLVIL]     CHRIST  A  PURE  GOD  TO  THE  DOCET^E.  635 

II.  The  seeds  of  the  faith,  which  had  slowly  arisen  in  the 
rocky  and  ungrateful  soil  of  Judae,  were  transplanted,  in  full 

maturity,  to  the  happier  climes  of  the  Gentiles ; 
God  to  the      and  the  strangers  of  Rome  or  Asia,  who  never  be- 

held  the  manhood,  were  the  more  readily  disposed 
to  embrace  the  divinity,  of  Christ.  The  polytheist  and  the 
philosopher,  the  Greek  and  the  barbarian,  were  alike  accus- 
tomed to  conceive  a  long  succession,  an  infinite  chain  of  an- 
gels, or  demons,  or  deities,  or  eons,  or  emanations,  issuing 
from  the  throne  of  light.  Nor  could  it  seem  strange  or  in- 
credible that  the  first  of  these  eons,  the  Logos,  or  Word  of  God, 
of  the  same  substance  with  the  Father,  should  descend  upon 
earth,  to  deliver  the  human  race  from  vice  and  error,  and  to 
conduct  them  in  the  paths  of  life  and  immortality.  But  the 
prevailing  doctrine  of  the  eternity  and  inherent  pravity  of 
matter  infected  the  primitive  churches  of  the  East.  Many 
among  the  Gentile  proselytes  refused  to  believe  that  a  celes- 
tial spirit,  an  undivided  portion  of  the  first  essence,  had  been 
personally  united  with  a  mass  of  impure  and  contaminated 
flesh :  and,  in  their  zeal  for  the  divinity,  they  piously  abjured 
the  humanity,  of  Christ.  While  his  blood  was  still  recent  on. 
Mount  Calvary,10  the  Docetce,  a  numerous  and  learned  sect 
of  Asiatics,  invented  the  fantastic  system,  which  was  after- 
wards propagated  by  the  Marcionites,  the  Manichseans,  and 
the  various  names  of  the  Gnostic  heresy."  They  denied  the 
truth  and  authenticity  of  the  gospels,  as  far  as  they  relate  the 

10  "  Apostolis  adhuc  in  seculo  superstitibus,  apud  Judseam  Christi  sanguine  re- 
cente,  Phantasma  domini  corpus  asserebatur  "  (Hieronym.  advers.  Lucifer,  c.  8). 
The  epistle  of  Ignatius  to  the  Smyrnaeans,  and  even  the  Gospel  according  to  St. 
John,  are  levelled  against  the  growing  error  of  the  Docetse,  who  had  obtained  too 
much  credit  in  the  world  (1  John  iv.  1-5). 

11  About  the  year  200  of  the  Christian  era,  Irenasus  and  Hippolytus  refuted  the 
thirty-two  sects,  rfjc  \psvSwvifiov  yvwoiwc,  which  had  multiplied  to  fourscore  in 
the  time  of  Epiphanius  (Phot.  Biblioth.  cod.  cxx.  cxxi.  cxxii).  The  five  books  of 
Irenseus  exist  only  in  barbarous  Latin ;  but  the  original  might  perhaps  be  found 
in  some  monastery  of  Greece.* 


*  The  recently  discovered  work,  "The  Refutation  of  all  Heresies"  (Kara  iraaibv 
dipkoiuv  tKtyxoo),  which  was  published  for  the  first  time  at  Oxford  in  1851,  under 
the  name  of  Origen,  is  probably  the  long-lost  work  of  Hippolytus.  See  Bunsen, 
Hippolytus  and  his  Age,  1852. — S. 


636  DOCETIC  NOTION  OF  THE  [Ch.  XLVIL 

conception  of  Mary,  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  the  thirty  years 
that  preceded  the  exercise  of  his  ministry.  He  first  appeared 
on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  in  the  form  of  perfect  manhood ; 
but  it  was  a  form  only,  and  not  a  substance ;  a  human  figure 
created  by  the  hand  of  Omnipotence  to  imitate  the  faculties 
and  actions  of  a  man,  and  to  impose  a  perpetual  illusion  on 
the  senses  of  his  friends  and  enemies.  Articulate  sounds  vi- 
brated on  the  ears  of  the  disciples ;  but  the  image  which  was 
impressed  on  their  optic  nerve  eluded  the  more  stubborn  evi- 
dence of  the  touch ;  and  they  enjoyed  the  spiritual,  not  the 
corporeal,  presence  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  rage  of  the  Jews 
was  idly  wasted  against  an  impassive  phantom ;  and  the  mys- 
tic scenes  of  the  passion  and  death,  the  resurrection  and  ascen- 
sion of  Christ,  were  represented  on  the  theatre  of  Jerusalem 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  If  it  were  urged  that  such  ideal 
mimicry,  such  incessant  deception,  was  unworthy  of  the  God 
of  truth,  the  Docetse  agreed  with  too  many  of  their  orthodox 
brethren  in  the  justification  of  pious  falsehood.  In  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Gnostics  the  Jehovah  of  Israel,  the  Creator  of  this 
lower  world,  was  a  rebellious,  or  at  least  an  ignorant,  spirit. 
The  Son  of  God  descended  upon  earth  to  abolish  his  tem- 
ple and  his  law ;  and,  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  salutary 
end,  he  dexterously  transferred  to  his  own  person  the  hope 
and  prediction  of  a  temporal  Messiah. 

One  of  the  most  subtle  disputants  of  the  Manichaean  school 
has  pressed  the  danger  and  indecency  of  supposing  that  the 
God  of  the  Christians,  in  the  state  of  a  human 
rnptlbie  "  foetus,  emerged  at  the  end  of  nine  months  from  a 
female  womb.  The  pious  horror  of  his  antagonists 
provoked  them  to  disclaim  all  sensual  circumstances  of  con- 
ception and  delivery;  to  maintain  that  the  divinity  passed 
through  Mary  like  a  sunbeam  through  a  plate  of  glass ;  and 
to  assert  that  the  seal  of  her  virginity  remained  unbroken 
even  at  the  moment  when  she  became  the  mother  of  Christ. 
But  the  rashness  of  these  concessions  has  encouraged  a  milder 
sentiment  of  those  Docetae  who  taught,  not  that  Christ  was 
a  phantom,  but  that  he  was  clothed  with  an  impassible  and 
incorruptible  body.     Such,  indeed,  in  the  more  orthodox  ays* 


Ca.XLVII.1        INCORRUPTIBLE  BODY  OF  CHRIST.  637 

tern,  lie  lias  acquired  since  his  resurrection,  and  such  he  must 
have  always  possessed,  if  it  were  capable  of  pervading,  with- 
out resistance  or  injury,  the  density  of  intermediate  matter. 
Devoid  of  its  most  essential  properties,  it  might  be  exempt 
from  the  attributes  and  infirmities  of  the  flesh.  A  foetus  that 
could  increase  from  an  invisible  point  to  its  full  maturity ;  a 
child  that  could  attain  the  stature  of  perfect  manhood,  with- 
out deriving  any  nourishment  from  the  ordinary  sources, 
might  continue  to  exist  without  repairing  a  daily  waste  by  a 
daily  supply  of  external  matter.  Jesus  might  share  the  re- 
pasts of  his  disciples  without  being  subject  to  the  calls  of 
thirst  or  hunger ;  and  his  virgin  purity  was  never  sullied  by 
the  involuntary  stains  of  sensual  concupiscence.  Of  a  body 
thus  singularly  constituted,  a  question  would  arise,  by  what 
means  and  of  what  materials  it  was  originally  framed ;  and 
our  sounder  theology  is  startled  by  an  answer  which  was  not 
peculiar  to  the  Gnostics,  that  both  the  form  and  the  substance 
proceeded  from  the  divine  essence.  The  idea  of  pure  and 
absolute  spirit  is  a  refinement  of  modern  philosophy:  the 
incorporeal  essence,  ascribed  by  the  ancients  to  human  souls, 
celestial  beings,  and  even  the  Deity  himself,  does  not  exclude 
the  notion  of  extended  space ;  and  their  imagination  was  sat- 
isfied with  a  subtle  nature  of  air,  or  fire,  or  ether,  incompara- 
bly more  perfect  than  the  grossness  of  the  material  world. 
If  we  define  the  place,  we  must  describe  the  figure,  of  the 
Deity.  Our  experience,  perhaps  our  vanity,  represents  the 
powers  of  reason  and  virtue  under  a  human  form.  The  An- 
thropomorphites,  who  swarmed  among  the  monks  of  Egypt 
and  the  Catholics  of  Africa,  could  produce  the  express  dec- 
laration of  Scripture,  that  man  was  made  after  the  image  of 
hi3  Creator.12     The  venerable  Serapion,  one  of  the  saints  of 


19  The  pilgrim  Cassian,  who  visited  Egypt  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century, 
observes  and  laments  the  reign  of  anthropomorphism  among  the  monks,  who  were 
not  conscious  that  they  embraced  the  system  of  Epicurus  (Cicero,  De  Nat.  Deorum, 
i.  18,  49).  "  Ab  universo  propemodum  genere  monarchorum,  qui  per  totam  pro- 
vinciam  Egypti  morabantur,  pro  simplicitatis  errore  susceptum  est,  ut  e  contrario 
memoratum  pontificem  {Theophilus)  velut  haeresi  gravissima  depravatum, pars  max- 
ima seniorum  ab  universo  fraternitatis  corpora  deeerneret  detestandum  "  (Ca 


638  CHEIST'S  DOUBLE  NATUEE.  [Ch.  XLVTL 

the  Nitrian  desert,  relinquished,  with  many  a  tear,  his  darling 
prejudice ;  and  bewailed,  like  an  infant,  his  unlucky  conver- 
sion, which  had  stolen  away  his  God,  and  left  his  mind  with- 
out any  visible  object  of  faith  or  devotion.13 

III.  Sucli  were  the  fleeting  shadows  of  the  Docetse.     A 

more  substantial,  though  less  simple,  hypothesis  was  contrived 

by  Cerinthus  of  Asia,14  who  dared  to  oppose  the 

nature  of       last  of  the  apostles.     Placed  on  the  confines  of  the 

Cerinthus.  *; 

Jewish  and  Gentile  world,  he  labored  to  reconcile 
the  Gnostic  with  the  Ebionite,  by  confessing  in  the  same 
Messiah  the  supernatural  union  of  a  man  and  a  God ;  and 
this  mystic  doctrine  was  adopted  with,  many  fanciful  im- 
provements by  Carpocrates,  Basilides,  and  Valentine,15  the 
heretics  of  the  Egyptian  school.  In  their  eyes  Jestts  of  Naz- 
areth was  a  mere  mortal,  the  legitimate  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary:  but  he  was  the  best  and  wisest  of  the  human  race, 
selected  as  the  worthy  instrument  to  restore  upon  earth  the 

Collation,  x.  1).  As  long  as  St.  Augustine  remained  a  Manichsean,  he  was  scan- 
dalized by  the  anthropomorphism  of  the  vulgar  Catholics. 

13  "  Ita  est  in  oratione  senex  mente  confusus,  eo  quod  illam  av9po)Tr6fiop^ov  ima- 
ginem  Deitatis,  quam  proponere  sibi  in  oratione  consueverat,  aboleri  de  suo  corda 
sentiret,  ut  in  amarissimos  fletus,  crebrosque  singultus  repente  prorumpens,  in  ter- 
ram  prostratus,  cum  ejuhiiu  validissimo  proclamaret ;  '  Heu  me  miserum!  tule- 
runt  a  me  Deum  menm,  et  quem  nunc  teneam  non  habeo,  vel  quern  adorem,  aut 
interpellam  jam  nescio ' :'  (Cassian,  Collat.  x.  2). 

14  St.  John  and  Cerinthus  (a.d.  80,  Cleric.  Hist.  Eccles.  p.  493)  accidentally  met 
in  the  public  bath  of  Ephesus  ;  but  the  apostle  fled  from  the  heretic  lest  the  build- 
ing should  tumble  on  their  heads.  This  foolish  story,  reprobated  by  Dr.  Middle- 
ton  (Miscellaneous  Works,  vol.  ii.),  is  related,  however,  by  Irenaeus  (iii.  3),  on  the 
evidence  of  Polycarp,  and  was  probably  suited  to  the  time  and  residence  of  Cerin- 
thus. The  obsolete,  yet  probably  the  true,  reading  of  1  John  iv.  3 — o  Xvti  ror 
'Irjaovv — alludes  to  the  double  nature  of  that  primitive  heretic.5 

15  The  Valentinians  embraced  a  complex  and  almost  incoherent  system.  1,. 
Both  Christ  and  Jesus  were  eons,  though  of  different  degrees ;  the  one  acting 
as  the  rational  soul,  the  other  as  the  divine  spirit  of  the  Saviour.  2.  At  the  time 
of  the  passion  they  both  retired,  and  left  only  a  sensitive  soul  and  a  human  body. 
3.  Even  that  body  was  ethereal,  and  perhaps  apparent. — Such  are  the  laborious 
conclusions  of  Mosheim.  But  I  much  doubt  whether  the  Latin  translator  under- 
stood Irenaeus,  and  whether  Irenasus  and  the  Valentinians  understood  themselves. 


■  Griesbach  asserts  that  all  the  Greek  MSS.,  all  the  translators,  and  all  the  Greels 
fathers,  support  the  common  rending.     Nov.  Test,  in  loc. — M. 


Ch.XLVII.]  his  divine  incarnation.  639 

worship  of  the  true  and  supreme  Deity.  When  he  was  bap- 
tized in  the  Jordan,  the  Cueist,  the  first  of  the  eons,  the  Son 
of  God  himself,  descended  on  Jesus  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  to 
inhabit  his  mind  and  direct  his  actions  during  the  allotted  pe- 
riod of  his  ministry.  When  the  Messiah  was  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  the  Jews,  the  Christ,  an  immortal  and  impassi- 
ble being,  forsook  his  earthly  tabernacle,  flew  back  to  the  pie- 
roma  or  world  of  spirits,  and  left  the  solitary  Jesus  to  suffer, 
to  complain,  and  to  expire.  But  the  justice  and  generosity  of 
such  a  desertion  are  strongly  questionable ;  and  the  fate  of 
an  innocent  martyr,  at  first  impelled,  and  at  length  abandon- 
ed, by  his  divine  companion,  might  provoke  the  pity  and  in- 
dignation of  the  profane.  Their  murmurs  were  variously  si- 
lenced by  the  sectaries  who  espoused  and  modified  the  double 
system  of  Cerinthus.  It  was  alleged  that,  when  Jesus  was 
nailed  to  the  cross,  he  was  endowed  with  a  miraculous  apa- 
thy of  mind  and  body,  which  rendered  him  insensible  of  his 
apparent  sufferings.  It  was  affirmed  that  these  momentary, 
though  real,  pangs  would  be  abundantly  repaid  by  the  tempo- 
ral reign  of  a  thousand  years  reserved  for  the  Messiah  in  his 
kingdom  of  the  new  Jerusalem.  It  was  insinuated  that  if 
he  suffered,  he  deserved  to  suffer;  that  human  nature  is  nev- 
er absolutely  perfect ;  and  that  the  cross  and  passion  might 
serve  to  expiate  the  venial  transgressions  of  the  son  of  Jo- 
seph, before  his  mysterious  union  with  the  Son  of  God.18 

IY.  All  those  who  believe  the  immateriality  of  the  soul,  a 
specious  and  noble  tenet,  must  confess,  from  their  present  ex- 
perience, the  incomprehensible  union  of  mind  and 
carnation  of  matter.  A  similar  union  is  not  inconsistent  with  a 
much  higher,  or  even  with  the  highest,  degree  of 
mental  faculties ;  and  the  incarnation  of  an  eon  or  archangel, 
the  most  perfect  of  created  spirits,  does  not  involve  any  posi- 

!6  The  heretics  ahused  the  passionate  exclamation  of,  "  My  God,  my  God !  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  Rousseau,  who  has  drawn  an  eloquent  but  indecent  par- 
allel between  Christ  and  Socrates,  forgets  that  not  a  word  of  impatience  or  despair 
escaped  from  the  mouth  of  the  dying  philosopher.  In  the  Messiah  such  senti- 
ments could  be  only  apparent ;  and  such  ill-sounding  words  are  properly  explain? 
ed  as  the  application  of  a  psalm  and  prophecy. 


640  CHRIST'S  DIVINE  INCARNATION.  [CH.XLVIL 

tive  contradiction  or  absurdity.  In  the  age  of  religious  free- 
dom, which  was  determined  by  the  council  of  Nice,  the  dig- 
nity of  Christ  was  measured  by  private  judgment  according 
to  the  indefinite  rule  of  Scripture,  or  reason,  or  tradition. 
But  when  his  pure  and  proper  divinity  had  been  established 
on  the  ruins  of  Arianism,  the  faith  of  the  Catholics  trembled 
on  the  edge  of  a  precipice  where  it  was  impossible  to  recede, 
dangerous  to  stand,  dreadful  to  fall ;  and  the  manifold  incon- 
veniences of  their  creed  were  aggravated  by  the  sublime  char- 
acter of  their  theology.  They  hesitated  to  pronounce — that 
God  himself,  the  second  person  of  an  equal  and  consubstan- 
tial  trinity,  was  manifested  in  the  flesh  ;17  that  a  being  who 
pervades  the  universe  had  been  confined  in  the  womb  of 
Mary ;  that  his  eternal  duration  had  been  marked  by  the  days, 
and  months,  and  years  of  human  existence ;  that  the  Almighty 
had  been  scourged  and  crucified ;  that  his  impassible  essence 
had  felt  pain  and  anguish ;  that  his  omniscience  was  not  ex- 
empt from  ignorance ;  and  that  the  source  of  life  and  im- 
mortality expired  on  Mount  Calvary.  These  alarming  conse- 
quences were  affirmed  with  unblushing  simplicity  by  Apolli- 
naris,18  Bishop  of  Laodicea,  and  one  of  the  luminaries  of  the 

17  This  strong  expression  might  be  justified  by  the  language  of  St.  Paul  (1  Tim. 
iii.  16);  but  we  are  deceived  by  our  modern  Bibles.  The  word  8a  (which)  was 
altered  to  Beoq  (God)  at  Constantinople  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century: 
the  true  reading,  which  is  visible  in  the  Latin  and  Syriac  versions,  still  exists  in 
the  reasoning  of  the  Greek  as  well  as  of  the  Latin  fathers ;  and  this  fraud,  with 
that  of  the  three  witnesses  of  St.  John,  is  admirably  detected  by  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton. (See  his  two  letters  translated  by  M.  de  Missy,  in  the  Journal  Britannique, 
torn.  xv.  p.  148-190,  351-390.)  I  have  weighed  the  arguments,  and  may  yield  to 
the  authority  of  the  first  of  philosophers,  who  was  deeply  skilled  in  critical  and 
theological  studies. 

18  For  Apollinaris  and  his  sect,  see  Socrates,  1.  ii.  c.  46,  1.  iii.  c.  16 ;  Sozomen, 
1.  v.  c.  18, 1.  vi.  c.  25,  27 ;  Theodoret,  1.  v.  3,  10, 11 ;  Tillemont,  Memoires  Eccle'- 
siastiques,  torn.  vii.  p.  602-638 ;  Not.,  p.  789-794,  in  4to,  Venise,  1732.  The 
contemporary  saints  always  mention  the  Bishop  of  Laodicea  as  a  friend  and  broth- 
er. The  style  of  the  more  recent  historians  is  harsh  and  hostile ;  yet  Philostor- 
gius  compares  him  (1.  viii.  c.  11-15)  to  Basil  and  Gregory. 


*  It  should  be  6g.  Griesbach  in  loc.  The  weight  of  authority  is  so  much 
against  the  common  reading  on  both  these  points,  that  they  are  no  longer  urged 
by  prudent  controversialists.  Would  Gibbon's  deference  for  the  first  of  phiioso* 
pKvs  have  extended  to  all  his  theological  conclusions  ? — M. 


CH.XLVIL]  CHRIST'S  DIVINE  INCARNATION.  641 

Church.  The  son  of  a  learned  grammarian,  he  was  skilled  in 
all  the  sciences  of  Greece ;  eloquence,  erudition,  and  philoso- 
phy, conspicuous  in  the  volumes  of  Apollinaris,  were  humbly 
devoted  to  the  service  of  religion.  The  worthy  friend  of 
Athanasius,  the  worthy  antagonist  of  Julian,  he  bravely  wres- 
tled with  the  Arians  and  Polytheists,  and,  though  he  affected 
the  rigor  of  geometrical  demonstration,  his  commentaries  re 
vealed  the  literal  and  allegorical  sense  of  the  Scriptures.  A 
mystery  which  had  long  floated  in  the  looseness  of  popular 
belief  was  defined  by  his  perverse  diligence  in  a  technical 
form ;  and  he  first  proclaimed  the  memorable  words,  "  One 
incarnate  nature  of  Christ,"  which  are  still  re-echoed  with 
hostile  clamors  in  the  churches  of  Asia,  Egypt,  and  ^Ethiopia. 
He  taught  that  the  Godhead  was  united  or  mingled  with  the 
body  of  a  man  ;  and  that  the  Logos,  the  eternal  wisdom,  sup- 
plied in  the  flesh  the  place  and  office  of  a  human  soul.  Yet, 
as  the  profound  doctor  had  been  terrified  at  his  own  rashness, 
Apollinaris  was  heard  to  mutter  some  faint  accents  of  excuse 
and  explanation.  He  acquiesced  in  the  old  distinction  of  the 
Greek  philosophers  between  the  rational  and  sensitive  soul 
of  man ;  that  he  might  reserve  the  Logos  for  intellectual  func- 
tions, and  employ  the  subordinate  human  principle  in  the 
meaner  actions  of  animal  life.  "With  the  moderate  Docetae 
he  revered  Mary  as  the  spiritual,  rather  than  as  the  carnal, 
mother  of  Christ,  whose  body  either  came  from  heaven,  im- 
passible and  incorruptible,  or  was  absorbed,  and,  as  it  were, 
transformed,  into  the  essence  of  the  Deity.  The  system  of 
Apollinaris  was  strenuously  encountered  by  the  Asiatic  and 
Syrian  divines,  whose  schools  are  honored  by  the  names  of 
Basil,  Gregory,  and  Chrysostom,  and  tainted  by  those  of  Dio- 
dorus,  Theodore,  and  Nestorius.  But  the  person  of  the  aged 
Bishop  of  Laodicea,  his  character  and  dignity,  remained  invi- 
olate ;  and  his  rivals,  since  we  may  not  suspect  them  of  the 
weakness  of  toleration,  were  astonished,  perhaps,  by  the  novel- 
ty of  the  argument,  and  diffident  of  the  final  sentence  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  Her  judgment  at  length  inclined  in  their 
favor;  the  heresy  of  Apollinaris  was  condemned,  and  the 
separate  congregations  of  his  disciples  were  proscribed  by 
IV.— 41 


642    OETHODOX  CONSENT  AND  VERBAL  DISPUTES.  [Ch.  XLVT1 

the  imperial  laws.  But  his  principles  were  secretly  enter* 
tained  in  the  monasteries  of  Egypt,  and  his  enemies  felt  the 
hatred  of  Theophilus  and  Cyril,  the  successive  patriarchs  of 
Alexandria. 

Y.  The  grovelling  Ebionite  and  the  fantastic  Docetse  were 
rejected  and  forgotten :  the  recent  zeal  against  the  errors  of 
v. orthodox  Apollinaris  reduced  the  Catholics  to  a  seeming 
ve'rbfi"dias-d  agreement  with  the  double  nature  of  Ceriuthus. 
imtes.  £>ut  instead,  of  a  temporary  and  occasional  alliance, 

they  established,  and  we  still  embrace,  the  substantial,  indissol- 
uble, and  everlasting  union  of  a  perfect  God  with  a  perfect 
man,  of  the  second  person  of  the  trinity  with  a  reasonable 
soul  and  human  flesh.  In  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century 
the  tmity  of  the  two  natures  was  the  prevailing  doctrine  of 
the  Church.  On  all  sides  it  was  confessed  that  the  mode  of 
their  co-existence  could  neither  be  represented  by  our  ideas 
nor  expressed  by  onr  language.  Yet  a  secret  and  incurable 
discord  was  cherished  between  those  who  were  most  appre- 
hensive of  confounding,  and  those  who  were  most  fearful  of 
separating,  the  divinity  and  the  humanity  of  Christ.  Impel- 
led by  religious  frenzy,  they  fled  with  adverse  haste  from  the 
error  which  they  mutually  deemed  most  destructive,  of  truth 
and  salvation.  On  either  hand  they  were  anxious  to  guard, 
they  were  jealous  to  defend,  the  union  and  the  distinction  of 
the  two  natures,  and  to  invent  such  forms  of  speech,  such 
symbols  of  doctrine,  as  were  least  susceptible  of  doubt  or  am- 
biguity. The  poverty  of  ideas  and  language  tempted  them 
to  ransack  art  and  nature  for  every  possible  comparison,  and 
each  comparison  misled  their  fancy  in  the  explanation  of  an 
incomparable  mystery.  In  the  polemic  microscope  an  atom 
is  enlarged  to  a  monster,  and  each  party  was  skilful  to  exag- 
gerate the  absurd  or  impious  conclusions  that  might  be  ex- 
torted from  the  principles  of  their  adversaries.  To  escape 
from  each  other  they  wandered  through  many  a  dark  and 
devious  thicket,  till  they  were  astonished  by  the  horrid  phan- 
toms of  Cerinthus  and  Apollinaris,  who  guarded  the  opposite 
issues  of  the  theological  labyrinth.  As  soon  as  they  beheld 
the  twilight  of  sense  and  heresy,  they  started,  measured  bac£ 


A.D.  412-444.]     CYRIL,  PATRIARCH  OF  ALEXANDRIA.  643 

their  steps,  and  were  again  involved  in  the  gloom  of  impene- 
trable orthodoxy.  To  purge  themselves  from  the  guilt  or  re- 
proach of  damnable  error,  they  disavowed  their  consequences, 
explained  their  principles,  excused  their  indiscretions,  and 
unanimously  pronounced  the  sounds  of  concord  and  faith. 
Yet  a  latent  and  almost  invisible  spark  still  lurked  among  the 
embers  of  controversy :  by  the  breath  of  prejudice  and  pas- 
sion it  was  quickly  kindled  to  a  mighty  name,  and  the  verbal 
disputes19  of  the  Oriental  sects  have  shaken  the  pillars  of  the 
Church  and  State. 

The  name  of  Ctkil  of  Alexandria  is  famous  in  controver- 
sial story,  and  the  title  of  saint  is  a  mark  that  his  opinions 
and  his  party  have  finally  prevailed.     In  the  house 
triarc'hof       of  his  uncle,  the  Archbishop  Theophilus,  he  im- 

Alexandria.       ,.,,-■,  -,      -,         t  /.  i  -i    -i         •    • 

a.d.412,  bibed  the  orthodox  lessons  of  zeal  and  dominion, 
a.d.444,  and  five  years  of  his  youth  were  profitably  spent 
in  the  adjacent  monasteries  of  Mtria.  Under  the 
tuition  of  the  Abbot  Serapion,  he  applied  himself  to  ecclesias- 
tical studies  with  such  indefatigable  ardor,  that  in  the  course 
of  one  sleepless  night  he  has  perused  the  four  Gospels,  the 
Catholic  Epistles,  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans.  Origen  he 
detested;  but  the  writings  of  Clemens  and  Dionysius,  of 
Athanasius  and  Basil,  were  continually  in  his  hands :  by  the 
theory  and  practice  of  dispute,  his  faith  was  confirmed  and 
his  wit  was  sharpened ;  he  extended  round  his  cell  the  cob- 
webs of  scholastic  theology,  and  meditated  the  works  of  alle- 
gory and  metaphysics,  whose  remains,  in  seven  verbose  folios, 
now  peaceably  slumber  by  the  side  of  their  rivals.20     Cyrii 

19  I  appeal  to  the  confession  of  two  Oriental  prelates,  Gregory  Abulpharagius, 
the  Jacobite  primate  of  the  East,  and  Elias,  the  Nestorian  metropolitan  of  Damas- 
cus (see  Asseman,  Bibliothec.  Oriental,  torn.  ii.  p.  291 ;  torn.  iii.  p.  514,  etc.),  that 
the  Melchites,  Jacobites,  Nestorians,  etc.,  agree  in  the  doctrine,  and  differ  only  in 
the  expression.  Our  most  learned  and  rational  divines — Basnage,  Le  Clerc,  Beau- 
sobre,  La  Croze,  Mosheim,  Jablonski — are  inclined  to  favor  this  charitable  judg- 
ment ;  but  the  zeal  of  Petavius  is  loud  and  angry,  and  the  moderation  of  Dupin 
is  conveyed  in  a  whisper. 

20  La  Croze  (Hist,  du  Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  24)  avows  his  con- 
tempt for  the  genius  and  writings  of  Cyril — "  De  tous  les  ouvrages  des  auciens, 
il  y  en  a  peu  qu'on  Use  avec  moins  d'utilite :"  and  Dupin  (Bibliotheque  Eeelesias* 
tique,  torn.  iv.  p.  42-52),  iu  words  of  respect,  teaches  us  to  despise  them. 


644  TYRANNY  OF  CYRIL.  [Ch.  XLVII. 

prayed  and  fasted  in  the  desert,  but  his  thoughts  (it  is  the  re- 
proach of  a  friend21)  were  still  fixed  on  the  world ;  and  the 
call  of  Theophilus.  who  summoned  him  to  the  tumult  of  cit- 
ies and  synods,  was  too  readily  obeyed  by  the  aspiring  her- 
mit. With  the  approbation  of  his  uncle,  he  assumed  the 
office  and  acquired  the  fame  of  a  popular  preacher.  His 
comely  person  adorned  the  pulpit ;  the  harmony  of  his  voice 
resounded  in  the  cathedral ;  his  friends  were  stationed  to  lead 
or  second  the  applause  of  the  congregation  ;M  and  the  hasty 
notes  of  the  scribes  preserved  his  discourses,  which,  in  their 
effect,  though  not  in  their  composition,  might  be  compared 
with  those  of  the  Athenian  orators.  The  death  of  Theoph- 
ilus expanded  and  realized  the  hopes  of  his  nephew.  The 
clergy  of  Alexandria  was  divided ;  the  soldiers  and  their  gen- 
eral supported  the  claims  of  the  archdeacon;  but  a  resistless 
multitude,  with  voices  and  with  hands,  asserted  the  cause  of 
their  favorite ;  and  after  a  period  of  thirty-nine  years  Cyril 
was  seated  on  the  throne  of  Athanasius." 

The  prize  was  not  unworthy  of  his  ambition.     At  a  dis- 
tance from  the  court,  and  at  the  head  of  an  immense  capital, 
the  Patriarch,  as  he  was  now  styled,  of  Alexandria 

His  tyranny.  in  -i      i  -i  1        • 

a.u.413,414,  had  gradually  usurped  the  state  and  authority  of  a 
civil  magistrate.  The  public  and  private  charities 
of  the  city  were  managed  by  his  discretion  ;  his  voice  in- 
flamed or  appeased  the  passions  of  the  multitude :  his  com- 
mands were  blindly  obeyed  by  his  numerous  and  fanatic 
parabolani,™  familiarized  in  their  daily  office  with  scenes  of 

21  Of  Isidore  of  Pelusium  (1.  i.  Epist.  25,  p.  8).  As  the  letter  is  not  of  the  most 
creditable  sort,  Tillemont,  less  sincere  than  the  Bollandists,  affects  a  doubt  whether 
this  Cyril  is  the  nephew  of  Theophilus  (Mem.  Eccles.  torn.  xiv.  p.  268). 

22  A  grammarian  is  named  by  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  13)  Siairvpog  Sk  aKpoarrjg  ro& 
tiriGKOTrov  KvpLXkov  KaOsarujg,  icai  irspi  to  upbrovg  iv  ralg  diSaaKaXlaig  avrov  iyei- 
pav  rjv  oirovSaioTCtrog. 

23  See  the  youth  and  promotion  of  Cyril,  in  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  7)  and  Renaudot 
(Hist.  Patriarch.  Alexandrin.  p.  106, 108).  The  Abbe  Renaudot  drew  bis  mate- 
rials from  the  Arabic  history  of  Severus,  Bishop  of  Hermopolis  Magna,  or  Ash- 
munein,  in  the  tenth  century,  who  can  never  be  trusted,  unless  our  assent  is  ex- 
torted by  the  internal  evidence  of  facts. 

24  The  Parabolani  of  Alexandria  were  a  charitable  corporation,  instituted  dur- 
ing the  plague  of  Gallienus,  to  visit  the  sick  and  to  bury  the  dead.     They  gradu- 


a.d.  413-415.]  TYRANNY  OF  CYRIL.  645 

death ;  and  the  prefects  of  Egypt  were  awed  or  provoked 
by  the  temporal  power  of  these  Christian  pontiffs.  Ardent  in 
the  prosecution  of  heresy,  Cyril  auspiciously  opened  his  reign 
by  oppressing  the  Novatians,  the  most  innocent  and  harmless 
of  the  sectaries.  The  interdiction  of  their  religious  worship 
appeared  in  his  eyes  a  just  and  meritorious  act ;  and  he  con- 
fiscated their  holy  vessels,  without  apprehending  the  guilt  of 
sacrilege.  The  toleration,  and  even  the  privileges  of  the  Jews, 
who  had  multiplied  to  the  number  of  forty  thousand,  were 
secured  by  the  laws  of  the  Caesars  and  Ptolemies,  and  a  long 
prescription  of  seven  hundred  years  since  the  foundation  of 
Alexandria.  Without  any  legal  sentence,  without  any  royal 
mandate,  the  patriarch,  at  the  dawn  of  day,  led  a  seditious 
multitude  to  the  attack  of  the  synagogues.  Unarmed  and 
unprepared,  the  Jews  were  incapable  of  resistance ;  their 
houses  of  prayer  were  levelled  with  the  ground,  and  the  epis- 
copal warrior,  after  rewarding  his  troops  with  the  plunder  of 
their  goods,  expelled  from  the  city  the  remnant  of  the  unbe- 
lieving nation.  Perhaps  he  might  plead  the  insolence  of  their 
prosperity,  and  their  deadly  hatred  of  the  Christians,  whose 
blood  they  had  recently  shed  in  a  malicious  or  accidental 
tumult.  Such  crimes  would  have  deserved  the  animadver- 
sion of  the  magistrate;  but  in  this  promiscuous  outrage  the 
innocent  were  confounded  with  the  guilty,  and  Alexandria 
was  impoverished  by  the  loss  of  a  wealthy  and  industrious 
colony.  The  zeal  of  Cyril  exposed  him  to  the  penalties  of  the 
Julian  law;  but  in  a  feeble  government  and  a  superstitious 
age  he  was  secure  of  impunity,  and  even  of  praise.  Orestes 
complained  ;  but  his  just  complaints  were  too  quickly  for- 
gotten by  the  ministers  of  Theodosius,  and  too  deeply  remem- 
bered by  a  priest  who  affected  to  pardon,  and  continued  to 
hate,  the  Prgef ect  of  Egypt.  As  he  passed  through  the  streets 
his  chariot  was  assaulted  by  a  band  of  five  hundred  of  the 

ally  enlarged,  abused,  and  sold  the  privileges  of  their  order.  Their  outrageous 
conduct  during  the  reign  of  Cyril  provoked  the  emperor  to  deprive  the  patriarch 
of  their  nomination,  and  to  restrain  their  number  to  fire  or  six  hundred.  But 
these  restraints  were  transient  and  ineffectual.  See  the  Theodosian  Code,  1.  xvi. 
tit.  ii.  [leg.  42],  and  Tillemont,  Mem.  Eccle"s.  torn,  xiv,  p,  276-278. 


643  TYEANNY  OF  CYRIL.  tCH.XLVIL 

Nitrian  monks ;  his  guards  fled  from  the  wild  beasts  of  the 
desert ;  his  protestations  that  he  was  a  Christian  and  a  Cath- 
olic were  answered  by  a  volley  of  stones,  and  the  face  of  Ores- 
tes was  covered  with  blood.  The  loyal  citizens  of  Alexandria 
hastened  to  his  rescue ;  he  instantly  satisfied  his  justice  and 
revenge  against  the  monk  by  whose  hand  he  had  been  wound- 
ed, and  Ammonius  expired  under  the  rod  of  the  lictor.  At 
the  command  of  Cyril  his  body  was  raised  from  the  ground, 
and  transported  in  solemn  procession  to  the  cathedral ;  the 
name  of  Ammonius  was  changed  to  that  of  Thaumasius,  the 
wonderful  •  his  tomb  was  decorated  with  the  trophies  of  mar- 
tyrdom ;  and  the  patriarch  ascended  the  pulpit  to  celebrate 
the  magnanimity  of  an  assassin  and  a  rebel.  Such  honors 
might  incite  the  faithful  to  combat  and  die  under  the  banners 
of  the  saint ;  and  he  soon  prompted,  or  accepted,  the  sacrifice 
of  a  virgin,  who  professed  the  religion  of  the  Greeks,  and 
cultivated  the  friendship  of  Orestes.  Hypatia,  the  daughter 
of  Theon  the  mathematician,26  was  initiated  in  her  father's 
studies ;  her  learned  comments  have  elucidated  the  geometry 
of  Apollonius  and  Diophantus;  and  she  publicly  taught,  both 
at  Athens  and  Alexandria,  the  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle. In  the  bloom  of  beauty,  and  in  the  maturity  of  wis- 
dom, the  modest  maid  refused  her  lovers  and  instructed  her 
disciples ;  the  persons  most  illustrious  for  their  rank  or  merit 
were  impatient  to  visit  the  female  philosopher;  and  Cyril  be- 
held with  a  jealous  eye  the  gorgeous  train  of  horses  and  slaves 
who  crowded  the  door  of  her  academy.  A  rumor  was  spread 
among  the  Christians  that  the  daughter  of  Theon  was  the  only 
obstacle  to  the  reconciliation  of  the  prsefect  and  the  archbish- 
op ;  and  that  obstacle  was  speedily  removed.  On  a  fatal  day, 
in  the  holy  season  of  Lent,  Hypatia  was  torn  from  her  chariot, 


85  For  Theon  and  his  daughter  Hypatia,  see  Fabricius,  Bibliothec.  torn.  viii. 
p.  210,  211.  Her  article  in  the  Lexicon  of  Suidas  is  curious  and  original.  Hesy- 
chius  (Meursii  Opera,  torn.  vii.  p.  295,  296)  observes  that  she  was  persecuted  fiia 
T-qv  vTrtptaWovaav  oo<piav ;  and  an  epigram  in  the  Greek  Anthology  (1.  i.  c.  76, 
p.  159,  edit.  Brodasi)  celebrates  her  knowledge  and  eloquence.  She  is  honorably 
mentioned  (Epist.  10, 15, 16,  33-80,  124,  135,  153)  by  her  friend  and  disciple,  the 
philosophic  Bishop  Synesius. 


A.d.428.]   NESTORIUS,  PATRIARCH  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.         647 

stripped  naked,  dragged  to  the  church,  and  inhumanly  butch- 
ered by  the  hands  of  Peter  the  reader  and  a  troop  of  savage 
and  merciless  fanatics :  her  flesh  was  scraped  from  her  bones 
with  sharp  oyster-shells,28  a  and  her  quivering  limbs  were  de- 
livered to  the  flames.  The  just  progress  of  inquiry  and  pun- 
ishment was  stopped  by  seasonable  gifts ;  but  the  murder  of 
Hypatia  has  imprinted  an  indelible  stain  on  the  character  and 
religion  of  Cyril  of  Alexandria.27 

Superstition,  perhaps,  would  more  gently  expiate  the  blood 
of  a  virgin  than  the  banishment  of  a  saint ;  and  Cyril  had  ac- 
Nestorius,  companied  his  uncle  to  the  iniquitous  synod  of  the 
cou9t"uti-°f  Oak.  "When  the  memory  of  Chrysostom  was  re- 
Trxlfa,  stored  and  consecrated,  the  nephew  of  Theophilus, 
Apni  10.  at  £]ie  nea(j  0f  a  dying  faction,  still  maintained  the 
justice  of  his  sentence ;  nor  was  it  till  after  a  tedious  delay 
and  an  obstinate  resistance  that  he  yielded  to  the  consent  of 
the  Catholic  world.28  His  enmity  to  the  Byzantine  pontiffs29 
was  a  sense  of  interest,  not  a  sally  of  passion :  he  envied  their 
fortunate  station  in  the  sunshine  of  the  imperial  court ;  and 

86  'Oorp&Koig  aviiXov,  ical  fie\r]S6v  SiaffTraaavTec,  etc.  Oyster-shells  were  plen- 
tifully strewed  on  the  sea-beach  before  the  Csesareum.  I  may  therefore  prefer  the 
literal  sense  without  rejecting  the  metaphorical  version  of  tegulce,  tiles,  which  is 
used  by  M.  de  Valois.  I  am  ignorant,  and  the  assassins  were  probably  regard- 
less, whether  their  victim  was  yet  alive. 

21  These  exploits  of  St.  Cyril  are  recorded  by  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  13,  14,  15) ;  and 
the  most  reluctant  bigotry  is  compelled  to  copy  an  historian  who  coolly  styles  the 
murderers  of  Hypatia  dvdpeg  to  <ppovr)fxa  ivQtpnoi.  At  the  mention  of  that  injured 
name,  I  am  pleased  to  observe  a  blush  even  on  the  cheek  of  Baronius  (a.d.  415, 
No.  48). 

28  He  was  deaf  to  the  entreaties  of  Atticus  of  Constantinople,  and  of  Isidore  of 
Pelusium,  and  yielded  only  (if  we  may  believe  Nicephorus,  1.  xiv.  c.  18)  to  the  per- 
sonal intercession  of  the  Virgin.  Yet  in  his  last  years  lie  still  muttered  that  John 
Chrysostom  had  been  justly  condemned  (Tillemont,  Mem.  Eccle's.  torn.  xiv.  p.  278- 
282  ;  Baronius,  Annal.  Eccles.  a.d.  412,  No.  46-64). 

29  See  their  characters  in  the  history  of  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  25-28)  ;  their  power 
and  pretensions  in  the  huge  compilation  of  Thomassin  (Discipline  de  l'Eglise, 
torn.  i.  p.  80-91).  

*  There  is  no  authority  for  the  statement  that  "her  flesh  was  scraped  from  her 
bones  with  sharp  oyster-shells."  Gibbon  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  avnXov 
means  "killed."  Her  throat  was  probably  cut  with  an  oyster-shell.  The  deed 
was  sufficiently  atrocious  without  seeking  to  enhance  its  barbarity  by  fictitious  ad- 
ditions.    See  Notes  and  Queries,  vol.  i.  p.  391. — S. 


648,    NESTORIUS,  PATRIARCH  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  [Ch.XLVH. 

he  dreaded  their  upstart  ambition,  which  oppressed  the  metro- 
politans of  Europe  and  Asia,  invaded  the  provinces  of  An- 
tioch  and  Alexandria,  and  measured  their  diocese  by  the  lim- 
its of  the  empire.  The  long  moderation  of  Atticus,  the  mild 
usurper  of  the  throne  of  Chrysostom,  suspended  the  animosi- 
ties of  the  Eastern  patriarchs ;  but  Cyril  was  at  length  awaken- 
ed by  the  exaltation  of  a  rival  more  worthy  of  his  esteem  and 
hatred.  After  the  short  and  troubled  reign  of  Sisinnius, 
Bishop  of  Constantinople,  the  factions  of  the  clergy  and  peo- 
ple were  appeased  by  the  choice  of  the  emperor,  who  on  this 
occasion  consulted  the  voice  of  fame,  and  invited  the  merit 
of  a  stranger.  Nestorius,30  a  native  of  Germanicia,  and  a 
monk  of  Antioch,  was  recommended  by  the  austerity  of  his 
life  and  the  eloquence  of  his  sermons ;  but  the  first  homily 
which  he  preached  before  the  devout  Theodosius  betrayed 
the  acrimony  and  impatience  of  his  zeal.  "  Give  me,  0  Cae- 
sar!" he  exclaimed — "give  me  the  earth  purged  of  heretics, 
and  I  will  give  you  in  exchange  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Exterminate  with  me  the  heretics,  and  with  you  I  will  ex- 
terminate the  Persians."  On  the  fifth  day,  as  if  the  treaty 
had  been  already  signed,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  dis- 
covered, surprised,  and  attacked  a  secret  conventicle  of  the 
Arians ;  they  preferred  death  to  submission  ;  the  flames  that 
were  kindled  by  their  despair  soon  spread  to  the  neighbor- 
ing houses,  and  the  triumph  of  Nestorius  was  clouded  by  the 
name  of  incendiary.  On  either  side  of  the  Hellespont  his 
episcopal  vigor  imposed  a  rigid  formulary  of  faith  and  disci- 
pline— a  chronological  error  concerning  the  festival  of  Easter 
was  punished  as  an  offence  against  the  Church  and  State. 
Lydia  and  Caria,  Sardes  and  Miletus,  were  purified  with  the 
blood  of  the  obstinate  Quartodecimans ;  and  the  edict  of  the 
emperor,  or  rather  of  the  patriarch,  enumerates  three- and- 
twenty  degrees  and  denominations  in  the  guilt  and  punish- 
ment  of  heresy.31     But  the  sword  of  persecution  which  Kes- 

30  His  elevation  and  conduct  are  described  by  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  29, 31);  and  Mar- 
cellinus  seems  to  have  applied  the  "eloquentiaB  satis,  sapiential  parum,"  of'Sallust. 

31  Cod.  Theodos.  1.  xvi.  tit.  v.  leg.  65  ;  with  the  illustrations  of  Barorlius  (a.d. 
428,  No.  25,  etc.),  Godefroy  (ad  locum),  and  Pagi  Critica,  torn.  ii.  p.  208. 


A.D.  429-431.]  HIS  HERESY.  649 

tori  us  so  furiously  wielded  was  soon  turned  against  his  own 
breast.  Religion  was  the  pretence ;  but,  in  the  judgment  of 
a  contemporary  saint,  ambition  was  the  genuine  motive  of 
episcopal  warfare." 

In  the  Syrian  school  Nestorius  had  been  taught  to  abhor 
the  confusion  of  the  two  natures,  and  nicely  to  discriminate 
His  heresy.  tne  humanity  of  his  master  Christ  from  the  divin- 
A.D.425MM.  jty  of  the  Lord  jesu8«  The  Blessed  Virgin  he 
revered  as  the  mother  of  Christ,  but  his  ears  were  offended 
with  the  rash  and  recent  title  of  mother  of  God,34  which  had 
been  insensibly  adopted  since  the  origin  of  the  Arian  con- 
troversy. From  the  pulpit  of  Constantinople,  a  friend  of  the 
patriarch,  and  afterwards  the  patriarch  himself,  repeatedly 
preached  against  the  use,  or  the  abuse,  of  a  word35  unknown 
to  the  apostles,  unauthorized  by  the  Church,  and  which  could 
only  tend  to  alarm  the  timorous,  to  mislead  the  simple,  to 
amuse  the  profane,  and  to  justify,  by  a  seeming  resemblance, 
the  old  genealogy  of  Olympus."    In  his  calmer  moments 

83  Isidore  of  Pelusium  (1.  iv.  Epist.  57).  His  words  are  strong  and  scandalous— 
ti  Sav[ia%etg,  «  Kai  vvv  irzpi  irpayfia  &iiov  teal  Xoyov  KpsiTrov  &ia(p<Dvuv  Trpoairoi- 
ovvrai  inrb  <pi\apxiaQ  iKGaKyzvoptvoi.  Isidore  is  a  saint,  but  he  never  became  a 
bishop ;  and  I  half  suspect  that  the  pride  of  Diogenes  trampled  on  the  pride  of 
Plato. 

33  La  Croze  (Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  1.  p.  44-53  ;  Thesaurus  Epistolicus 
La  Crozianus,  torn.  iii.  p.  276-280)  has  detected  the  use  of  6  h<nr6rt]Q  and  6  KvpioQ 
'Irjaove,  which,  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  centuries,  discriminates  the  school  of 
Diodorus  of  Tarsus  and  his  Nestorian  disciples. 

34  Qiotokoq — Deipara:  as  in  zoology  we  familiarly  speak  of  oviparous  and  vi- 
viparous animals.  It  is  not  easy  to  fix  the  invention  of  this  word,  which  La  Croze 
(Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  16)  ascribes  to  Eusebius  of  Cassarea  and  the 
Arians.  The  orthodox  testimonies  are  produced  by  Cyril  and  Petavius  (Dogmat. 
Theolog.  torn.  v.  1.  v.  c.  15,  p.  254,  etc.) ;  but  the  veracity  of  the  saint  is  question- 
able, and  the  epithet  of  Seotokoq  so  easily  slides  from  tjje  margin  to  the  text  of  a 
Catholic  MS. 

35  Basnage,  in  his  Histoire  de  l'Eglise,  a  work  of  controversy  (torn.  i.  p.  505), 
justifies  the  mother,  by  the  blood,  of  God  (Acts  xx.  28,  with  Mill's  various  read- 
ings). But  the  Greek  MSS.  are  far  from  unanimous  «  and  the  primitive  style  of 
the  blood  of  Christ  is  preserved  in  the  Syriac  version,  even  in  those  copies  which 
were  used  by  the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas  on  the  coast  of  Malabar  (La  Croze, 
Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  347).  The  jealousy  of  the  Nestorians  and  Mo- 
nophysites  has  guarded  the  purity  of  their  text. 

38  The  pagans  of  Egypt  already  laughed  at  the  new  Cybele  of  the  Christians 


o50  HEKESY  OF  NESTOEIUS.  [Ch.  XLVU 

Kestorias  confessed  that  it  might  be  tolerated  or  excused  by 
th^  union  of  the  two  natures,  and  the  communication  of  their 
idioms  ;3T  but  he  was  exasperated  by  contradiction  to  disclaim 
the  worship  of  a  new-born,  an  infant  Deity,  to  draw  his  inad- 
equate similes  from  the  conjugal  or  civil  partnerships  of  life, 
and  to  describe  the  manhood  of  Christ  as  the  robe,  the  instru- 
ment, the  tabernacle  of  his  Godhead.  At  these  blasphemous 
sounds  the  pillars  of  the  sanctuary  were  shaken.  The  un- 
successful competitors  of  Nestorius  indulged  their  pious  or 
personal  resentment,  the  Byzantine  clergy  were  secretly  dis- 
pleased with  the  intrusion  of  a  stranger:  whatever  is  super- 
stitious or  absurd  might  claim  the  protection  of  the  monks; 
and  the  people  were  interested  in  the  glory  of  their  virgin  pa- 
troness.88 The  sermons  of  the  archbishop,  and  the  service  of 
the  altar,  were  disturbed  by  seditious  clamor ;  his  authority 
and  doctrine  were  renounced  by  separate  congregations;  ev- 
ery wind  scattered  round  the  empire  the  leaves  of  controver- 
sy; and  the  voice  of  the  combatants  on  a  sonorous  theatre  re- 
echoed in  the  cells  of  Palestine  and  Egypt.  It  was  the  duty 
of  Cyril  to  enlighten  the  zeal  and  ignorance  of  his  innumer- 
able monks :  in  the  school  of  Alexandria  he  had  imbibed  and 
professed  the  incarnation  of  one  nature ;  and  the  successor  of 
Athanasius  consulted  his  pride  and  ambition  when  he  rose  in 
arms  against  another  Arius,  more  formidable  and  more  guilty, 
on  the  second  throne  of  the  hierarchy.  After  a  short  corre- 
spondence, in  which  the  rival  prelates  disguised  their  hatred 
in  the  hollow  language  of  respect  and  charity,  the  Patriarch 
of  Alexandria  denounced  to  the  prince  and  people,  to  the 
East  and  to  the  West,  the  damnable  errors  of  the  Byzantine 
pontiff.     From  the  East,  more  especially  from  Antioch,  he 

(Isidor.  1.  i.  Epist.  54)  ;  a  letter  was  forged  in  the  name  of  Hypatia,  to  ridicule  the 
theology  of  her  assassin  (Synodicon,  c.  216,  in  iv.  torn.  Concil.  p.  484).  In  the  ar- 
ticle of  Nestorius,  Bayle  has  scattered  some  loose  philosophy  on  the  worship  of 
the  Virgin  Mary. 

37  The  avriSoaig  of  the  Greeks,  a  mutual  loan  or  transfer  of  the  idioms  or  prop, 
erties  of  each  nature  to  the  other — of  infinity  to  man,  passibility  to  God,  etc. 
Twelve  rules  on  this  nicest  of  subjects  compose  the  Theological  Grammar  of  Pe- 
tavius  (Dogmata  Theolog.  torn.  v.  I.  iv.  c.  1.4, 15,  p.  209,  etc.). 

88  See  Ducange,  C.  P.  Christiana,  1.  i.  p.  30,  etc 


,.D.  429-431.]  HERESY  OF  NESTORIUS.  651 

obtained  the  ambiguous  counsels  of  toleration  and  silence, 
which  were  addressed  to  both  parties  while  they  favored  the 
cause  of  Nestorius.  But  the  Vatican  received  with  open 
arms  the  messengers  of  Egypt.  The  vanity  of  Celestine  was 
flattered  by  the  appeal;  and  the  partial  version  of  a  monk 
decided  the  faith  of  the  pope,  who,  with  his  Latin  clergy,  was 
ignorant  of  the  language,  the  arts,  and  the  theology  of  the 
Greeks.  At  the  head  of  an  Italian  synod,  Celestine  weighed 
the  merits  of  the  cause,  approved  the  creed  of  Cyril,  con- 
demned the  sentiments  and  person  of  Nestorius,  degraded 
the  heretic  from  his  episcopal  dignity,  allowed  a  respite  of 
ten  days  for  recantation  and  penance,  and  delegated  to  his 
enemy  the  execution  of  this  rash  and  illegal  sentence.  But 
the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria,  whilst  he  darted  the  thunders  of 
a  god,  exposed  the  errors  and  passions  of  a  mortal ;  and  his 
twelve  anathemas39  still  torture  the  orthodox  slaves  who  adore 
the  memory  of  a  saint  without  forfeiting  their  allegiance  to 
the  Synod  of  Chalcedon.  These  bold  assertions  are  indelibly 
tinged  with  the  colors  of  the  Apollinarian  heresy ;  but  the 
serious,  and  perhaps  the  sincere,  professions  of  JNestorius  have 
satisfied  the  wiser  and  less  partial  theologians  of  the  present 
times.40 

Yet  neither  the  emperor  nor  the  primate  of  the  East  were 
disposed  to  obey  the  mandate  of  an  Italian  priest ;  and  a  syn- 
od of  the  Catholic,  or  rather  of  the  Greek,  Church  was  unan- 
imously demanded  as  the  sole  remedy  that  could  appease  or 
decide  this  ecclesiastical  quarrel."    Ephesus,  on  all  sides  acces- 

39  Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  913.  They  have  never  been  directly  approved  by  the 
Church  (Tillemout,  Mem.  Eccles.  torn.  xiv.  p.  368-372).  1  almost  pity  the  agony 
of  rage  and  sophistry  with  which  Petavius  seems  to  be  agitated  in  the  sixth  book 
of  his  Dogmata  Theologica. 

40  Such  as  the  rational  Basnage  (ad  torn.  i. ;  Variar.  Lection.  Canisii  in  Prs- 
fat.  c.  2,  p.  11-23)  and  La  Croze,  the  universal  scholar  (Chrisriauisme  des  Indes, 
torn.  i.  p.  16-20  ;  De  1  Ethiopie,  p.  26,  27  ;  Thesaur.  Epist.  p.  176,  etc.,  2S3,  285). 
His  free  sentence  is  confirmed  by  that  of  his  friends  Jablonski  (Thesaur.  Epist. 
torn.  i.  p.  193-201)  and  Mosheim  (idem,  p.  301 :  "Nestorium  crimine  caruisse  est 
et  mea  sententia");  and  three  more  respectable  judges  will  not  easily  be  found. 
Asseman,  a  learned  and  modest  slave,  can  hardly  discern  (Bibliothec.  Orient. 
torn.  iv.  p.  190-224)  the  guilt  and  error  of  the  Nestorians. 

41  The  origin  and  progress  of  the  Nestorian  controversy,  till  the  Synod  of  Eph- 


652  FIRST  COUNCIL  OF  EPHESUS.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

sibfo  by  eea  and  land,  was  chosen  for  the  place,  the  festival  of 
.    Pentecost  for  the  day,  of  the  meeting:;  a  writ  of 

First  council  3  ,  *  '        ,  .  &       , . ,  , 

of  Bphesus.     summons  was  despatched  to  each  metropolitan,  and 
jime-  '         a  guard  was  stationed  to  protect  and  confine  the  fa- 

October. 

thers  till  they  should  settle  the  mysteries  of  heaven 
and  the  faith  of  the  earth.  Nestorius  appeared  not  as  a  crimi- 
nal, but  as  a  judge;  he  depended  on  the  weight  rather  than  the 
number  of  his  prelates,  and  his  sturdy  slaves  from  the  baths 
of  Zeuxippus  were  armed  for  every  service  of  injury  or  de- 
fence. But  his  adversary  Cyril  was  more  powerful  in  the 
weapons  both  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit.  Disobedient  to 
the  letter,  or  at  least  to  the  meaning,  of  the  royal  summons, 
he  was  attended  by  fifty  Egyptian  bishops,  who  expected 
from  their  patriarch's  nod  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
He  had  contracted  an  intimate  alliance  with  Memnon,  Bishop 
of  Ephesus.  The  despotic  primate  of  Asia  disposed  of  the 
ready  succors  of  thirty  or  forty  episcopal  votes:  a  crowd  of 
peasants,  the  slaves  of  the  Church,  was  poured  into  the  city 
to  support  with  blows  and  clamors  a  metaphysical  argument ; 
and  the  people  zealously  asserted  the  honor  of  the  Virgin, 
whose  body  reposed  within  the  walls  of  Ephesus.43  The  fleet 
which  had  transported  Cyril  from  Alexandria  was  laden  with 
the  riches  of  Egypt ;  and  he  disembarked  a  numerous  body 
of  mariners,  slaves,  and  fanatics,  enlisted  with  blind  obedience 
under  the  banner  of  St.  Mark  and  the  mother  of  God.  The 
fathers,  and  even  the  guards,  of  the  council  were  awed  by 
this  martial  array;  the  adversaries  of  Cyril  and  Mary  were 


esus,  may  be  found  in  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  32),  Evagrius  (1.  i.  c.  1,  2),  Liberatus 
(Brev.  c.  1-4),  the  original  Acts  (Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  551-991,  edit.  Venice,  1728), 
the  Annals  of  Baronius  and  Pagi,  and  the  faithful  collections  of  Tillemont  (Mem. 
Ecclfe.  torn.  xiv.  p.  283-377). 

*2  The  Christians  of  the  four  first  centuries  were  ignorant  of  the  death  and 
bmial  of  Mary.  The  tradition  of  Ephesus  is  affirmed  by  the  synod  (h'9a  6  Srto- 
Xoyoc  'l(t)avvi]Q,Kal  t)  Storo/cog  vapQivoQ  r/  ayia  Mapia — Concil.  torn.  ill.  p.  1102); 
yet  it  has  been  superseded  by  the  claim  of  Jerusalem ;  and  her  empty  sepulchre, 
as  it  was  shown  to  the  pilgrims,  produced  the  fable  of  her  resurrection  and  as- 
sumption, in  which  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  have  piously  acquiesced.  Sea 
Baronius  (Annal.  Eccles.  a.».  48,  No.  6,  etc.)  and  Tillemont  (Mem.  Eccle's.  torn, 
i.  p.  467-477). 


A..D.  431.]  CONDEMNATION  OF  NESTORIUS.  653 

insulted  in  the  streets,  or  threatened  in  their  houses ;  his  elo- 
quence and  liberality  made  a  daily  increase  in  the  number  of 
his  adherents;  and  the  Egyptian  soon  computed  that  he  might 
command  the  attendance  and  the  voices  of  two  hundred  bish- 
ops.4* But  the  author  of  the  twelve  anathemas  foresaw  and 
dreaded  the  opposition  of  John  of  Antioch,  who,  with  a  small 
though  respectable  train  of  metropolitans  and  divines,  waa 
advancing  by  slow  journeys  from  the  distant  capital  of  the 
East.  Impatient  of  a  delay  which  he  stigmatized  as  volun- 
tary and  culpable,44  Cyril  announced  the  opening  of  the  syn- 
od sixteen  days  after  the  festival  of  Pentecost.  Nestorius, 
who  depended  on  the  near  approach  of  his  Eastern  friends, 
persisted,  like  his  predecessor  Chrysostom,  to  disclaim  the  ju- 
risdiction, and  to  disobey  the  summons,  of  his  enemies :  they 
hastened  his  trial,  and  his  accuser  presided  in  the  seat  of  judg- 
ment. Sixty-eight  bishops,  twenty-two  of  metropolitan  rank, 
defended  his  cause  by  a  modest  and  temperate  protest :  they 
were  excluded  from  the  councils  of  their  brethren.  Candid- 
ian,  in  the  emperor's  name,  requested  a  delay  of  four  days ; 
the  profane  magistrate  was  driven  with  outrage  and  insult 
condemna-  ^ rom  the  assembly  of  the  saints.  The  whole  of  this 
Nestodus.  momentous  transaction  was  crowded  into  the  com- 
June22.  pagg  0£  a  gummer's  dav  :  the  bishops  delivered  their 
separate  opinions  ;  but  the  uniformity  of  style  reveals  the  in- 
fluence or  the  hand  of  a  master,  who  has  been  accused  of  cor- 
rupting the  public  evidence  of  their  acts  and  subscriptions.46 

43  The  Acts  of  Chalcedon  (Concil.  torn.  iv.  p,  1405,  1408)  exhibit  a  lively  pict- 
ure of  the  blind,  obstinate  servitude  of  the  bishops  of  Egypt  to  their  patriarch. 

44  Civil  or  ecclesiastical  business  detained  the  bishops  at  Antioch  till  the  18th 
of  May.  Ephesus  was  at  the  distance  of  thirty  days'  journey ;  and  ten  days 
more  may  be  fairly  allowed  for  accidents  and  repose.  The  march  of  Xenophon 
over  the  same  ground  enumerates  above  260  parasangs  or  leagues;  and  this 
measure  might  be  illustrated  from  ancient  and  modern  itineraries,  if  I  knew  how 
to  compare  the  speed  of  an  army,  a  synod,  and  a  caravan.  John  of  Antioch  is 
reluctantly  acquitted  by  Tillemont  himself  (Me'm.  Eccle's.  torn.  xiv.  p.  388-389). 

45  MtfKpdfievov  fir)  Kara  to  Siov  ra  iv  'E<ptff(f)  ovvTsQijvai  v7rofj,vr]fxaTa,  Travovpyif 
Sk  ml  tivi  aQsafHft  Kaivorofiiq,  KvpiWov  riyyaZ,ovToq.  Evagrius,  1.  i.  c.  7.  The 
same  imputation  was  urged  by  Count  Irenseus  (torn.  iii.  p.  1249) ;  and  the  ortho- 
dox critics  do  not  find  it  au  easy  task  to  defend  the  purity  of  the  Greek  or  Latin 
copies  of  the  Acta. 


654:  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  ORIENTALS.  tCn.  XLVTL 

Without  a  dissenting  voice  thej  recognized  in  the  epistles  of 
Cyril  the  Mcene  Creed  and  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers :  but 
the  partial  extracts  from  the  letters  and  homilies  of  Nestorius 
were  interrupted  by  curses  and  anathemas;  and  the  heretic 
was  degraded  from  his  episcopal  and  ecclesiastical  dignity. 
The  sentence,  maliciously  inscribed  to  the  new  Judas,  was  af- 
fixed ai^d  proclaimed  in  the  streets  of  Ephesus :  the  weary- 
prelates,  as  they  issued  from  the  Church  of  the  mother  of 
God,  were  saluted  as  her  champions ;  and  her  victory  was  cel- 
ebrated by  the  illuminations,  the  songs,  and  the  tumult  of  the 
night. 

On  the  fifth  day  the  triumph  was  clouded  by  the  arrival 
and  indignation  of  the  Eastern  bishops.  In  a  chamber  of  the 
opposition      mn5  before  he  had  wiped  the  dust  from  his  shoes, 

of  1 


position 

John  of  Antioch  gave  audience  to  Candidian,  the 


entals. 
June  27,  etc. 


imperial  minister,  who  related  his  ineffectual  efforts 
to  prevent  or  to  annul  the  hasty  violence  of  the  Egyptian. 
"With  equal  haste  and  violence  the  Oriental  synod  of  fifty 
bishops  degraded  Cyril  and  Memnon  from  their  episcopal 
honors ;  condemned,  in  the  twelve  anathemas,  the  purest  ven- 
om of  the  Apoilinarian  heresy;  and  described  the  Alexan- 
drian primate  as  a  monster,  born  and  educated  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  Church.46  His  throne  was  distant  and  inac- 
cessible ;  but  they  instantly  resolved  to  bestow  on  the  flock 
of  Ephesus  the  blessing  of  a  faithful  shepherd.  By  the  vigi- 
lance of  Memnon  the  churches  were  shut  against  them,  and 
a  strong  garrison  was  thrown  into  the  cathedral.  The  troops, 
under  the  command  of  Candidian,  advanced  to  the  assault ; 
the  out-guards  were  routed  and  put  to  the  sword,  but  the  place 
was  impregnable :  the  besiegers  retired ;  their  retreat  was  pur- 
sued by  a  vigorous  sally ;  they  lost  their  horses,  and  many  of 
the  soldiers  were  dangerously  wounded  with  clubs  and  stones. 
Ephesus,  the  city  of  the  Virgin,  was  defiled  with  rage  and  clam- 
or, with  sedition  ana  blood ;  the  rival  synods  darted  anath- 

48  'O  Se  iir  6\k&p(p  riitv  itcicXrjGiuiv  TexQdg  /cat  rpcHpaie.  After  the  coalition  of 
John  and  Cyril  these  invectives  were  mutually  forgotten.  The  style  of  declama- 
tion must  never  be  confounded  with  the  genuine  sense  which  respectable  enemies 
entertain  of  each  other's  merit  (Concil,  torn.  iii.  p.  1244). 


A.D.431.]  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  ORIENTALS.  655 

emas  and  excommunications  from  their  spiritual  engines; 
and  the  court  of  Theodosius  was  perplexed  by  the  adverse 
and  contradictory  narratives  of  the  Syrian  and  Egyptian  fac- 
tions. During  a  busy  period  of  three  months  the  emperor 
tried  every  method,  except  the  most  effectual  means  of  indif- 
ference and  contempt,  to  reconcile  this  theological  quarrel. 
He  attempted  to  remove  or  intimidate  the  leaders  by  a  com- 
mon sentence  of  acquittal  or  condemnation  ;  lie  invested  his 
representatives  at  Ephesus  with  ample  power  and  military 
force ;  he  summoned  from  either  party  eight  chosen  deputies 
to  a  free  and  candid  conference  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
capital,  far  from  the  contagion  of  popular  frenzy.  But  the 
Orientals  refused  to  yield,  and  the  Catholics,  proud  of  their 
numbers  and  of  their  Latin  allies,  rejected  all  terms  of  union 
or  toleration.  The  patience  of  the  meek  Theodosius  was  pro- 
voked, and  he  dissolved  in  anger  this  episcopal  tumult,  which 
at  the  distance  of  thirteen  centuries  assumes  the  venerable 
aspect  of  the  third  oecumenical  council.47  "  God  is  my  wit- 
ness," said  the  pious  prince,  "that  I  am  not  the  author  of 
this  confusion.  His  providence  will  discern  and  punish  the 
guilty.  Return  to  your  provinces,  and  may  your  private 
virtues  repair  the  mischief  and  scandal  of  your  meeting." 
They  returned  to  their  provinces ;  but  the  same  passions 
which  had  distracted  the  Synod  of  Ephesus  were  diffused 
over  the  Eastern  world.  After  three  obstinate  and  equal 
campaigns,  John  of  Antioch  and  Cyril  of  Alexandria  conde- 
scended to  explain  and  embrace :  but  their  seeming  reunion 
must  be  imputed  rather  to  prudence  than  to  reason — to  the 
mutual  lassitude  rather  than  to  the  Christian  charity  of  the 
patriarchs. 

The  Byzantine  pontiff  had  instilled  into  the  royal  ear  a 
baleful  prejudice  against  the  character  and  conduct  of  his 


47  See  the  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  Ephesus  in  the  original  Greek,  and  a  Latin  ver- 
sion almost  contemporary  (Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  991-1339,  with  the  Synodicon  ad- 
versus  Tragoediam  Irenai,  torn.  iv.  p.  235-497),  the  Ecclesiastical  Histories  of 
Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  34)  and  Evagrius  (1.  i.  c.  3,  4,  5),  and  the  Breviary  of  Liberatus 
(in  Concil.  torn.  vi.  p.  419-459,  c.  5,  6),  and  the  Memoir.es  Eccles.  of  Tillemont 
(torn.  xiv.  p.  377-487},. 


QZQ  VICTORY  OF  CYRIL.  [CH.XLVIL 

Egyptian  rival.    An  epistle  of  menace  and  invective,48  which 
yictor  accompanied  the  summons,  accused  him  as  a  busy, 

AfD  431I435  mso^ent>  anc*  envious  priest,  who  perplexed  the 
simplicity  of  the  faith,  violated  the  peace  of  the 
Church  and  State,  and,  by  his  artful  and  separate  addresses 
to  the  wife  and  sister  of  Theodosius,  presumed  to  suppose,  or 
to  scatter,  the  seeds  of  discord  in  the  imperial  family.  At 
the  stern  command  of  his  sovereign,  Cyril  had  repaired  to 
Ephesus,  where  he  was  resisted,  threatened,  and  confined  by 
the  magistrates  in  the  interest  of  !Nestorius  and  the  Orientals, 
who  assembled  the  troops  of  Lydia  and  Ionia  to  suppress  the 
fanatic  and  disorderly  train  of  the  patriarch.  Without  ex- 
pecting the  royal  license,  he  escaped  from  his  guards,  precipi- 
tately embarked,  deserted  the  imperfect  synod,  and  retired  to 
his  episcopal  fortress  of  safety  and  independence.  But  his 
artful  emissaries,  both  in  the  court  and  city,  successfully  la- 
bored to  appease  the  resentment,  and  to  conciliate  the  favor, 
of  the  emperor.  The  feeble  son  of  Arcadius  was  alternate- 
ly swayed  by  his  wife  and  sister,  by  the  eunuchs  and  women 
of  the  palace :  superstition  and  avarice  were  their  ruling  pas- 
sions; and  the  orthodox  chiefs  were  assiduous  in  their  en- 
deavors to  alarm  the  former  and  to  gratify  the  latter.  Con- 
stantinople and  the  suburbs  were  sanctified  with  frequent 
monasteries,  and  the  holy  abbots,  Dalmatius  and  Eutyches,49 
had  devoted  their  zeal  and  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  Cyril,  the 
worship  of  Mary,  and  the  unity  of  Christ.  From  the  first 
moment  of  their  monastic  life  they  had  never  mingled  with 
the  world,  or  trod  the  profane  ground  of  the  city.  But  in 
this  awful  moment  of  the  danger  of  the  Church,  their  vow 

48  Tapaxrjv  (says  the  emperor  in  pointed  language)  to  ye  inl  <ravT(£  Kai  x<>>pi(Tfibv 
rdiQ  tKKXrimaiQ  ifi€e€XriKae  *  *  *  wc  SrpaavripaQ  opfirjg  TrptirovariQ  fiaXXov  ij  mpi- 
Gsiag  *  *  *  km  TTOiKiXiag  fiaXXov  tovtojv  rjfiiv  dpKovarjC  rjirep  airX6Tj]TOQ  *  *  * 
■navTOQ  fiaXXov  »}  Upewg  *  *  *  ret  ti  tuiv  IkkXtjgiCjv,  rd  re  rwv  flamXewv  fifXXeiv 
yupi^uv  (5ovXao~Qat,  wq  ovk  ovotjq  cKpopfirje  erspag  EvSoKifirj(jeu)g.  I  should  be  curious 
to  know  how  much  Nestorius  paid  for  these  expressions,  so  mortifying  to  his  rival. 

49  Eutyches,  the  heresiarch  Eutyches,  is  honorably  named  by  Cyril  as  a  friend, 
a  saint,  and  the  strenuous  defender  of  the  faith.  His  brother,  the  Abbot  Dalma- 
tius, is  likewise  employed  to  bind  the  emperor  and  all  his  chamberlains  terribili 
conjwatione.    Synodicon,  c.  203,  in  Concil.  torn,  iv,  p.  467. 


A.D.  431-435.]  VICTORY  OF  CYRIL.  657 

was  superseded  by  a  more  sublime  and  indispensable  duty. 
At  the  head  of  a  long  order  of  monks  and  hermits,  who  car- 
ried burning  tapers  in  their  hands,  and  chanted  litanies  to 
the  mother  of  God,  they  proceeded  from  their  monasteries  to 
the  palace.  The  people  were  edified  and  inflamed  by  this 
extraordinary  spectacle,  and  the  trembling  monarch  listened 
to  the  prayers  and  adjurations  of  the  saints,  who  boldly  pro- 
nounced that  none  could  hope  for  salvation  unless  they  em- 
braced the  person  and  the  creed  of  the  orthodox  successor  of 
Athanasins.  At  the  same  time  every  avenue  of  the  throne 
was  assaulted  with  gold.  Under  the  decent  names  of  eulogies 
and  benedictions,  the  courtiers  of  both  sexes  were  bribed  ac- 
cording to  the  measure  of  their  power  and  rapaciousness. 
But  their  incessant  demands  despoiled  the  sanctuaries  of  Con- 
stantinople and  Alexandria;  and  the  authority  of  the  patri- 
arch was  unable  to  silence  the  just  murmur  of  his  clergy,  that 
a  debt  of  sixty  thousand  pounds  had  already  been  contracted 
to  support  the  expense  of  this  scandalous  corruption.50  Pul- 
cheria,  who  relieved  her  brother  from  the  weight  of  an  em- 
pire, was  the  firmest  pillar  of  orthodoxy ;  and  so  intimate 
was  the  alliance  between  the  thunders  of  the  synod  and  the 
whispers  of  the  court,  that  Cyril  was  assured  of  success  if  he 
could  displace  one  eunuch,  and  substitute  another  in  the  fa- 
vor of  Theodosius.  Yet  the  Egyptian  could  not  boast  of  a 
glorious  or  decisive  victory.  The  emperor,  with  unaccustom- 
ed firmness,  adhered  to  his  promise  of  protecting  the  inno- 
cence of  the  Oriental  bishops;  and  Cyril  softened  his  anathe- 
mas, and  confessed,  with  ambiguity  and  reluctance,  a  twofold 
nature  of  Christ,  before  he  was  permitted  to  satiate  his  re- 
venge against  the  unfortunate  Nestorius." 

50  "Clerici  qui  hie  sunt  contristantur,  quod  ecclesia  Alexandrina  nudata  sit  hu- 
jns  causa  turbelse :  et  debet  prater  ilia  qua?  hinc  transmissa  sint  ami  libras  mille 
quingtntas.  Et  nunc  ei  scriptum  est  ut  prasstet ;  sed  de  tua  ecclesia  prajsta  avari- 
tise  quorum  nosti,"etc.  This  curious  and  original  letter,  from  Cyril's  archdeacon 
to  his  creature  the  new  bishop  of  Constantinople,  has  been  unaccountably  pre- 
served in  an  old  Latin  version  (Synodicon,  c.  203,  Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  465-468). 
The  mask  is  almost  dropped,  and  the  saints  speak  the  honest  language  of  interest 
and  confederacy. 

51  The  tedious  negotiations  that  succeeded  the  Synod  of  Ephesu3  are  diffusely 

IV.— 42 


658  EXILE  OF  NESTORIUS:  [Ch.  XLVIL 

The  rash  and  obstinate  Nestorius,  before  the  end  of  the 
synod,  was  oppressed  by  Cyril,  betrayed  by  the  court,  and 

faintly  supported  by  his  Eastern  friends.  A  sen- 
Nestonus.      timent  of  fear  or  indignation  prompted  him,  while 

it  was  yet  time,  to  affect  the  glory  of  a  voluntary 
abdication  :M  his  wish,  or  at  least  his  request,  was  readily 
granted ;  he  was  conducted  with  honor  from  Ephesus  to  his 
old  monastery  of  Antioch ;  and,  after  a  short  pause,  his  suc- 
cessors, Maximian  and  Proclus,  were  acknowledged  as  the  law- 
ful bishops  of  Constantinople.  But  in  the  silence  of  his  cell 
the  degraded  patriarch  could  no  longer  resume  the  innocence 
and  security  of  a  private  monk.  The  past  he  regretted,  he 
was  discontented  with  the  present,  and  the  future  he  had  rea- 
son to  dread :  the  Oriental  bishops  successively  disengaged 
their  cause  from  his  unpopular  name,  and  each  day  decreased 
the  number  of  the  schismatics  who  revered  Nestorius  as  the 
confessor  of  the  faith.  After  a  residence  at  Antioch  of  four 
years,  the  hand  of  Theodosius  subscribed  an  edict53  which 
ranked  him  with  Simon  the  magician,  proscribed  his  opin- 
ions and  followers,  condemned  his  writings  to  the  flames,  and 
banished  his  person  first  to  Petra,  in  Arabia,  and  at  length  to 
Oasis,  one  of  the  islands  of  the  Libyan  desert.64     Secluded 

related  in  the  original  Acts  (Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  1339-1771,  ad  fin.  vol.  and  the 
Synodicon,  in  torn,  iv.),  Socrates  (1.  vii.  c.  28,  35,  40,  41),  Evagrius  (1.  i.  c.  6,  7,  8, 
12),  Liberatus  (c.  7-10),  Tillemont  (Mem.  Eccle's.  torn.  xiv.  p.  487-676).  The 
most  patient  reader  will  thank  me  for  compressing  so  much  nonsense  and  false- 
hood in  a  few  lines. 

62  Avtov  re  av  Sei]9ivTOQ,  i7rsrpa7rr)  Kara  rb  oikeiov  t7rava^Ev^ai  fiovaarripiov. 
Evagrius,  1.  i.  c.  7.  The  original  letters  in  the  Synodicon  (c.  15,  24,  25,  26)  jus- 
tify the  appearance  of  a  voluntary  resignation,  which  is  asserted  by  Ebed-Jesu,  a 
Nestorian  writer,  apud  Asseman.  Biblioth.  Oriental,  torn.  iii.  p.  299,  302. 

53  See  the  imperial  letters  in  the  Acts  of  the  Synod  of  Ephesus  (Concil.  torn.  iii. 
p.  1730-1735).  The  odious  name  of  Simonians,  which  was  affixed  to  the  disciples 
of  this  TEparwdovQ  cSictacvcaXiac,  was  designed  wc  av  oveidevi  Trpo£\n9kvTiQ  aiiliviot 
inrofi'tvoiEv  Tij-iwpiav  tojv  anapTi]jxaTij)v,  Kal  ftvjre  Ziuvrac.  rt/twpi'af,  fifjrs  SiavovraQ 
cLTifxiaQ  iicTog  vnapxuv.  Yet  these  were  Christians!  who  differed  only  in  names 
and  in  shadows. 

64  The  metaphor  of  islands  is  applied  by  the  grave  civilians  (Pandect.  1.  xlviii. 
tit.  22,  leg.  7  [§  5])  to  those  happy  spots  which  are  discriminated  by  water  and 
verdure  from  the  Libyan  sands.  Three  of  these  under  the  common  name  of  Oasis, 
Ar  Alvahat :  1.  The  Temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon.    2.  The  middle  Oasis,  three  days' 


*.D.  435.]  EXILE  OF  NESTORIUS.  659 

from  the  Church  and  from  the  world,  the  exile  was  still  pur- 
sued by  the  rage  of  bigotry  and  war.  A  wandering  tribe  of 
the  Blemrayes  or  Nubians  invaded  his  solitary  prison  :  in 
their  retreat  they  dismissed  a  crowd  of  useless  captives ;  but 
no  sooner  had  Nestorius  reached  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  than 
he  would  gladly  have  escaped  from  a  Roman  and  orthodox 
city  to  the  milder  servitude  of  the  savages.  His  flight  was 
punished  as  a  new  crime :  the  soul  of  the  patriarch  inspired 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers  of  Egypt;  the  magistrates, 
the  soldiers,  the  monks,  devoutly  tortured  the  enemy  of  Christ 
and  St. Cyril;  and,  as  far  as  the  confines  of  ^Ethiopia,  the  her- 
etic was  alternately  dragged  and  recalled,  till  his  aged  body 
was  broken  by  the  hardships  and  accidents  of  these  reiterated 
journeys.  Yet  his  mind  was  still  independent  and  erect ;  the 
President  of  Thebais  was  awed  by  his  pastoral  letters ;  he 
survived  the  Catholic  tyrant  of  Alexandria,  and,  after  sixteen 
years'  banishment,  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon  would  perhaps 
have  restored  him  to  the  honors,  or  at  least  to  the  commun- 
ion, of  the  Church.  The  death  of  Nestorius  prevented  his 
obedience  to  their  welcome  summons  ;65  and  his  disease  might 
afford  some  color  to  the  scandalous  report,  that  his  tongue, 
the  organ  of  blasphemy,  had  been  eaten  by  the  worms.  He 
was  buried  in  a  city  of  Upper  Egypt,  known  by  the  names  of 


journey  to  the  west  of  Lycopolis.  3.  The  southern,  where  Nestorius  was  banished, 
in  the  first  climate,  and  only  three  days'  journey  from  the  confines  of  Nubia.  See 
a  learned  note  of  Michaelis  (ad  Descript.  JEgypt.  Abulfeda;,  p.  21-34).a 

55  The  invitation  of  Nestorius  to  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon  is  related  by  Zacharias, 
Bishop  of  Melitene  (Evagrius,  1.  ii.  c.  2;  Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  55), 
and  the  famous  Xenaias  or  Philoxenus,  Bishop  of  Hierapolis  (Asseman.  Biblioth. 
Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  40,  etc.),  denied  by  Evagrius  and  Asseman,  and  stoutly  main- 
tained by  La  Croze  (Thesaur.  Epistol.  torn.  iii.  p.  181,  etc.).  The  fact  is  not  im- 
probable ;  yet  it  was  the  interest  of  the  Monopliysites  to  spread  the  invidious  re- 
port; and  Eutychius  (torn.  ii.  p  12)  affirms  that  Nestorius  died  after  an  exile  of 
seven  years,  and  consequently  ten  years  before  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon. 


»  1.  The  Oasis  of  Sivah  has  been  visited  by  Mons.  Drovetti  and  Mr.  Browne. 
2.  The  little  Oasis,  that  of  El  Kassar,  was  visited  and  described  by  Belzoni.  3.  The 
great  Oasis,  and  its  splendid  ruins,  have  been  well  described  in  the  Travels  of  Sir 
A.  Edmonstone.  To  these  must  be  added  another  western  Oasis,  also  visited  by 
6ir  A.  Edmonstone. — M. 


660  HERESY  OF  EUTYCHES.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

Chemnis,  or  Panopolis,  or  Akmim  ;M  but  the  immortal  malice 
of  the  Jacobites  has  persevered  for  ages  to  cast  stones  against 
his  sepulchre,  and  to  propagate  the  foolish  tradition  that  it 
was  never  watered  by  the  rain  of  heaven,  which  equally  de- 
scends on  the  righteous  and  the  ungodly."  Humanity  may 
drop  a  tear  on  the  fate  of  Nestorins;  yet  justice  must  ob- 
serve that  he  suffered  the  persecution  which  he  had  approved 
and  inflicted.68 

The  death  of  the  Alexandrian  primate,  after  a  reign  of 
thirty- two  years,  abandoned  the  Catholics  to  the  intemper- 
„  ance  of  zeal  and  the  abuse  of  victory.69     The  mo- 

Heresyof  ,.,,.,.  *        s 

Eutyches.  nophysite  doctrine  (one  incarnate  nature)  was  rig- 
orously preached  in  the  churches  of  Egypt  and  the 
monasteries  of  the  East ;  the  primitive  creed  of  Apollinaris 
was  protected  by  the  sanctity  of  Cyril ;  and  the  name  of  Eu- 
tyches, his  venerable  friend,  has  been  applied  to  the  sect  most 
adverse  to  the  Syrian  heresy  of  Nestorius.  His  rival  Euty- 
ches was  the  abbot,  or  archimandrite,  or  superior  of  three 
hundred  monks ;  but  the  opinions  of  a  simple  and  illiterate 
recluse  might  have  expired  in  the  cell  where  he  had  slept 
above  seventy  years,  if  the  resentment  or  indiscretion  of  Fla- 
vian, the  Byzantine  pontiff,  had  not  exposed  the  scandal  to 
the  eyes  of  the  Christian  world.    His  domestic  synod  was  in- 


56  Consult  D'Anville  (Me'moire  sur  l'Egypte,  p.  191),  Pocock  (Description  of  the 
East,  vol.  i.  p.  76),  Abulfeda  (Descript.  jEgypt.  p.  14),  and  his  commentator  Mi- 
chaelis  (Not.  p.  78-83),  and  the  Nubian  Geographer  (p.  42),  who  mentions,  in  the 
twelfth  century,  the  ruins  and  the  sugar-canes  of  Akmim. 

61  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  12)  and  Gregory  Bar-Hebra?us,  or  Abulphara- 
gius  (Asseman.  torn.  ii.  p.  316),  represent  the  credulity  of  the  tenth  and  thirteenth 
centuries. 

68  We  are  obliged  to  Evagrius  (1.  i.  c.  7)  for  some  extracts  from  the  letters  of 
Nestorius ;  but  the  lively  picture  of  his  sufferings  is  treated  with  insult  by  the  hard 
and  stupid  fanatic. 

69  "Dixi  Cyrillum  dum  viveret,  auctoritate  sua  effecisse,  ne  Eutychianismus  et 
Monophysitarum  error  in  nervum  erumperet :  idque  verum  puto  *  *  *  aliquo  *  *  * 
honesto  modo  TraXivySiap  cecinerat."  The  learned  but  cautious  Jablonski  did 
not  always  speak  the  whole  truth.  "Cum  Cyrillo  lenius  omnino  egi,  quam  si  te- 
cum aut  cum  aliis  rei  hujus  probe  gnaris  et  asquis  rerum  sestimatoribus  sermones 
privatos  conferrem  "  (Thesaur.  Epistol.  La  Crozian.  torn.  i.  p.  197, 198) ;  an  excel* 
lent  key  to  his  dissertations  on  the  Nestorian  controversy  I 


A.D.449.]  SECOND  COUNCIL  OF  EPHESUS.  CGI 

stantly  convened,  their  proceedings  were  sullied  with  clamor 
and  artifice,  and  the  aged  heretic  was  surprised  into  a  seeming 
confession  that  Christ  had  not  derived  his  body  from  the  sub- 
stance of  the  Virgin  Mary.  From  their  partial  decree  Euty- 
ches  appealed  to  a  general  council,  and  his  cause  was  vigor- 
ously asserted  by  his  godson  Chrysaphius,  the  reigning  eunuch 
of  the  palace,  and  his  accomplice  Dioscorus,  who  had  succeed- 
ed to  the  throne,  the  creed,  the  talents,  and  the  vices  of  the 
second  coun-  nephew  of  Theophilus.  By  the  special  summons 
^1Dof4f9phe8US-  of  Theodosius,  the  second  synod  of  Ephesus  was 
Aug.8-11.  judiciously  composed  of  ten  metropolitans  and  ten 
bishops  from  each  of  the  six  dioceses  of  the  Eastern  empire : 
some  exceptions  of  favor  or  merit  enlarged  the  number  to 
one  hundred  and  thirty-five ;  and  the  Syrian  Barsumas,  as  the 
chief  and  representative  of  the  monks,  was  invited  to  sit  and 
vote  with  the  successors  of  the  apostles.  But  the  despotism 
of  the  Alexandrian  patriarch  again  oppressed  the  freedom  of 
debate:  the  same  spiritual  and  carnal  weapons  were  again 
drawn  from  the  arsenals  of  Egypt ;  the  Asiatic  veterans,  a 
"band  of  archers,  served  under  the  orders  of  Dioscorus ;  and 
the  more  formidable  monks,  whose  minds  were  inaccessible 
to  reason  or  mercy,  besieged  the  doors  of  the  cathedral.  The 
general,  and,  as  it  should  seem,  the  unconstrained  voice  of  the 
fathers  accepted  the  faith  and  even  the  anathemas  of  Cyril  ; 
and  the  heresy  of  the  two  natures  was  formally  condemned 
in  the  persons  and  writings  of  the  most  learned  Orientals. 
"May  those  who  divide  Christ  be  divided  with  the  sword, 
may  they  be  hewn  in  pieces,  may  they  be  burned  alive!" 
were  the  charitable  wishes  of  a  Christian  synod.80  The  inno- 
cence and  sanctity  of  Eutyches  were  acknowledged  without 
hesitation ;  but  the  prelates,  more  especially  those  of  Thrace 
and  Asia,  were  unwilling  to  depose  their  patriarch  for  the  use 


60  'H  ayla  ovvoSoq  u-Ktv,  apov,  tcavaov  ~Evaktiov,  ovtoq  %uiv  Kay,  ovtoq  uq  5vo 
yivTjTcu,  wq  t/iepiaf,  jiipivQi'}  *  *  *  u  tiq  Xiyu  Svo,  avdOefia.  At  the  request  cf  Di- 
oscorus, those  who  were  not  able  to  roar  (/3of;<rai),  stretched  out  their  hands.  At 
Chalcedon,  the  Orientals  disclaimed  these  exclamations :  but  the  Egyptians  mora 
consistently  declared  ravra  ko.1  tots  Ano^tv  kui  vvv  Xeyoptv  (Concil.  torn.  iv. 
p.  1012). 


662  COUNCIL  OF  CHALCEDON  [Ch.XLVIL 

or  even  the  abuse  of  his  lawful  jurisdiction.  They  embraced 
the  knees  of  Dioscorus,  as  he  stood  with  a  threatening  aspect 
on  the  footstool  of  his  throne,  and  conjured  him  to  forgive 
the  offences  and  to  respect  the  dignity  of  his  brother.  "  Do 
you  mean  to  raise  a  sedition  ?"  exclaimed  the  relentless  tyrant. 
"  Where  are  the  officers  ?"  At  these  words,  a  furious  mul- 
titude of  monks  and  soldiers,  with  staves,  and  swords,  and 
chains,  burst  into  the  church :  the  trembling  bishops  hid 
themselves  behind  the  altar,  or  under  the  benches ;  and  as 
they  were  not  inspired  with  the  zeal  of  martyrdom,  they  suc- 
cessively subscribed  a  blank  paper,  which  was  afterwards  fill- 
ed with  the  condemnation  of  the  Byzantine  pontiff.  Flavian 
was  instantly  delivered  to  the  wild  beasts  of  this  spiritual  am- 
phitheatre :  the  monks  were  stimulated  by  the  voice  and  ex- 
ample of  Barsumas  to  avenge  the  injuries  of  Christ:  it  is 
said  that  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  reviled,  and  buffeted, 
and  kicked,  and  trampled  his  brother  of  Constantinople  :61  it 
is  certain  that  the  victim,  before  he  could  reach  the  place  of 
his  exile,  expired  on  the  third  day  of  the  wounds  and  bruises 
which  he  had  received  at  Ephesus.  This  second  synod  has 
been  justly  branded  as  a  gang  of  robbers  and  assassins ;  yet 
the  accusers  of  Dioscorus  would  magnify  his  violence,  to  alle- 
viate the  cowardice  and  inconstancy  of  their  own  behavior. 

The  faith   of  Egypt  had  prevailed :    but  the  vanquished 

party  was  supported  by  the  same  pope  who  encountered  with 

out  fear  the  hostile  rage  of  Attila  and  Genseric. 

Cooncil  of  , y  . 

chaicedon.       lhe  theology  of  Leo,  his  famous  tome  or  epistle  on 

a.i>.451,  aj  .  '  -11,  i. 

Oct.  s-  the  mystery  or  the  incarnation,  had  been  disregard- 

ed by  the  Gynod  of  Ephesus :  his  authority,  and 
that  of  the  Latin  Church,  was  insulted  in  his  legates,  who  es- 
caped from  slavery  and  death  to  relate  the  melancholy  tale  of 

61  "EXeye  0£  (Eusebius,  Bishop  of  Dorylscum)  ruv  <i>Xa€iavov  re  SetXaiujg  avaipt- 
Qijvai  irpoQ  AiovKopov  io6oi<fiev6v  re  icai  XaicTi^ofitvov:  and  this  testimony  of  Eva- 
grius  (1.  ii.  c.  2)  is  amplified  by  the  historian  Zonaras  (torn.  ii.  1.  xiii.  [c.  23]  p.  44), 
who  affirms  that  Dioscorus  kicked  like  a  wild  ass.  But  the  language  of  Liberatus 
(Brev.  c.  1 2,  in  Concil.  torn.  vi.  p.  438)  is  more  cautious ;  and  the  Acts  of  Chaice- 
don, which  lavish  the  names  of  homicide,  Cain,  etc.,  do  not  justify  so  pointed  a 
charge.  The  monk  Barsumas  is  more  particularly  accused — eacpa^s  top  fiaKapiov 
<&\aviavov  avTog  torque  nai  tXtye}cfd^ov  (Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  1413). 


A.D.  451.]  COUNCIL  OF  CHALCEDON.  663 

the  tyranny  of  Dicscorus  and  the  martyrdom  of  Flavian.  His 
provincial  synod  annulled  the  irregular  proceedings  of  Ephe- 
sus ;  but  as  this  step  was  itself  irregular,  he  solicited  the  con- 
vocation of  a  general  council  in  the  free  and  orthodox  prov- 
inces of  Italy.  From  his  independent  throne  the  Koman  bish- 
op spoke  and  acted  without  danger  as  the  head  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  his  dictates  were  obsequiously  transcribed  by  Pla- 
cidia  and  her  son  Yalentinian,  who  addressed  their  Eastern 
colleague  to  restore  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Church.  But 
the  pageant  of  Oriental  royalty  was  moved  with  equal  dex- 
terity by  the  hand  of  the  eunuch ;  and  Theodosius  could  pro- 
nounce, without  hesitation,  that  the  Church  was  already  peace- 
ful and  triumphant,  and  that  the  recent  flame  had  been  extin- 
guished by  the  just  punishment  of  the  Nestorians.  Perhaps 
the  Greeks  would  be  still  involved  in  the  heresy  of  the  Mo- 
nophysites,  if  the  emperor's  horse  had  not  fortunately  stum- 
bled; Theodosius  expired;  his  orthodox  sister,  Pulcheria, 
with  a  nominal  husband,  succeeded  to  the  throne ;  Chrysa- 
phius  was  burned,  Dioscorus  was  disgraced,  the  exiles  were  re- 
called, and  the  tome  of  Leo  was  subscribed  by  the  Oriental 
bishops.  Yet  the  pope  was  disappointed  in  his  favorite  proj- 
ect of  a  Latin  council:  he  disdained  to  preside  in  the  Greek 
synod  which  was  speedily  assembled  at  Nice,  in  Bithynia ; 
his  legates  required  in  a  peremptory  tone  the  presence  of  the 
emperor ;  and  the  weary  fathers  were  transported  to  Chalce- 
don  under  the  immediate  eye  of  Marcian  and  the  senate  of 
Constantinople.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  Thracian  Bos- 
phorus  the  Church  of  St.  Euphemia  was  built  on  the  summit 
of  a  gentle  though  lofty  ascent :  the  triple  structure  was  cele- 
brated as  a  prodigy  of  art,  and  the  boundless  prospect  of  the 
land  and  sea  might  have  raised  the  mind  of  a  sectary  to  the 
contemplation  of  the  God  of  the  universe.  Six  hundred  and 
thirty  bishops  were  ranged  in  order  in  the  nave  of  the  church ; 
but  the  patriarchs  of  the  East  were  preceded  by  the  legates, 
of  whom  the  third  was  a  simple  priest ;  and  the  place  of  hon- 
or was  reserved  for  twenty  laymen  of  consular  or  senatorian 
rank.  The  gospel  was  ostentatiously  displayed  in  the  centre, 
but  the  rule  of  faith  was  defined  by  the  papal  and  imperial 


664  COUNCIL  OF  CHALCEDON.  [Ch.  XLVII. 

ministers,  who  moderated  the  thirteen  sessions  of  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon.62  Their  partial  interposition  silenced  the  in- 
temperate shouts  and  execrations  which  degraded  the  epis- 
copal gravity ;  but,  on  the  formal  accusation  of  the  legates, 
Dioscorus  was  compelled  to  descend  from  his  throne  to  the 
rank  of  a  criminal,  already  condemned  in  the  opinion  of  his 
judges.  The  Orientals,  less  adverse  to  Nestorius  than  to  Cy- 
ril, accepted  the  Romans  as  their  deliverers:  Thrace,  and 
Pontus,  and  Asia  were  exasperated  against  the  murderer  of 
Flavian,  and  the  new  patriarchs  of  Constantinople  and  An- 
tioch  secured  their  places  by  the  sacrifice  of  their  benefactor. 
The  bishops  of  Palestine,  Macedonia,  and  Greece  were  attach- 
ed to  the  faith  of  Cyril ;  but  in  the  face  of  the  synod,  in  the 
heat  of  the  battle,  the  leaders,  with  their  obsequious  train, 
passed  from  the  right  to  the  left  wing,  and  decided  the  vic- 
tory by  this  seasonable  desertion.  Of  the  seventeen  suffra- 
gans who  sailed  from  Alexandria,  four  were  tempted  from 
their  allegiance,  and  the  thirteen,  falling  prostrate  on  the 
ground,  implored  the  mercy  of  the  council,  with  sighs  and 
tears,  and  a  pathetic  declaration  that,  if  they  yielded,  they 
should  be  massacred,  on  their  return  to  Egypt,  by  the  indig- 
nant people.  A  tardy  repentance  was  allowed  to  expiate  the 
guilt  or  error  of  the  accomplices  of  Dioscorus  :  but  their  sins 
were  accumulated  on  his  head ;  he  neither  asked  nor  hoped 
for  pardon,  and  the  moderation  of  those  who  pleaded  for  a 
general  amnesty  was  drowned  in  the  prevailing  cry  of  victory 
and  revenge.  To  save  the  reputation  of  his  late  adherents, 
some  personal  offences  were  skilfully  detected ;  his  rash  and 
illegal  excommunication  of  the  pope,  and  his  contumacious 
refusal  (while  he  was  detained  a  prisoner)  to  attend  the  sum- 
mons of  the  synod.     Witnesses  were  introduced  to  prove  the 

62  The  acts  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  (Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  761-2071)  compre- 
hend those  of  Ephesus(p.  890-1189),  which  again  comprise  the  Synod  of  Constan- 
tinople under  Flavian  (p.  930-1072)  ;  and  it  requires  some  attention  to  disengage 
this  double  involution.  The  whole  business  of  Eutyches,  Flavian,  and  Dioscorus 
is  related  by  Evagrius  (1.  i.  c.  9-12,  and  1.  ii.  c.  1,  2,  3,  4)  and  Liberatus  (Brev. 
c.  11,  12, 13,  14).  Once  more,  and  almost  for  the  last  time,  I  appeal  to  the  dili- 
gence of  Tillemont  (Mem.  Eccle's.  torn.  xv.  p.  479-719).  The  annals  of  Baronius 
and  Pagi  will  accompany  me  much  farther  on  my  long  and  laborious  journey. 


A.D.  451.]  FAITH  OF  CHALCEDON.  665 

special  facts  of  his  pride,  avarice,  and  cruelty  ;  and  the  fathers 
heard  with  abhorrence  that  the  alms  of  the  Church  were  lav- 
ished on  the  female  dancers,  that  his  palace,  and  even  his 
bath,  was  open  to  the  prostitutes  of  Alexandria,  and  that  the 
infamous  Pansophia,  or  Irene,  was  publicly  entertained  as  the 
concubine  of  the  patriarch.68 

For  these  scandalous  offences  Discorus  was  deposed  by  the 
synod  and  banished  by  the  emperor ;  but  the  purity  of  his 
Faith  of  faith  was  declared  in  the  presence,  and  with  the 
chaicedon.  tacjt  approbation,  of  the  fathers.  Their  prudence 
supposed  rather  than  pronounced  the  heresy  of  Eutyches, 
who  was  never  summoned  before  their  tribunal;  and  they 
sat  silent  and  abashed,  when  a  bold  Monophysite,  casting  at 
their  feet  a  volume  of  Cyril,  challenged  them  to  anathematize 
in  his  person  the  doctrine  of  the  saint.  If  we  fairly  peruse 
the  acts  of  Chaicedon  as  they  are  recorded  by  the  orthodox 
party,64  we  shall  find  that  a  great  majority  of  the  bishops  em- 
braced the  simple  unity  of  Christ ;  and  the  ambiguous  conces- 
sion that  he  was  formed  of  or  from  two  natures  might  imply 

63  MaXiara  rj  7ripi€6r)rog  TJavaocpia,  r)  KaXovjiivrj  'Opeivrj  (perhaps  Eipjjw)),  ntpi 
fjg  icai  6  iro\vdv9punrog  Trig  'AXeZavSpewv  di)p.og  a<pr)ice  <pd)vrjv,  avrrjg  re  icai  rov 
ipacrov  fiEpvr\(iivog  (Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  1276).  A  specimen  of  the  wit  and  malice 
of  the  people  is  preserved  in  the  Greek  Anthology  (1.  ii.  c.  5,  p.  188,  edit.  Wech- 
el),  although  the  application  was  unknown  to  the  editor  Brodseus.  The  nameless 
epigrammatist  raises  a  tolerable  pun,  by  confounding  the  episcopal  salutation  of 
"Peace  be  to  all !"  with  the  genuine  or  corrupted  name  of  the  bishop's  concubine: 

Etprjvrf  7rdvT£<r<Jiv,  tiriaKonoQ  sTttev  i7riX9(!>v. 
IIwc  Svvarm  iracnv,  i)v  \novog  tvSov  f%ei ; 

I  am  ignorant  whether  the  patriarch,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  jealous  lover,  is 
the  Cimon  of  a  preceding  epigram,  whose  ireog  tarrjKog  was  viewed  with  envy  and 
wonder  by  Priapus  himself. 

64  Those  who  reverence  the  infallibility  of  synods  may  try  to  ascertain  their 
sense.  The  leading  bishops  were  attended  by  partial  or  careless  scribes,  who  dis- 
persed their  copies  round  the  world.  Our  Greek  MSS.  are  sullied  with  the  false 
and  proscribed  reading  of  etc  twv  fvaiujv  (Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  1460) :  the  authentic 
translation  of  Pope  Leo  I.  does  not  seem  to  have  been  executed,  and  the  old  Latin 
versions  materially  differ  from  the  present  Vulgate,  which  was  revised  (a.d.  550) 
by  Rusticus,  a  Roman  priest,  from  the  best  MSS.  of  the  'AKoi/Mjroi  at  Constanti- 
nople (Ducange,  C.  P.  Christiana,  1.  iv.  p.  151),  a  famous  monastery  of  Latins, 
Greeks,  and  Syrians.  See  Conci'  Jom.  iv.  p.  1959-2019,  and  Pagi,  Critica,  torn, 
ii.  p.  326,  etc. 


666  FAITH  OF  CHALCEDON.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

either  their  previous  existence,  or  their  subsequent  confusion, 
or  some  dangerous  interval  between  the  conception  of  the 
man  and  the  assumption  of  the  God.  The  Roman  theology, 
more  positive  and  precise,  adopted  the  term  most  offensive  to 
the  ears  of  the  Egyptians,  that  Christ  existed  in  two  natures ; 
and  this  momentous  particle"  (which  the  memory,  rather  than 
the  understanding,  must  retain)  had  almost  produced  a  schism 
among  the  Catholic  bishops.  The  tome  of  Leo  had  been  re- 
spectfully, perhaps  sincerely,  subscribed ;  but  they  protested, 
in  two  successive  debates,  that  it  was  neither  expedient  nor 
lawful  to  transgress  the  sacred  landmarks  which  had  been 
fixed  at  Nice,  Constantinople,  and  Ephesus,  according  to  the 
rule  of  Scripture  and  tradition.  At  length  they  yielded  to 
the  importunities  of  their  masters,  but  their  infallible  decree, 
after  it  had  been  ratified  with  deliberate  votes  and  vehement 
acclamations,  was  overturned  in  the  next  session  by  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  legates  and  their  Oriental  friends.  It  was  in 
vain  that  a  multitude  of  episcopal  voices  repeated  in  chorus, 
"  The  definition  of  the  fathers  is  orthodox  and  immutable ! 
The  heretics  are  now  discovered !  Anathema  to  the  Nestori- 
ans !  Let  them  depart  from  the  synod !  Let  them  repair  to 
Rome."66  The  legates  threatened,  the  emperor  was  absolute, 
and  a  committee  of  eighteen  bishops  prepared  a  new  decree, 
which  was  imposed  on  the  reluctant  assembly.  In  the  name 
of  the  fourth  general  council,  the  Christ  in  one  person,  but  in 
two  natures,  was  announced  to  the  Catholic  world :  an  invisi- 
ble line  was  drawn  between  the  heresy  of  Apollinaris  and  the 
faith  of  St.  Cyril ;  and  the  road  to  paradise,  a  bridge  as  sharp 
as  a  razor,  was  suspended  over  the  abyss  by  the  master-hand 
of  the  theological  artist.  During  ten  centuries  of  blindness 
and  servitude  Europe  received  her  religious  opinions  from 

66  It  is  darkly  represented  in  the  microscope  of  Petavins  (torn.  v.  1.  iii.  c.  5)  ; 
yet  the  subtle  theologian  is  himself  afraid — "Ne  quis  fortasse  supervacaneam,  et 
nimis  anxiam  putet  hujusmodi  vocularum  inquisitionem,  et  ab  instituti  iheologici 
gravitate  alienam"  (p.  124). 

66  'Etotjcrav,  r]  6  opoq  KpaTtiToj,  r)  cnrEpxofitBa  *  *  *  bl  avTiXeyovTeg  (pavepoi  ye~ 
vntvTcti,  oi  avTiXeyovreg  NeaTopiavoi  tiaiv,  o'l  avTiksyovTeg  elg  'Piofirjv  dirkXOwaiv 
(Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  1449).  Evagrins  and  Liberatus  present  only  the  placid  face 
ef  the  synod,  and  discreetly  slide  over  these  embers,  "suppositos  cineri  doloso." 


A.D.  451-482.]  DISCORD  OF  THE  EAST.  667 

the  oracle  of  the  Vatican  ;  and  the  same  doctrine,  already 
varnished  with  the  rust  of  antiquitjr,  was  admitted  without 
dispute  into  the  creed  of  the  reformers,  who  disclaimed  the 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  pontiff.  The  Synod  of  Chalcedon 
still  triumphs  in  the  Protestant  churches ;  but  the  ferment  of 
controversy  has  subsided,  and  the  most  pious  Christians  of 
the  present  day  are  ignorant,  or  careless,  of  their  own  belief 
concerning  the  mystery  of  the  incarnation. 

Far  different  was  the  temper  of  the  Greeks  and  Egyptians 

under  the  orthodox  reigns  of  Leo  and  Marcian.     Those  pious 

emperors  enforced  with  arms  and  edicts  the  sym- 

Discord,  of 

the  East.        bol  of  their  faith  ;"  and  it  was  declared  by  the  con- 

a.d. 451-4S2.  " 

science  or  honor  of  five  hundred  bishops,  that  the 
decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon  might  be  lawfully  sup- 
ported, even  with  blood.  The  Catholics  observed  with  satis- 
faction that  the  same  synod  was  odious  both  to  the  Nestori- 
ans  and  the  Monophysites  ;68  but  the  ISTestorians  were  less  an- 
gry, or  less  powerful,  and  the  East  was  distracted  by  the  ob- 
stinate and  sanguinary  zeal  of  the  Monophysites.  Jerusalem 
was  occupied  by  an  army  of  monks ;  in  the  name  of  the  one 
incarnate  nature,  they  pillaged,  they  burned,  they  murdered ; 
the  sepulchre  of  Christ  was  defiled  with  blood ;  and  the  gates 
of  the  city  were  guarded  in  tumultuous  rebellion  against 
the  troops  of  the  emperor.  After  the  disgrace  and  exile  of 
Dioscorus,  the  Egyptians  still  regretted  their  spiritual  father, 
and  detested  the  usurpation  of  his  successor,  who  was  intro- 

67  See,  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Acts  of  Chalcedon,  the  confirmation  of  the  synod 
by  Marcian  (Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  1781, 1783);  his  letters  to  the  monks  of  Alexan- 
dria (p.  1791),  of  Mount  Sinai  (p.  1793),  of  Jerusalem  and  Palestine  (p.  1798); 
his  laws  against  the  Eutychians  (p.  1809,  1811,  1831) ;  the  correspondence  of  Leo 
with  the  provincial  synods  on  the  revolution  of  Alexandria  (p.  1835-1930). 

68  Photius  (or  rather  Enlogius  of  Alexandria)  confesses,  in  a  fine  passage,  the 
specious  color  of  this  double  charge  against  Pope  Leo  and  his  Synod  of  Chalce- 
don (Biblioth.  cod.  ccxxv.  p.  768  [p.  243,  edit.  Bekk.]).  He  waged  a  double  war 
against  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  and  wounded  either  foe  with  the  darts  of  his 
adversaiy — icaraWriXoiQ  fikXscn  rovg  avrnrakovQ  triVpwffKE.  Against  Nestorins  he 
seemed  to  introduce  the  ovyxvaig  of  the  Monophysites  ;  against  Eutyches  he  ap- 
peared to  countenance  the  incooTaaiiov  SiaQopa  of  the  Nestorians.  The  apologist 
claims  a  charitable  interpretation  for  the  saints :  if  the  same  had  been  extended 
to  the  heretics,  the  sound  of  the  controversy  would  have  been  lost  in  the  air. 


668  THE  HENOTICON  OF  ZENO.  [Ch.  XLVII. 

duced  by  the  fathers  of  Chalcedon.  The  throne  of  Proterius 
was  supported  by  a  guard  of  two  thousand  soldiers ;  he  waged 
a  five  years'  war  against  the  people  of  Alexandria ;  and  on 
the  first  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Martian,  he  became  the 
victim  of  their  zeal.  On  the  third  day  before  the  festival  of 
Easter  the  patriarch  was  besieged  in  the  cathedral,  and  mur- 
dered in  the  baptistery.  The  remains  of  his  mangled  corpse 
were  delivered  to  the  flames,  and  his  ashes  to  the  wind  :  and 
the  deed  was  inspired  by  the  vision  of  a  pretended  angel ;  an 
ambitious  monk  who,  under  the  name  of  Timothy  the  Cat,69 
succeeded  to  the  place  and  opinions  of  Dioscorus.  This  dead- 
ly superstition  was  inflamed  on  either  side  by  the  principle 
and  the  practice  of  retaliation  :  in  the  pursuit  of  a  metaphys- 
ical quarrel  many  thousands70  were  slain,  and  the  Christians 
of  every  degree  were  deprived  of  the  substantial  enjoyments 
of  social  life,  and  of  the  invisible  gifts  of  baptism  and  the 
holy  communion.  Perhaps  an  extravagant  fable  of  the  times 
may  conceal  an  allegorical  picture  of  these  fanatics,  who  tor- 
tured each  other  and  themselves.  "  Under  the  consulship  of 
Yenantius  and  Celer,"  says  a  grave  bishop,  "  the  people  of 
Alexandria,  and  all  Egypt,  were  seized  with  a  strange  and  di- 
abolical frenzy :  great  and  small,  slaves  and  f reedmen,  monks 
and  clergy,  the  natives  of  the  land,  who  opposed  the  Synod 
of  Chalcedon,  lost  their  speech  and  reason,  barked  like  dogs, 
and  tore,  with  their  own  teeth,  the  flesh  from  their  hands  and 
arms."71 

The  disorders  of  thirty  years  at  length  produced  the  fa- 
mous Henoticon73  of  the  Emperor  Zeno,  which  in  his  reign, 


69  AiXovpoc,  from  his  nocturnal  expeditions.  In  darkness  and  disguise  he  crept 
round  the  cells  of  the  monastery,  and  whispered  the  revelation  to  his  slumbering 
brethren  (Theodor.  Lector.  1.  i.  [c.  8]). 

70  &6vovg  re  ToXfirjQi'p'ai  fivpiovg,  [<cai]  aiyuarwv  7rXr)9si  (ioXvv9>jvai  fir)  fiovov 
rr)v  yr)v  dXXd  icai  avrbv  rbv  depa.  Such  is  the  hyperbolic  language  of  the  He- 
noticon. 

71  See  the  Chronicle  of  Victor  Tununensis,  in  the  Lectiones  Antiquae  of  Cani- 
sius,  republished  by  Basnage,  torn.  i.  p.  328. 

72  The  Henoticon  is  transcribed  by  Evagrius  (1.  iii.  c.  13  [14]),  and  translated 
by  Liberatus  (Brev.  c.  18).  Pagi  (Critica,  torn.  ii.  p.  41 1)  and  Asseman  (Biblioth. 
Orient,  torn.  i.  p.  343)  are  satisfied  that  it  is  free  from  heresy ;  but  Petavius  (Dog' 


A.D.4B2.]  THE  HENOTICON  OF  ZENO.  009 

and  in  that  of  Anastasius,  was  signed  by  all  the  bishops  of  the 
„t  „      ,     East,  under  the  penalty  of  degradation  and  exile 

The  Henoti-  '  .  *    ,        »  -,     i  ^ 

conofzeno.  if  they  rejected  or  infringed  this  salutary  and  fun- 
damental law.  The  clergy  may  smile  or  groan 
at  the  presumption  of  a  layman  who  defines  the  articles  of 
faith ;  yet,  if  he  stoops  to  the  humiliating  task,  his  mind  is 
less  infected  by  prejudice  or  interest,  and  the  authority  of 
the  magistrate  can  only  be  maintained  by  the  concord  of  the 
people.  It  is  in  ecclesiastical  story  that  Zeno  appears  least 
contemptible;  and  I  am  not  able  to  discern  any  Manichsean 
or  Eutychian  guilt  in  the  generous  saying  of  Anastasius,  That 
It  was  unworthy  of  an  emperor  to  persecute  the  worshippers 
of  Christ  and  the  citizens  of  Home.  The  Henoticon  was 
most  pleasing  to  the  Egyptians ;  yet  the  smallest  blemish  has 
not  been  descried  by  the  jealous  and  even  jaundiced  eyes  of 
our  orthodox  schoolmen,  and  it  accurately  represents  the 
Catholic  faith  of  the  incarnation,  without  adopting  or  dis- 
claiming the  peculiar  terms  or  tenets  of  the  hostile  sects.  A 
solemn  anathema  is  pronounced  against  Kestorius  and  Euty- 
ches ;  against  all  heretics  by  whom  Christ  is  divided,  or  con- 
founded, or  reduced  to  a  phantom.  Without  defining  the 
number  or  the  article  of  the  word  nature,  the  pure  system  of 
St.  Cyril,  the  faith  of  Nice,  Constantinople,  and  Ephesus  is  re- 
spectfully confirmed ;  but,  instead  of  bowing  at  the  name  of 
the  fourth  council,  the  subject  is  dismissed  by  the  censure 
of  all  contrary  doctrines,  ^any  such  have  been  taught  either 
elsewhere  or  at  Chalcedon.  Under  this  ambiguous  expression 
the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  last  synod  might  unite  in 
a  silent  embrace.  The  most  reasonable  Christians  acquiesced 
in  this  mode  of  toleration ;  but  their  reason  was  feeble  and 
inconstant,  and  their  obedience  was  despised  as  timid  and 
servile  by  the  vehement  spirit  of  their  brethren.  On  a  sub- 
ject which  engrossed  the  thoughts  and  discourses  of  men,  it 
was  difficult  to  preserve  an  exact  neutrality ;  a  book,  a  ser- 
mon, a  prayer,  rekindled  the  flame  of  controversy ;  and  the 


mat.  Theolog.  torn.  t.  1.  i.  c.  13,  p.  40)  most  unaccountably  affirms  "  Chalcedonen- 
sem  ascivit. "    An  adversary  would  prove  that  he  had  never  read  the  Henoticon. 


670  THE  HENOTICON  OF  ZENO.  [Ch.  XLVIl 

bonds  of  communion  were  alternately  broken  and  renewed 
by  the  private  animosity  of  the  bishops.  The  space  between 
Nestorius  and  Eutyches  was  filled  by  a  thousand  shades  of 
language  and  opinion ;  the  acephaW*  of  Egypt,  and  the  Ro- 
man pontiffs,  of  equal  valor,  though  of  unequal  strength,  may 
be  found  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  theological  scale 
The  acephali,  without  a  king  or  a  bishop,  were  separated 
above  three  hundred  years  from  the  patriarchs  of  Alexan- 
dria, who  had  accepted  the  communion  of  Constantinople, 
without  exacting  a  formal  condemnation  of  the  Synod  of 
Chalcedon.  For  accepting  the  communion  of  Alexandria, 
without  a  formal  approbation  of  the  same  synod,  the  patri- 
archs of  Constantinople  were  anathematized  by  the  popes. 
Their  inflexible  despotism  involved  the  most  orthodox  of  the 
Greek  churches  in  this  spiritual  contagion,  denied  or  doubted 
the  validity  of  their  sacraments,74  and  fomented,  thirty-five 
years,  the  schism  of  the  East  and  West,  till  they  finally  abol- 
ished the  memory  of  four  Byzantine  pontiffs  who  had  dared 
to  oppose  the  supremacy  of  St.  Peter.76  Before  that  period 
the  precarious  truce  of  Constantinople  and  Egypt  had  been 
violated  by  the  zeal  of  the  rival  prelates.  Macedonius,  who 
was  suspected  of  the  Kestorian  heresy,  asserted,  in  disgrace 
and  exile,  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon,  while  the  successor  of 


"  See  Eenaudot  (Hist.  Patriarch.  Alex.  p.  123, 131, 145, 195,  217).  They  were 
reconciled  by  the  care  of  Mark  I.  (a.d.  799-819) :  he  promoted  their  chiefs  to  the 
bishoprics  of  Athribis  and  Talba  (perhaps  Tava :  see  DAnville,  p.  82),  and  sup- 
plied the  sacraments,  which  had  failed  for  want  of  an  episcopal  ordination. 

74  "De  his  quos  baptizavit,  quos  ordinavit  Acacius,  majorum  traditione  con- 
fectam  et  veram,  prascipue  religiosse  solicitudini  congruam  prsebemus  sine  difficul- 
tate  medicinam "  (Gelasius,  in  Epist.  i.  ad  Euphemium,  Concil.  torn.  v.  p.  286). 
The  offer  of  a  medicine  proves  the  disease,  and  numbers  must  have  perished  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  the  Koman  physician.  Tillemont  himself  (Me'm.  Eccle's.  torn, 
xvi.  p.  372,  642,  etc.)  is  shocked  at  the  proud,  uncharitable  temper  of  the  popes : 
they  are  now  glad,  says  he,  to  invoke  St.  Flavian  of  Antioch,  St.  Elias  of  Jerusa- 
lem, etc.,  to  whom  they  refused  communion  whilst  upon  earth.  But  Cardinal 
Baronius  is  firm  and  hard  as  the  rock  of  St.  Peter. 

75  Their  names  were  erased  from  the  diptych  of  the  Church  :  "  Ex  venerabili 
diptycho,  in  quo  pise  memorise  transitum  ad  coelum  habendum  episcoporum  voca- 
bula  continentur"  (Concil.  torn.  iv.  p.  1846).  This  ecclesiastical  record  was  there- 
fore equivalent  to  the  book  of  life. 


*J>.  50&-518.]  THE  TRISAGION.  671 

Cyril  would  have  purchased  its  overthrow  with  a  bribe  of 
t\v.o  thousand  pounds  of  gold. 

In  the  fever  of  the  times  the  sense,  or  rather  the  sound  of 
a  syllable,  was  sufficient  to  disturb  the  peace  of  an  empire. 

Trig  The  Trisagion78  (thrice  holy),  "  Holy,  holy,  holy 
gion,  and  Lord  God  of  Hosts !"  is  supposed  by  the  Greeks  to 
war,  till  the     be  the  identical  hymn  which  the  angels  and  chern- 

death  of  v      ,  o 

Anastasius.     bim  eternally  repeat  before  the  throne  of  God,  and 

A  T>  51)8—518 

which,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  was 
miraculously  revealed  to  the  Church  of  Constantinople.  The 
devotion  of  Antioch  soon  added, "  who  was  crucified  for  us !" 
and  this  grateful  address,  either  to  Christ  alone,  or  to  the 
whole  Trinity,  may  be  justified  by  the  rules  of  theology,  and 
has  been  gradually  adopted  by  the  Catholics  of  the  East  and 
West.  But  it  had  been  imagined  by  a  Monophysite  bishop  ;77 
the  gift  of  an  enemy  was  at  first  rejected  as  a  dire  and  dan- 
gerous blasphemy,  and  the  rash  innovation  had  nearly  cost 
the  Emperor  Anastasius  his  throne  and  his  life.78  The  peo- 
ple of  Constantinople  were  devoid  of  any  rational  principles 
of  freedom  ;  but  they  held,  as  a  lawful  cause  of  rebellion,  the 
color  of  a  livery  in  the  races,  or  the  color  of  a  mystery  in  the 
schools.  The  Trisagion,  with  and  without  this  obnoxious  ad- 
dition, was  chanted  in  the  cathedral  by  two  adverse  choirs, 
and,  when  their  lungs  were  exhausted,  they  had  recourse  to 
the  more  solid  arguments  of  sticks  and  stones  ;  the  aggressors 
were  punished  by  the  emperor,  and  defended  by  the  patri- 
arch ;  and  the  crown  and  mitre  were  staked  on  the  event  of 


76  Petavius  (Dogmat.  Theolog.  torn.  v.  1.  v.  c.  2,  3,  4,  p.  217-225)  and  Tillemont 
(Mem.  Eccles.  torn.  xiv.  p.  713,  etc.,  799)  represent  the  history  and  doctrine  of 
the  Trisagion.  In  the  twelve  centuries  between  Isaiah  and  St.  Proclus's  boy,  who 
was  taken  up  into  heaven  before  the  bishop  and  people  of  Constantinople,  the 
song  was  considerably  improved.  The  boy  heard  the  angels  sing,  "Holy  God! 
Holy  strong!  Holy  immortal !" 

77  Peter  Gnapheus,  thefuller  (a  trade  which  he  had  exercised  in  his  monastery), 
Patriarch  of  Antioch.  His  tedious  story  is  discussed  in  the  Annals  of  Pagi  (a.d. 
477-490)  and  a  dissertation  of  M.  de  Valois  at  the  end  of  his  Evagrius. 

78  The  troubles  under  the  reign  of  Anastasius  must  be  gathered  from  the  Chron- 
icles of  Victor,  Marcellinus,  and  Theophanes.  As  the  last  was  not  published  in 
the  time  of  Baronius,  his  critic  Pagi  is  more  copious,  as  well  as  more  correct. 


672  THE  TEISAGION.  [Ch.  XLVU 

this  momentous  quarrel.  The  streets  were  instantly  crowded 
with  innumerable  swarms  of  men,  women,  and  children ;  the 
legions  of  monks,  in  regular  array,  marched,  and  shouted,  and 
fought  at  their  head.  "  Christians !  this  is  the  day  of  mar- 
tyrdom :  let  us  not  desert  our  spiritual  father ;  anathema  to 
the  Manichsean  tyrant !  he  is  unworthy  to  reign."  Such  was 
the  Catholic  cry ;  and  the  galleys  of  Anastasius  lay  upon  their 
oars  before  the  palace,  till  the  patriarch  had  pardoned  his  pen- 
itent, and  hushed  the  waves  of  the  troubled  multitude.  The 
triumph  of  Macedonius  was  checked  by  a  speedy  exile ;  but 
the  zeal  of  his  flock  was  again  exasperated  by  the  same  ques- 
tion, "  Whether  one  of  the  Trinity  had  been  crucified  ?"  On 
this  momentous  occasion  the  blue  and  green  factions  of  Con- 
stantinople suspended  their  discord,  and  the  civil  and  military 
powers  were  annihilated  in  their  presence.  The  keys  of  the 
city,  and  the  standards  of  the  guards,  were  deposited  in  the 
Forum  of  Constantine,  the  principal  station  and  camp  of  the 
faithful.  Day  and  night  they  were  incessantly  busied  either 
in  singing  hymns  to  the  honor  of  their  God,  or  in  pillaging 
and  murdering  the  servants  of  their  prince.  The  head  of  his 
favorite  monk,  the  friend,  as  they  styled  him,  of  the  enemy  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  was  borne  aloft  on  a  spear ;  and  the  fire- 
brands, which  had  been  darted  against  heretical  structures, 
diffused  the  undistinguishing  flames  over  the  most  orthodox 
buildings.  The  statues  of  the  emperor  were  broken,  and  his 
person  was  concealed  in  a  suburb,  till,  at  the  end  of  three 
days,  he  dared  to  implore  the  mercy  of  his  subjects.  Without 
his  diadem,  and  in  the  posture  of  a  suppliant,  Anastasius  ap- 
peared on  the  throne  of  the  circus.  The  Catholics,  before  his 
face,  rehearsed  their  genuine  Trisagion  ;  they  exulted  in  the 
offer  which  he  proclaimed  by  the  voice  of  a  herald  of  abdicat- 
ing the  purple ;  they  listened  to  the  admonition,  that,  since  all 
could  not  reign,  they  should  previously  agree  in  the  choice  of 
a  sovereign ;  and  they  accepted  the  blood  of  two  unpopular 
ministers,  whom  their  master  without  hesitation  condemned 
to  the  lions.  These  furious  but  transient  seditions  were  en- 
couraged by  the  success  of  Yitalian,  who,  with  an  army  of 
Huns  and  Bulgarians,  for  the  most  part  idolaters,  declared 


A.D.  519-565.J  FIRST  RELIGIOUS  WAR.  673 

himself  the  champion  of  the  Catholic  faith.  In  this  pious  re- 
bellion he  depopulated  Thrace,  besieged  Constantinople,  ex- 
terminated sixty-five  thousand  of  his  fellow-Christians,  till  he 
obtained  the  recall  of  the  bishops,  the  satisfaction  of  the  pope, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  an  ortho- 
dox treaty,  reluctantly  signed  by  the  dying  Anastasius,  and 
more  faithfully  performed  by  the  uncle  of  Justinian.  And 
such  was  the  event  of  the  first  of  the  religious  wars  which 
have  been  waged  in  the  name  and  by  the  disciples  of  the  God 
of  Peace.79 

Justinian  has  been  already  seen  in  the  various  lights  of  a 
prince,  a  conqueror,  and  a  law-giver :  the  theologian80  still  re- 
First  reiig-  mains,  and  it  affords  an  unfavorable  prejudice  that 
i°D?5i4.''  his  theology  should  form  a  very  prominent  feat- 
Jhhaerac°terCand  ure  °f  n^8  portrait.  The  sovereign  sympathized 
of  juTtinian.  w^n  his  subjects  in  their  superstitious  reverence 
a.d.  519-565.  £or  iiyjUg  au(j  departed  saints  :  his  Code,  and  more 
especially  his  Novels,  confirm  and  enlarge  the  privileges  of 
the  clergy ;  and  in  every  dispute  between  a  monk  and  a  lay- 
man, the  partial  judge  was  inclined  to  pronounce  that  truth 
and  innocence  and  justice  were  always  on  the  side  of  the 
Church.  In  his  public  and  private  devotions  the  emperor 
was  assiduous  and  exemplary ;  his  prayers,  vigils,  and  fasts 
displayed  the  austere  penance  of  a  monk;  his  fancy  was 
amused  by  the  hope  or  belief  of  personal  inspiration ;  he  had 

79  The  general  history,  from  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  to  the  death  of  Anasta- 
sius, may  be  found  in  the  Breviary  of  Liberatus  (c.  14-19),  the  second  and  third 
books  of  Evagrius,  the  Abstract  of  the  two  books  of  Theodore  the  Reader,  the 
Acts  of  the  Synods,  and  the  Epistles  of  the  Popes  (Concil.  torn.  v.).  The  series  is 
continued  with  some  disorder  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  tomes  of  the  Memoires 
Ecclesiastiques  of  Tillemont.  And  here  I  must  take  leave  forever  of  that  incom- 
parable guide,  whose  bigotry  is  overbalanced  by  the  merits  of  erudition,  diligence, 
veracity,  and  scrupulous  minuteness.  He  was  prevented  by  death  from  complet- 
ing, as  he  designed,  the  sixth  century  of  the  Church  and  Empire. 

80  The  strain  of  the  Anecdotes  of  Procopius  (c.  11,  13, 18,  27,  28)  with  the 
learned  remarks  of  Alemannus  is  confirmed,  rather  than  contradicted,  by  the  Acts 
of  the  Councils,  the  fourth  book  of  Evagrius,  and  the  complaints  of  the  African 
Facundus,  in  his  twelfth  book — de  tribus  capitulis,  "  Cum  videri  doctus  appetit 
importune  *  *  *  spontaneis  qusestionibus  ecclesiam  turbat."  See  Procop.  de  Bell. 
Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  35  [torn.  ii.  p.  429,  edit.  Bonn], 

iy.— 43 


674      THEOLOGICAL  aOVERNMENT  OF  JUSTINIAN.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

secured,  the  patronage  of  the  Yirgin  and  St.  Michael  the  arch- 
angel f  and  his  recovery  from  a  dangerous  disease  was  ascribed 
to  the  miraculous  succor  of  the  holy  martyrs  Cosmas  and 
Damian.  The  capital  and  the  provinces  of  the  East  were  dec- 
orated with  the  monuments  of  his  religion  ;81  and  though  the 
far  greater  part  of  these  costly  structures  may  be  attributed 
to  his  taste  or  ostentation,  the  zeal  of  the  royal  architect  was 
probably  quickened  by  a  genuine  sense  of  love  and  gratitude 
towards  his  invisible  benefactors.  Among  the  titles  of  im- 
perial greatness  the  name  of  Pious  was  most  pleasing  to  his 
ear;  to  promote  the  temporal  and  spiritual  interest  of  the 
Church  was  the  serious  business  of  his  life ;  and  the  duty  of 
father  of  his  country  was  often  sacrificed  to  that  of  defender 
of  the  faith.  The  controversies  of  the  times  were  congenial 
to  his  temper  and  understanding ;  and  the  theological  profess- 
ors must  inwardly  deride  the  diligence  of  a  stranger  who  cul- 
tivated their  art  and  neglected  his  own.  "  What  can  ye  fear," 
said  a  bold  conspirator  to  his  associates,  "from  your  bigoted 
tyrant  ?  Sleepless  and  unarmed,  he  sits  whole  nights  in  his 
closet  debating  with  reverend  graybeards,  and  turning  over 
the  pages  of  ecclesiastical  volumes."82  The  fruits  of  these 
lucubrations  were  displayed  in  many  a  conference,  where  Jus- 
tinian might  shine  as  the  loudest  and  most  subtle  of  the  dis- 
putants ;  in  many  a  sermon,  which,  under  the  name  of  edicts 
and  epistles,  proclaimed  to  the  empire  the  theology  of  their 
master.  While  the  barbarians  invaded  the  provinces,  while 
,he  victorious  legions  marched  under  the  banners  of  Beli- 
earius  and  Karses,  the  successor  of  Trajan,  unknown  to  the 
camp,  was  content  to  vanquish  at  the  head  of  a  synod.  Had 
he  invited  to  these  synods  a  disinterested  and  rational  specta- 
tor, Justinian  might  have  learned  "  that  religious  controversy 
is  the  offspring  of  arrogance  and  folly ;  that  true  piety  is  mosfc 


81  Procop.  de  iEdificiis,  1.  i.  c.  6,  7,  etc.,  passim. 

82  "Of  St)  KaQrirai  a<pvka.KTOQ  «£  del  tni  Xsax'lS  tivoq  au>pl  vvktwv,  6[iov  toiq  tuiv 
itpstav  iaxaT0V  y'spovaiv  \i axaToyspovffiv^  clvcucvrKeLv  to.  XpiGTiavwv  \6yia  gttov$i)v 
ix&v.  Procop.  de  Bell.  Goth.  1.  iii.  c.  32  [torn.  ii.  p.  409,  edit.  Bonn].  In  the  Lifa 
of  St.  Eutychius  (apud  Aleman.  ad  Procop.  Arcan.  c.  18  [torn.  iii.  p.  439,  edit. 
BonnD  the  same  character  is  given  with  a  design  to  praise  Justinian. 


a.d.  519-565.]  HIS  PERSECUTIONS.  675 

laudably  expressed  by  silence  and  submission ;  that  man,  ig- 
norant of  his  own  nature,  should  not  presume  to  scrutinize 
the  nature  of  his  God ;  and  that  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  know 
that  power  and  benevolence  are  the  perfect  attributes  of  the 
Deity."88 

Toleration  was  not  the  virtue  of  the  times,  and  indulgence 
to  rebels  has  seldom  been  the  virtue  of  princes.  But  when 
His  per-  the  prince  descends  to  the  narrow  and  peevish  char- 
Becution  acter  of  a  disputant,  he  is  easily  provoked  to  sup- 
ply the  defect  of  argument  by  the  plenitude  of  power,  and  to 
chastise  without  mercy  the  perverse  blindness  of  those  who 
wilfully  shut  their  eyes  against  the  light  of  demonstration. 
The  reign  of  Justinian  was  a  uniform  yet  various  scene  of 
persecution;  and  he  appears  to  have  surpassed  his  indolent 
predecessors,  both  in  the  contrivance  of  his  laws  and  the  rig- 
or of  their  execution.  The  insufficient  term  of  three  months 
was  assigned  for  the  conversion  or  exile  of  all  her- 
etics;84 and  if  he  still  connived  at  their  precarious 
stay,  they  were  deprived,  under  his  iron  yoke,  not  only  of  the 
benefits  of  society,  but  of  the  common  birthright  of  men  and 
Christians.  At  the  end  of  four  hundred  years  the  Monta- 
nists  of  Phrygia85  still  breathed  the  wild  enthusiasm  of  perfec- 
tion and  prophecy  which  they  had  imbibed  from  their  male 
and  female  apostles,  the  special  organs  of  the  Paraclete.  On 
the  approach  of  the  Catholic  priests  and  soldiers,  they  grasped 
with  alacrity  the  crown  of  martyrdom ;  the  conventicle  and 
the  congregation  perished  in  the  flames,  but  these  primitive 

83  For  these  wise  and  moderate  sentiments  Procopius  (De  Bell.  Goth.  1.  i.  c.  3) 
is  scourged  in  the  preface  of  Alemannus,  who  ranks  him  among  the  political 
Christians — "  Sed  longe  verius  hasresium  omnium  sentinas,  prorsusque  Atheos  " — 
abominable  Atheists,  who  preached  the  imitation  of  God's  mercy  to  man  (ad  Hist. 
Arcan.  c.  13). 

84  This  alternative,  a  precious  circumstance,  is  preserved  by  John  Malala  (torn, 
ii.  p.  63,  edit.  Venet.  1733  [p.  449,  edit.  Bonn]),  who  deserves  more  credit  as  ha 
draws  towai-ds  his  end.  After  numbering  the  heretics,  Nestorians,  Eutychians, 
etc.,  "Ne  expectent,"  says  Justinian,  "ut  digni  venia  judicentur :  jubemus  enim 
ut •*  *  *  convicti  et  aperti  hceretici  justse  et  idoneee  animadversioni  subjiciantur." 
Baronius  copies  and  applauds  this  edict  of  the  Code  (a.d.  527,  No.  39,  40). 

85  See  the  character  and  principles  of  the  Montauists,  in  Mosheim,  De  Eebus 
Christ,  ante  Constantinum,  p.  410-424. 


676  PERSECUTIONS  OP  JUSTINIAN.  [Ch.XLVIL 

fanatics  were  not  extinguished  three  hundred  years  after  the 
death  of  their  tyrant.  Under  the  protection  of  the  Gothic 
confederates,  the  Church  of  the  Arians  at  Constantinople  had 
braved  the  severity  of  the  laws:  their  clergy  equalled  the 
wealth  and  magnificence  of  the  senate;  and  the  gold  and 
silver  which  were  seized  by  the  rapacious  hand  of  Justinian 
might  perhaps  be  claimed  as  the  spoils  of  the  provinces  and 
the  trophies  of  the  barbarians.  A  secret  remnant 
of  pagans;  ^  pagauSj  wi10  stiH  lurked  in  the  most  refined  and 
most  rustic  conditions  of  mankind,  excited  the  indignation  of 
the  Christians,  who  were  perhaps  unwilling  that  any  strangers 
should  be  the  witnesses  of  their  intestine  quarrels.  A  bishop 
was  named  as  the  inquisitor  of  the  faith,  and  his  diligence 
soon  discovered,  in  the  court  and  city,  the  magistrates,  law- 
yers, physicians,  and  sophists,  who  still  cherished  the  supersti- 
tion of  the  Greeks.  They  were  sternly  informed  that  they 
must  choose  without  delay  between  the  displeasure  of  Jupiter 
or  Justinian,  and  that  their  aversion  to  the  Gospel  could  no 
longer  be  disguised  under  the  scandalous  mask  of  indifference 
or  impiety.  The  Patrician  Photius  perhaps  alone  was  re- 
solved to  live  and  to  die  like  his  ancestors :  he  enfranchised 
himself  with  the  stroke  of  a  dagger,  and  left  his  tyrant  the 
poor  consolation  of  exposing  with  ignominy  the  lifeless  corpse 
of  the  fugitive.  His  weaker  brethren  submitted  to  their 
earthly  monarch,  underwent  the  ceremony  of  baptism,  and 
labored,  by  their  extraordinary  zeal,  to  erase  the  suspicion,  or 
to  expiate  the  guilt,  of  idolatry.  The  native  country  of  Ho- 
mer, and  the  theatre  of  the  Trojan  war,  still  retained  the  last 
sparks  of  his  mythology :  by  the  care  of  the  same  bishop,  sev- 
enty thousand  pagans  were  detected  and  converted  in  Asia, 
Phrygia,  Lydia,  and  Caria ;  ninety-six  churches  were  built  for 
the  new  proselytes ;  and  linen  vestments,  Bibles  and  liturgies, 
and  vases  of  gold  and  silver,  were  supplied  by  the 
pious  munificence  of  Justinian.8*  The  Jews,  who 
had  been  gradually  stripped  of  their  immunities,  were  op* 

86  Theophan.  Chron.  p.  153  [torn.  i.  p.  276,  edit.  Bonn].  John,  the  Monophy- 
site  Bishop  of  Asia,  is  a  more  authentic  witness  of  this  transaction,  in  which  ha 
was  himself  employed  by  the  emperor  (Asseman.  Bib.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  85). 


A.D.  519-565.]  PERSECUTIONS  OF  JUSTINIAN.  677 

pressed  by  a  vexatious  law,  which  compelled  them  to  observe 
the  festival  of  Easter  the  same  day  on  which  it  was  celebrated 
by  the  Christians.87  And  they  might  complain  with  the  more 
reason,  since  the  Catholics  themselves  did  not  agree  with  the 
astronomical  calculations  of  their  sovereign :  the  people  of 
Constantinople  delayed  the  beginning  of  their  Lent  a  whole 
week  after  it  had  been  ordained  by  authority ;  and  they  had 
the  pleasure  of  fasting  seven  days,  while  meat  was  exposed 
ofsamar-  f°r  sa^e  DJ  the  command  of  the  emperor.  The  Sa- 
ltans, maritans  of  Palestine88  were  a  motley  race,  an  am- 
biguous sect,  rejected  as  Jews  by  the  pagans,  by  the  Jews  as 
schismatics,  and  by  the  Christians  as  idolaters.  The  abomi- 
nation of  the  cross  had  already  been  planted  on  their  holy 
mount  of  Garizim,89  but  the  persecution  of  Justinian  offered 
only  the  alternative  of  baptism  or  rebellion.  They  chose  the 
latter :  under  the  standard  of  a  desperate  leader  they  rose  in 
arms,  and  retaliated  their  wrongs  on  the  lives,  the  property, 
and  the  temples  of  a  defenceless  people.  The  Samaritans 
were  finally  subdued  by  the  regular  forces  of  the  East :  twen- 
ty thousand  were  slain,  twenty  thousand  were  sold  by  the 
Arabs  to  the  infidels  of  Persia  and  India,  and  the  remains  of 
that  unhappy  nation  atoned  for  the  crime  of  treason  by  the 
sin  of  hypocrisy.  It  has  been  computed  that  one  hundred 
thousand  Roman  subjects  were  extirpated  in  the  Samaritan 
war,90  which  converted  the  once  fruitful  province  into  a  deso- 

81  Compare  Procopius  (Hist.  Arcan.  c.  28  [torn.  iii.  p.  156,  edit.  Bonn]  and  AI- 
eman's  Notes)  with  Theophanes  (Chron.  p.  190  [torn.  i.  p.  340,  edit.  Bonn]).  The 
Council  of  Nice  has  intrusted  the  patriarch,  or  rather  the  astronomers,  of  Alexan- 
dria, with  the  annual  proclamation  of  Easter ;  and  we  still  read,  or  rather  we  do 
not  read,  many  of  the  Paschal  epistles  of  St.  Cyril.  Since  the  reign  of  Monophy- 
tism  in  Egypt,  the  Catholics  were  perplexed  by  such  a  foolish  prejudice  as  that 
which  so  long  opposed,  among  the  Protestants,  the  reception  of  the  Gregorian  style. 

88  For  the  religion  and  history  of  the  Samaritans,  consult  Basnage,  Histoire  des 
Juifs,  a  learned  and  impartial  work. 

89  Sichem,  Neapolis,  Napious,  the  ancient  and  modern  seat  of  the  Samaritans,  \3 
situate  in  a  valley  between  the  barren  Ebal,  the  mountain  of  cursing  to  the  north, 
and  the  fruitful  Garizim,  or  mountain  of  cursing  to  the  south,  ten  or  eleven  hours' 
travel  from  Jerusalem.     See  Maundrell,  Journey  from  Aleppo,  etc.,  p.  59-63. 

90  Procop.  Anecdot.  c.  11  [p.  75,  edit.  Bonn]  ;  Theophan.  Chron.  p.  122  [vol.  i. 
p.  274,  edit.  Bonn] ;  Johu  Malala,  Cbron,  torn,  jj,  p,  62  [p,  ii7,  edit.  Bonn].     I 


678  JUSTINIAN'S  OETHODOXY.  [Ch.XLYH 

late  and  smoking  wilderness.  But  in  the  creed  of  Justinian 
the  guilt  of  murder  could  not  be  applied  to  the  slaughter  of 
unbelievers ;  and  he  piously  labored  to  establish  with  fire  and 
sword  the  unity  of  the  Christian  faith.91 

With  these  sentiments,  it  was  incumbent  on  him,  at  least, 
to  be  always  in  the  right.  In  the  first  years  of  his  adminis- 
nia  ortho-  tration  he  signalized  his  zeal  as  the  disciple  and  pa- 
doxy.  ^ron  of  orthodoxy :  the  reconciliation  of  the  Greeks 

and  Latins  established  the  tome  of  St.  Leo  as  the  creed  of  the 
emperor  and  the  empire ;  the  ISTestorians  and  Eutychians  were 
exposed,  on  either  side,  to  the  double  edge  of  persecution ; 
and  the  four  synods  of  Nice,  Constantinople,  Ephesus,  and 
Chalcedon  were  ratified  by  the  code  of  a  Catholic  law-giver.02 
But  while  Justinian  strove  to  maintain  the  uniformity  of  faith 
and  worship,  his  wife  Theodora,  whose  vices  were  not  incom- 
patible with  devotion,  had  listened  to  the  Monophysite  teach- 
ers ;  and  the  open  or  clandestine  enemies  of  the  Church  re- 
vived and  multiplied  at  the  smile  of  their  gracious  patroness. 
The  capital,  the  palace,  the  nuptial  bed,  were  torn  by  spiritual 
discord;  yet  so  doubtful  was  the  sincerity  of  the  royal  con- 
„,   m  sorts,  that  their  seeming  disagreement  was  imputed 

The  Three  '  °  ?       .  * 

chapters.       by  many  to  a  secret  and  mischievous  confederacy 

a.d.  532-69S.  J    ,  J  .  .  J 

against  the  religion  and  happiness  of  their  peo- 
ple.03   The  famous  dispute  of  the  thkee  chapters,94  which  has 

remember  an  observation,  half  philosophical,  half  superstitious,  that  the  province 
which  had  been  ruined  by  the  bigotry  of  Justinian  was  the  same  through  which 
the  Mahometans  penetrated  into  the  empire. 

91  The  expression  of  Procopins  is  remarkable :  oi  yap  ol  sdoicei  <pavoQ  avQprfi- 
mov  elvai,  r\v  yt  firj  rrjg  avrov  do^rjg  01  teXevtwvtsq  ti>xouv  ovteq.  Anecdot.  c.  13 
[p.  84,  edit.  Bonn]. 

92  See  the  Chronicle  of  Victor,  p.  328,  and  the  original  evidence  of  the  laws  of 
Justinian.  During  the  first  years  of  his  reign,  Baronius  himself  is  in  extreme 
good  humor  with  the  emperor,  who  courted  the  popes  till  he  got  them  into  his 
power. 

93  Procopius,  Anecdot.  c.  13 ;  Evagrius,  1.  iv.  c.  10.  If  the  ecclesiastical  nev- 
er read  the  secret  historian,  their  common  suspicion  proves  at  least  the  general 
hatred. 

94  On  the  subject  of  the  three  chapters,  the  original  acts  of  the  fifth  general 
council  of  Constantinople  supply  much  useless  though  authentic  knowledge  (Con- 
cil.  torn.  vi.  p.  1-419.)  The  Greek  Evagrius  is  less  copious  and  correct  (1.  iv.  c.  38) 
than  the  three  zealous  Africans,  Facundus  (in  his  twelve  books,  "De  tribus  capi' 


A.D.  533-698.]  THE  THREE  CHAPTERS.  679 

filled  more  volumes  than  it  deserves  lines,  is  deeply  marked 
with  this  subtle  and  disingenuous  spirit.  It  was  now  three 
hundred  years  since  the  body  of  Origen05  had  been  eaten  by 
the  worms:  his  soul,  of  which  he  held  the  pre-existence,  was 
in  the  hands  of  its  Creator ;  but  his  writings  were  eagerly 
perused  by  the  monks  of  Palestine.  In  these  writings  the 
piercing  eye  of  Justinian  descried  more  than  ten  metaphys- 
ical errors ;  and  the  primitive  doctor,  in  the  company  of 
Pythagoras  and  Plato,  was  devoted  by  the  clergy  to  the  eter- 
nity of  hell-fire,  which  he  had  presumed  to  deny.  Under  the 
cover  of  this  precedent  a  treacherous  blow  was  aimed  at  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon.  The  fathers  had  listened  without  im- 
patience to  the  praise  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  ;96  and  their 
justice  or  indulgence  had  restored  both  Theodoret  of  Cyrrhus 
and  Ibas  of  Edessa  to  the  communion  of  the  Church.  But 
the  characters  of  these  Oriental  bishops  were  tainted  with  the 
reproach  of  heresy ;  the  first  had  been  the  master,  the  two 
others  were  the  friends,  of  Kestorius :  their  most  suspicious 
passages  were  accused  under  the  title  of  the  three  chapters; 
and  the  condemnation  of  their  memory  must  involve  the 
honor  of  a  synod  whose  name  was  pronounced  with  sincere 
or  affected  reverence  by  the  Catholic  world.  If  these  bish- 
ops, whether  innocent  or  guilty,  were  annihilated  in  the  sleep 
of  death,  they  would  not  probably  be  awakened  by  the  clam- 


tulis,"  which  are  most  correctly  published  by  Sirmond),  Liberatus  (in  his  Brevia- 
rium,  c.  22,  23,  24),  and  Victor  Tununensis  in  his  Chronicle  (in  torn.  i.  Antiq. 
Lect.  Canisii,  p.  330-334).  The  Liber  Pontificalis,  or  Anastasius  (in  Vigilio,  Pe- 
lagio,  etc.),  is  original  Italian  evidence.  The  modern  reader  will  derive  some  in- 
formation from  Dupin  (Biblioth.  Eccles.  torn.  v.  p.  189-207)  and  Basnage  (Hist, 
de  l'Eglise,  torn.  i.  p.  519-541) ;  yet  the  latter  is  too  firmly  resolved  to  depreciate 
the  authority  and  character  of  the  popes. 

95  Origen  had,  indeed,  too  great  a  propensity  to  imitate  the  ■kKuvh]  and  Bwasteia 
of  the  old  philosophers  (Justinian,  ad  Mennam,  in  Concil.  torn.  vi.  p.  356).  His 
moderate  opinions  were  too  repugnant  to  the  zeal  of  the  Church,  and  he  was  found 
guilty  of  the  heresy  of  reason. 

96  Basnage  (Prasfat.  p.  11-14,  ad  torn.  i.  Antiq.  Lect.  Canis.)  has  fairly  weighed 
the  guilt  and  innocence  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia.  If  he  composed  10,000  vol- 
umes, as  many  errors  would  be  a  charitable  allowance.  In  all  the  subsequent  cat- 
alogues of  heresiarchs,  he  alone,  without  his  two  brethren,  is  included ;  and  it  is 
the  duty  of  Asseman  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  iv.  p.  203-207)  to  justify  the  sentence. 


680  FIFTH  GENEKAL  COUNCIL.  [Ch.  XLVH 

or  which,  after  a  hundred  years,  was  raised  over  their  grave. 
If  they  were  already  in  the  fangs  of  the  demon,  their  tor- 
ments could  neither  be  aggravated  nor  assuaged  by  human 
industry.  If  in  the  company  of  saints  and  angels  they  en- 
joyed the  rewards  of  piety,  they  must  have  smiled  at  the  idle 
fury  of  the  theological  insects  who  still  crawled  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth.  The  foremost  of  these  insects,  the  Emperor 
of  the  Romans,  darted  his  sting,  and.  distilled  his  venom,  per- 
haps without  discerning  the  true  motives  of  Theodora  and 
her  ecclesiastical  faction.  The  victims  were  no  longer  sub- 
ject to  his  power,  and  the  vehement  style  of  his  edicts  could 
only  proclaim  their  damnation,  and  invite  the  clergy  of  the 
East  to  join  in  a  full  chorus  of  curses  and  anathemas.  The 
East,  with  some  hesitation,  consented  to  the  voice  of  her  sov- 
,   ereign :   the  fifth  general  council,  of  three  patri- 

Fifth  general  .&  *?  .  '  .  .  r 

couocii-sec-    archs  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-nve  bishops,  was 

ondofCon-  .  J  -n 

stantinopie.  held  at  Constantinople ;  and  the  authors,  as  well  as 
May  4-'  the  defenders  of  the  three  chapters,  were  separated 

from  the  communion  ol  the  saints,  and  solemnly 
delivered  to  the  prince  of  darkness.  But  the  Latin  Churches 
were  more  jealous  of  the  honor  of  Leo  and  the  Synod  of 
Chalcedon  ;  and  if  they  had  fought  as  they  usually  did  under 
the  standard  of  Home,  they  might  have  prevailed  in  the  cause 
of  reason  and  humanity.  But  their  chief  was  a  prisoner  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy  ;  the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  which  had 
been  disgraced  by  the  simony,  was  betrayed  by  the  cowardice, 
of  Yigilius,  who  yielded,  after  a  long  and  inconsistent  strug- 
gle, to  the  despotism  of  Justinian  and  the  sophistry  of  the 
Greeks.  His  apostasy  provoked  the  indignation  of  the  Lat- 
ins, and  no  more  than  two  bishops  could  be  found  who  would 
impose  their  hands  on  his  deacon  and  successor  Pelagius. 
Yet  the  perseverance  of  the  popes  insensibly  transferred  to 
their  adversaries  the  appellation  of  schismatics ;  the  Illyrian- 
African,  and  Italian  Churches  were  oppressed  by  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  powers,  not  without  some  effort  of  military 
force;"  the  distant  barbarians  transcribed  the  creed  of  the 

w  See  the  complaints  of  Liberates  and  Victor,  and  the  exhortations  of  Pope 


A.D.5G4.]  HEKESY  OF  JUSTINIAN.  681 

Vatican,  and,  in  the  period  of  a  century,  the  schism  of  the 
three  chapters  expired  in  an  obscure  angle  of  the  Venetian 
province.08  But  the  religious  discontent  of  the  Italians  had 
already  promoted  the  conquests  of  the  Lombards,  and  the  Ro- 
mans themselves  were  accustomed  to  suspect  the  faith,  and  to 
detest  the  government,  of  their  Byzantine  tyrant. 

Justinian  was  neither  steady  nor  consistent  in  the  nice  proc- 
ess of  fixing  his  volatile  opinions  and  those  of  his  subjects. 
In  his  youth  he  was  offended  by  the  slightest  dc- 

Heresy  of  ,       J  . 

Justinian.  viation  from  the  orthodox  line :  in  his  old  age  he 
transgressed  the  measure  of  temperate  heresy,  and 
the  Jacobites,  not  less  than  the  Catholics,  were  scandalized 
by  his  declaration  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  incorruptible, 
and  that  his  manhood  was  never  subject  to  any  wants  and  in- 
firmities, the  inheritance  of  our  mortal  flesh.  This  fantastic 
opinion  was  announced  in  the  last  edicts  of  Justinian;  and  at 
the  moment  of  his  seasonable  departure,  the  clergy  had  re- 
fused to  subscribe,  the  prince  was  prepared  to  persecute,  and 
the  people  were  resolved  to  suffer  or  resist.  A  bishop  of 
Treves,  secure  beyond  the  limits  of  his  power,  addressed  the 
monarch  of  the  East  in  the  language  of  authority  and  affec- 
tion. "  Most  gracious  Justinian,  remember  your  baptism  and 
your  creed.  Let  not  your  gray  hairs  be  defiled  with  heresy. 
Recall  your  fathers  from  exile,  and  your  followers  from  per- 
dition. You  cannot  be  ignorant  that  Italy  and  Gaul,  Spain 
and  Africa,  already  deplore  your  fall,  and  anathematize  your 
name.  Unless,  without  delay,  you  destroy  what  you  have 
taught ;  unless  you  exclaim  with  a  loud  voice,  I  have  erred, 


Pelagius  to  the  conqueror  and  exarch  of  Italy.  "Schisma  *  *  *  per  potestates 
publicas  opprimatur,"etc.  (Concil.  torn.  vi.  p.  467,  etc.)-  An  army  was  detained 
to  suppress  the  sedition  of  an  Illyrian  city.  See  Procopius  (De  Bell.  Goth.  1.  iv. 
c.  25  [torn.  iii.  p.  594,  edit.  Bonn]) :  wv-jrsp  'iveica  cnpiaiv  cvrolg  oi  Xpiariavot  Siapa- 
Xovrai.  He  seems  to  promise  an  ecclesiastical  history  It  would  have  been  cu- 
rious and  impartial. 

98  The  bishops  of  the  patriarchate  of  Aquileia  were  reconciled  by  Pope  Hono- 
rius  a.d.  638  (Muratori,  Annali  d'ltalia,  torn.  v.  p.  376) ;  but  they  again  relapsed, 
and  the  schism  was  not  finally  extinguished  till  698.  Fourteen  years  before,  the 
Church  of  Spain  had  overlooked  the  fifth  general  council  with  contemptuous  si- 
lence (xiii,  Concil,  Toletan,  in  Concil,  torn.  vii.  p.  4.S7-194), 


682  THE  MONOTHELITE  CONTROVERSY.       [Ch.  XLVU 

I  have  sinned,  anathema  to  Nestorius,  anathema  to  Eutyches, 
you  deliver  your  soul  to  the  same  flames  in  which  they  will 
eternally  burn."  He  died  and  made  no  sign.09  His  death 
restored  in  some  degree  the  peace  of  the  Church,  and  the 
reigns  of  his  four  successors,  Justin,  Tiberius,  Maurice,  and 
Phocas,  are  distinguished  by  a  rare,  though  fortunate,  vacancy 
in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  East.100 

The  faculties  of  sense  and  reason  are  least  capable  of  act- 
ing on  themselves ;  the  eye  is  most  inaccessible  to  the  sight, 
TheHonoth-  tne  soul  to  *ne  thought-  ;  yet  we  think,  and  even 
novei'sy."  feel,  that  one  will,  a  sole  principle  of  action,  is  es- 
A.«.629.  sential  to  a  rational  and  conscious  being.  When 
Heraclius  returned  from  the  Persian  war,  the  orthodox  hero 
consulted  his  bishops  whether  the  Christ  whom  he  adored,  of 
one  person  but  of  two  natures,  was  actuated  by  a  single  or  a 
double  will.  They  replied  in  the  singular,  and  the  emperor 
was  encouraged  to  hope  that  the  Jacobites  of  Egypt  and 
Syria  might  be  reconciled  by  the  profession  of  a  doctrine  most 
certainly  harmless  and  most  probably  true,  since  it  was  taught 
even  by  the  Nestorians  themselves.101  The  experiment  was 
tried  without  effect,  and  the  timid  or  vehement  Catholics  con- 
demned even  the  semblance  of  a  retreat  in  the  presence  of  a 
subtle  and  audacious  enemy.     The  orthodox  (the  prevailing) 


99  Nicetius,  Bishop  of  Treves  (Concil.  torn.  vi.  p.  511-513)  :  he  himself,  like 
most  of  the  Gallican  prelates  (Gregor.  Epist.  1.  vii.  Ep.  5,  in  Concil.  torn.  vi.  p.  1007), 
was  separated  from  the  communion  of  the  four  patriarchs  by  his  refusal  to  con- 
demn the  three  chapters.  Baronius  almost  pronounces  the  damnation  of  Justin- 
ian (a.d.  565,  No.  6). 

100  After  relating  the  last  heresy  of  Justinian  (1.  iv.  c.  39,  40,  41)  and  the  edict 
of  his  successor  (1.  v.  c.  3  [4]),  the  remainder  of  the  history  of  Evagrius  is  filled 
with  civil,  instead  of  ecclesiastical,  events. 

101  This  extraordinary,  and  perhaps  inconsistent,  doctrine  of  the  Nestorians,  had 
been  observed  by  La  Croze  (Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  19,  20),  and  is 
more  fully  exposed  by  Abulpharagius  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  292  ;  Hist. 
Dynast,  p.  91,  vers.  Latin.  Pocock),  and  Asseman  himself  (torn.  iv.  p.  218).  They 
seem  ignorant  that  they  might  allege  the  positive  authority  of  the  ecthesis.  *0 
fiiapog  titaropiog  KaiTrep  diaipwv  n)v  Sreiav  rov  Kvpiov  ivavQptinrtjaiv,  Kai  Sio  d<ra- 
ywv  viovg  (the  common  reproach  of  the  Monophysites),  Svo  SeXij/xara  rovruiv 
tiiruv  ovk  tToX'-irjae,  Tovvavriov  dt  rovro  fiovXiav  tHiv  *  *  *  dvo  irpoautTrajv  i£6'£aae 
(Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  205). 


a.d.639,648.]  THE  ECTHESIS  OF  HEEACLIUS.  C83 

party  devised  new  modes  of  speech,  and  argument,  and  inter- 
pretation :  to  either  nature  of  Christ  they  speciously  applied 
a  proper  and  distinct  energy;  but  the  difference  was  no  lon- 
ger visible  when  they  allowed  that  the  human  and  the  divine 
will  were  invariably  the  same.103  The  disease  was  attended 
with  the  customary  symptoms;  but  the  Greek  clergy,  as  if 
satiate  with  the  endless  controversy  of  the  incarnation,  instil- 
led a  healing  counsel  into  the  ear  of  the  prince  and  people. 
They  declarjd  themselves  Monothelites  (asserters  of  the 
unity  of  will),  but  they  treated  the  words  as  new,  the  ques- 
tions as  superfluous ;  and  recommended  a  religious  silence  as 
Theecthesis  tne  most  agreeable  to  the  prudence  and  charity  of 
AfD^639.chns'  tne  Gospel.  This  law  of  silence  was  successively 
cousian8.of  imposed  by  the  ecthesis  or  exposition  of  TIeraclius, 
a.d.  643.  t^e  fyp6  or  mo(jei  0f  liig  grandson  Constans  ;103  and 
the  imperial  edicts  were  subscribed  with  alacrity  or  reluc- 
tance by  the  four  patriarchs  of  Rome,  Constantinople,  Alexan- 
dria, and  Antioch.  But  the  bishop  and  monks  of  Jerusalem 
sounded  the  alarm :  in  the  language,  or  even  in  the  silence,  of 
the  Greeks,  the  Latin  churches  detected  a  latent  heresy ;  and 
the  obedience  of  Pope  Honorius  to  the  commands  of  his  sov- 
ereign was  retracted  and  censured  by  the  bolder  ignorance  of 
his  successors.  They  condemned  the  execrable  and  abomi- 
nable heresy  of  the  Monothelites,  who  revived  the  errors  of 
Manes,  Apollinaris,  Eutyches,  etc. ;  they  signed  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  on  the  tomb  of  St.  Peter ;  the  ink  was 
mingled  with  the  sacramental  wine,  the  blood  of  Christ ;  and 
no  ceremony  was  omitted  that  could  fill  the  superstitious 
mind  with  horror  and  affright.  As  the  representative  of  the 
Western  Church,  Pope  Martin  and  his  Lateran  synod  anath- 

102  See  the  orthodox  faith  in  Petavius  (Dogmata  Theolog.  torn.  v.  1.  ix.  c.  G-10, 
p.  433-447)  :  all  the  depths  of  this  controversy  are  sounded  in  the  Greek  dialogue 
between  Maximus  and  Pyrrhus  (ad  calcem,  torn.  viii.  Annal.  Baron,  p.  755-794), 
which  relates  a  real  conference,  and  produced  as  a  short-lived  conversion. 

103  "Impiissimam  ecthesim  *  *  *  scelerosum  typum  (Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  3G6) 
diabolicse  operationis  genimina  "  (fors.  germina,  or  else  the  Greek  ytvt'ifiaTa,  in  the 
original — Concil.  p.  3G3,  304)  are  the  expressions  of  the  eighteenth  anathema. 
The  epistle  of  Pope  Martin  to  Amandus,  a  G;illican  bishop,  stigmatizes  the  Men 
nothelites  and  their  heresy  with  equal  virulence  (p.  392). 


684  SIXTH  GENERAL  COUNCIL.  [Ch.  XLVII. 

ematized  the  perfidious  and  guilty  silence  of  the  Greeks :  one 
hundred  and  five  bishops  of  Italy,  for  the  most  part  the  sub- 
jects of  Constans,  presumed  to  reprobate  his  wicked  type  and 
the  impious  ecthesis  of  his  grandfather ;  and  to  confound  the 
authors  and  their  adherents  with  the  twenty -one  notorious 
heretics,  the  apostates  from  the  Church  and  the  organs  of  the 
devil.  Such  an  insult  under  the  tamest  reign  could  not  pass 
with  impunity.  Pope  Martin  ended  his  days  on  the  inhos- 
pitable shore  of  the  Tauric  Chersonesus,  and  his  oracle,  the 
Abbot  Maximus,  was  inhumanly  chastised  by  the  amputation 
of  his  tongue  and  his  right  hand.704  But  the  same  invincible 
spirit  survived  in  their  successors;  and  the  triumph  of  the 
Latins  avenged  their  recent  defeat  and  obliterated  the  dis- 
sixth  general  grace  of  the  three  chapters.  The  synods  of  Eome 
thirdoFcon-  were  confirmed  by  the  sixth  general  council  of  Con- 
A.nD68o°ple"  stantinople,  in  the  palace  and  the  presence  of  a  new 
^oT'esi,  Con stan tine,  a  descendant  of  Heraclius.  The  royal 
sept,  16.  convert  converted  the  Byzantine  pontiff  and  a  ma- 
jority of  the  bishops  ;106  the  dissenters,  with  their  chief,  Ma- 
carius  of  Antioch,  were  condemned  to  the  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral pains  of  heresy;  the  East  condescended  to  accept  the 
lessons  of  the  West ;  and  the  creed  was  finally  settled  which 
teaches  the  Catholics  of  every  age  that  two  wills  or  energies 
are  harmonized  in  the  person  of  Christ.  The  majesty  of  the 
pope  and  the  Koman  synod  was  represented  by  two  priests, 
one  deacon,  and  three  bishops ;  but  these  obscure  Latins  had 
neither  arms  to  compel,  nor  treasures  to  bribe,  nor  language 
to  persuade ;  and  I  am  ignorant  by  what  arts  they  could  de- 
termine the  lofty  emperor  ~>f  the  Greeks  to  abjure  the  cate- 
chism of  his  infancy,  and  to  persecute  the  religion  of  his  fa- 


104  The  sufferings  of  Martin  and  Maximus  are  described  with  pathetic  simplic- 
ity in  their  original  letters  and  acts  (Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  63-78 ;  Baron.  Annal. 
Eccles.  a.d.  656,  No.  2,  et  annos  subsequent.).  Yet  the  chastisement  of  their  dis- 
obedience, £%6pia  and  aw/xarog  aifcio/tos,  had  been  previously  announced  in  the 
Type  of  Constans  (Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  240). 

105  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  348)  most  erroneously  supposes  that  the  124 
bishops  of  the  Roman  synod  transported  themselves  to  Constantinople ;  and  by 
adding  them  to  the  168  Greeks,  thus  composes  the  sixth  council  of  292  fathers. 


a.d.  681.]  SIXTH  GENERAL  COUNCIL.  685 

thers.  Perhaps  the  monks  and  people  of  Constantinople'0* 
were  favorable  to  the  Lateran  creed,  which  is  indeed  the  least 
reasonable  of  the  two :  and  the  suspicion  is  countenanced  by 
the  unnatural  moderation  of  the  Greek  clergy,  who  appear  in 
this  quarrel  to  be  conscious  of  their  weakness.  "While  the 
synod  debated,  a  fanatic  proposed  a  more  summary  decision, 
by  raising  a  dead  man  to  life:  the  prelates  assisted  at-  the 
trial ;  but  the  acknowledged  failure  may  serve  to  indicate  that 
the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  multitude  were  not  enlist- 
ed on  the  side  of  the  Monothelites.  In  the  next  generation, 
when  the  son  of  Constantine  was  deposed  and  slain  by  the 
disciple  of  Macarius,  they  tasted  the  feast  of  revenge  and  do- 
minion; the  image  or  monument  of  the  sixth  council  was 
defaced,  and  the  original  acts  were  committed  to  the  flames. 
But  in  the  second  year  their  patron  was  cast  headlong  from 
the  throne,  the  bishops  of  the  East  were  released  from  their 
occasional  conformity,  the  Roman  faith  was  more  firmly  re- 
planted by  the  orthodox  successors  of  Bardanes,  and  the  fine 
problems  of  the  incarnation  were  forgotten  in  the  more  pop- 
ular and  visible  quarrel  of  the  worship  of  images.107 

Before  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  the  creed  of  the  in- 
carnation, which  had  been  defined  at  Rome  and  Constanti- 
nople, was  uniformly  preached  in  the  remote  islands  of  Brit' 
ain  and  Ireland  ;108  the  same  ideas  were  entertained,  or  rathei 


io«  The  Monothelite  Constans  was  hated  by  all,  Sia  toi  tcivto.  (says  Theophanes, 
Chron.  p.  292  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  538,  edit.  Bonn])  sjiicn'jQri  cQodpwg  napci 
irdvTOJV.  "When  the  Monothelite  monk  failed  in  his  miracle,  the  people  shouted, 
6  Xabg  aveGorjoe  (Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  1032).  But  this  was  a  natural  and  transient 
emotion,  and  I  much  fear  that  the  latter  is  an  anticipation  of  orthodoxy  in  the 
good  people  of  Constantinople. 

101  The  history  of  Monothelitism  may  be  found  in  the  Acts  of  the  Synods  of 
Rome  (torn.  vii.  p.  77-395,  601-608)  and  Constantinople  (p.  609-1429).  Baronius 
extracted  some  original  documents  from  the  Vatican  library  ;  and  his  chronology 
is  rectified  by  the  diligence  of  Pagi.  Even  Dupin  (Bibliotheque  Eccle's.  torn, 
vi.  p.  57-71)  and  Basnage  (Hist,  de  l'Eglise,  torn.  i.  p.  541-555)  afford  a  tolerable 
abridgment. 

108  In  the  Lateran  synod  of  679,  Wilfrid,  an  Anglo-Saxon  bishop,  subscribed 
"pro  omni  Aquilonari  parte  Britannia?  et  Hiberniae,  qua?  ab  Anglorum  et  Bntto- 
num,  necnon  Scotorum  et  Pictorum  gentibus  colebantur"  (Eddius,  in  Vit.  St.  Wil- 
frid., c.  31,  apud  Pagi,  Ciitica,  torn.  iii.  p.  88).     Theodore  ("magus  insula  Bri- 


686   UNION  OF  THE  GEEEK  AND  LATIN  CHURCHES.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

the  same  words  were  repeated,  by  all  the  Christians  whose 
Union  of  liturgy  was  performed  in  the  Greek  or  the  Lat- 
ind  Latin  *n  tongue.  Their  numbers  and  visible  splendor  be- 
chmches.  stowed  an  imperfect  claim  to  the  appellation  of 
Catholics :  but  in  the  East  they  were  marked  with  the  less  hon- 
orable name  of  Melchites,  or  Royalists  ;109  of  men  whose  faith, 
instead  of  resting  on  the  basis  of  Scripture,  reason,  or  tradi- 
tion, had  been  established,  and  was  still  maintained,  by  the 
arbitrary  power  of  a  temporal  monarch.  Their  adversaries 
might  allege  the  words  of  the  fathers  of  Constantinople,  who 
profess  themselves  the  slaves  of  the  king ;  and  they  might 
relate,  with  malicious  joy,  how  the  decrees  of  Chalcedon  had 
been  inspired  and  reformed  by  the  Emperor  Marcian  and  his 
virgin  bride.  The  prevailing  faction  will  naturally  inculcate 
the  duty  of  submission,  nor  is  it  less  natural  that  dissenters 
should  feel  and  assert  the  principles  of  freedom.  Under  the 
rod  of  persecution  the  Nestorians  and  Monophysites  degener- 
ated into  rebels  and  fugitives ;  and  the  most  ancient  and  use- 
ful allies  of  Rome  were  taught  to  consider  the  emperor  not 
as  the  chief  but  as  the  enemy  of  the  Christians.  Language, 
th6  Reading  principle  which  unites  or  separates  the  tribes  of 

tannic  archiepiscopus  et  philosophus  ")  was  long  expected  at  Rome  (Concil.  torn, 
vii.  p.  714),  but  he  contented  himself  with  holding  (a.d.  680)  his  provincial  synod 
of  Hatfield,  in  which  he  received  the  decrees  of  Pope  Martin  and  the  first  Lateran 
council  against  the  Monothelites  (Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  597,  etc.).  Theodore,  a 
monk  of  Tarsus,  in  Cilicia,  had  been  named  to  the  primacy  of  Britain  by  Pope 
Vitalian  (a.d.  668,  see  Baronius  and  Pagi),  whose  esteem  for  his  learning  and  pi- 
ety was  tainted  by  some  distrust  of  his  national  character — "Ne  quid  contrarium 
veritati  fidei,  Grascorum  more,  in  ecclesiam  cui  praesset  introduceret."  The  Ci- 
lician  was  sent  from  Rome  to  Canterbury  under  the  tuition  of  an  African  guide 
(Bedae  Hist.  Eccles.  Anglorum,  1.  iv.  c.  1).  He  adhered  to  the  Roman  doctrine; 
and  the  same  creed  of  the  incarnation  has  been  uniformly  transmitted  from  Theo- 
dore to  the  modern  primates,  whose  sound  understanding  is  perhaps  seldom  en- 
gaged with  that  abstruse  mystery. 

109  This  name,  unknown  till  the  tenth  century,  appears  to  be  of  Syriac  origin. 
It  was  invented  by  the  Jacobites,  and  eagerly  adopted  by  the  Nestorians  and  Ma- 
hometans ;  but  it  was  accepted  without  shame  by  the  Catholics,  and  is  frequently 
used  in  the  Annals  of  Eutychius  (Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  507,  etc., 
torn.  iii.  p.  355  ;  Renaudot,  Hist.  Patriarch.  Alexandrin.  p.  1 19).  'H,ue7c  SovXot 
tov  BatnXtwg,  was  the  acclamation  of  the  fathers  of  Constantinople  (Concil.  torn, 
vii.  p.  765). 


a.d.  681.]        SEPARATION  OF  THE  ORIENTAL  SECTS.  637 

mankind,  soon  discriminated  the  sectaries  of  the  East  by  a 
Perpetual  peculiar  and  perpetual  badge  which  abolished  the 
tt3  oriental'  means  of  intercourse  and  the  hope  of  reconciliation, 
sects.  rp^g  ]ong  dominion  of  the  Greeks,  their  colonies, 

and  above  all  their  eloquence,  had  propagated  a  language 
doubtless  the  most  perfect  that  has  been  contrived  by  the  art 
of  man.  Yet  the  body  of  the  people,  both  in  Syria  and  Egypt, 
still  persevered  in  the  use  of  their  national  idioms ;  with  this 
difference,  however,  that  the  Coptic  was  confined  to  the  rude 
and  illiterate  peasants  of  the  Kile,  while  the  Syriac,110  from 
the  mountains  of  Assyria  to  the  Red  Sea,  was  adapted  to  the 
higher  topics  of  poetry  and  argument.  Armenia  and  Abys- 
sinia were  infected  by  the  speech  or  learning  of  the  Greeks; 
and  their  barbaric  tongues,  which  have  been  revived  in  the 
studies  of  modern  Europe,  were  unintelligible  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Roman  empire.  The  Syriac  and  the  Coptic,  the 
Armenian  and  the  iEthiopic,  are  consecrated  in  the  service 
of  their  respective  churches ;  and  their  theology  is  enriched 
by  domestic  versions111  both  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  most 
popular  fathers.  After  a  period  of  thirteen  hundred  and  six- 
ty years,  the  spark  of  controversy,  first  kindled  by  a  sermon 
of  Nestorius,  still  burns  in  the  bosom  of  the  East,  and  the  hos- 
tile communions  still  maintain  the  faith  and  discipline  of  their 
founders.  In  the  most  abject  state  of  ignorance,  poverty,  and 
servitude,  the  Nestorians  and  Monophysites  reject  the  spiritual 
supremacy  of  Rome,  and  cherish  the  toleration  of  their  Turk- 
ish masters,  which  allows  them  to  anathematize,  on  one  hand, 

110  The  Syriac,  which  the  natives  revere  as  the  primitive  language,  was  divided 
into  three  dialects.  1.  The  Aramaean,  as  it  was  refined  at  Edessa  and  the  cities 
of  Mesopotamia;  2.  The  Palestine,  which  was  used  in  Jerusalem,  Damascus, 
and  the  rest  of  Syria ;  3.  The  Nabathcean,  the  rustic  idiom  of  the  mountains  of 
Assyria  and  the  villages  of  Irak  (Gregor.  Abulpharag.  Hist.  Dynast,  p.  11).  On 
the  Syriac,  see  Ebed-Jesu  (Asseman.  torn.  iii.  p.  326,  etc.),  whose  prejudice  alona 
could  prefer  it  to  the  Arabic. 

111  I  shall  not  enrich  my  ignorance  with  the  spoils  of  Simon,  Walton,  Mill, 
Watstein,  Assemannus,  Ludolphus,  La  Croze,  whom  I  have  consulted  with  soma 
care.  It  appears:  1.  That,  of  all  the  versions  which  are  celebrated  by  the  fathers, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  any  are  now  extant  in  their  pristine  integrity.  2.  That  the 
Syriac  has  the  best  claim,  and  that  the  consent  of  the  Oriental  sects  is  a  proof  that 
it  is  more  ancient  &an  their  sckisna. 


688  THE  NESTOKIANS.  [CaXLVIL 

St.  Cyril  and  the  Synod  of  Ephesus ;  on  the  other,  Pope  Leo 
and  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  The  weight  which  they  cast 
into  the  downfall  of  the  Eastern  empire  demands  our  notice, 
and  the  reader  may  be  amused  with  the  various  prospect  of — 
I.  The  Nestorians ;  II.  The  Jacobites  ;lia  III.  The  Maronites ; 
IV.  The  Armenians ;  Y.  The  Copts ;  and,  VI.  The  Abyssinians. 
To  the  three  former  the  Syriac  is  common ;  but  of  the  lat- 
ter, each  is  discriminated  by  the  use  of  a  national  idiom.  Yet 
the  modern  natives  of  Armenia  and  Abyssinia  would  be  in- 
capable of  conversing  with  their  ancestors ;  and  the  Christians 
of  Egypt  and  Syria,  who  reject  the  religion,  have  adopted  the 
language,  of  the  Arabians.  The  lapse  of  time  has  seconded 
the  sacerdotal  arts ;  and  in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West 
the  Deity  is  addressed  in  an  obsolete  tongue  unknown  to  the 
majority  of  the  congregation. 

I.  Both  in  his  native  and  his  episcopal  province  the  heresy 
of  the  unfortunate  Nestorius  was  speedily  obliterated.  The 
i.  the  nes-  Oriental  bishops,  who  at  Ephesus  had  resisted  to 
tobians,  his  face  the  arrogance  of  Cyril,  were  mollified  by 
his  tardy  concessions.  The  same  prelates,  or  their  successors, 
subscribed,  not  without  a  murmur,  the  decrees  of  Chalcedon ; 
the  power  of  the  Monophy sites  reconciled  them  with  the 
Catholics  in  the  conformity  of  passion,  of  interest,  and,  insen- 
sibly, of  belief ;  and  their  last  reluctant  sigh  was  breathed  in 
the  defence  of  the  three  chapters.  Their  dissenting  brethren, 
less  moderate  or  more  sincere,  were  crushed  by  the  penal 
laws ;  and,  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Justinian,  it  became  diffi- 
cult to  find  a  church  of  Nestorians  within  the  limits  of  the 
Roman  empire.  Beyond  those  limits  they  had  discovered  a 
new  world  in  which  they  might  hope  for  liberty  and  aspire 
to  conquest.     In  Persia,  notwithstanding  the  resistance  of  the 

112  In  the  account  of  the  Monophysites  and  Nestorians  I  am  deeply  indebted  to 
the  Bibliotheca  Orientalis  Clementino-Vaticana  of  Joseph  Simon  Assemannus. 
That  learned  Maronite  was  despatched  in  the  year  1715  by  Pope  Clement  XI.  to 
visit  the  monasteries  of  Egypt  and  Syria  in  search  of  MSS.  His  four  folio  vol- 
umes, published  at  Rome  1719-1728,  contain  a  part  only,  though  perhaps  the  most 
valuable,  of  his  extensive  project.  As  a  native  and  as  a  scholar,  he  possessed  the 
Syriac  literature;  and,  though  a  dependent  of  Rome,  he  wishes  to  be  moderate 
end  candid. 


a.d.  681.]  THE  NEST0RIAN8.  C89 

Magi,  Christianity  had  struck  a  deep  root,  and  the  nations  of 
the  East  reposed  under  its  salutary  shade.  The  catholic,  or 
primate,  resided  in  the  capital:  in  Ms  synods,  and  in  their  di- 
oceses, his  metropolitans,  bishops,  and  clergy  represented  the 
pomp  and  order  of  a  regular  hierarchy :  they  rejoiced  in  the 
increase  of  proselytes,  who  were  converted  from  the  Zenda- 
vesta  to  the  Gospel,  from  the  secular  to  the  monastic  life ;  and 
their  zeal  was  stimulated  by  the  presence  of  an  artful  and 
formidable  enemy.  The  Persian  Church  had  been  founded 
by  the  missionaries  of  Syria ;  and  their  language,  discipline, 
and  doctrine  were  closely  interwoven  with  its  original  frame. 
The  catholics  were  elected  and  ordained  by  their  own  suffra- 
gans ;  but  their  filial  dependence  on  the  patriarchs  of  Anti- 
och  is  attested  by  the  canons  of  the  Oriental  Church."3  In 
the  Persian  school  of  Edessa114  the  rising  generations  of  the 
faithful  imbibed  their  theological  idiom :  they  studied  in  the 
Syriac  version  the  ten  thousand  volumes  of  Theodore  of  Mop- 
suestia ;  and  they  revered  the  apostolic  faith  and  holy  mar- 
tyrdom of  his  disciple  Nestorius,  whose  person  and  language 
were  equally  unknown  to  the  nations  beyond  the  Tigris.  The 
first  indelible  lesson  of  Ibas,  Bishop  of  Edessa,  taught  them  to 
execrate  the^y^'aw<s,who,in  the  Synod  of  Ephesus,  had  im- 
piously confounded  the  two  natures  of  Christ.  The  flight  of 
the  masters  and  scholars,  who  were  twice  expelled  from  the 
Athens  of  Syria,  dispersed  a  crowd  of  missionaries  inflamed 

113  See  the  Arabic  canons  of  Nice  in  the  translation  of  Abraham  Ecchellensis, 
Nos.  37,  38,  39,  40  ;  Concil.  torn.  ii.  p.  335,  336,  edit.  Venet.  These  vulgar  titles, 
Nicene  and  Arabic,  are  both  apocryphal.  The  Council  of  Nice  enacted  no  more 
than  twenty  canons  (Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles.  1.  i.  c.  8) ;  and  the  remainder,  sev- 
enty or  eighty,  were  collected  from  the  synods  of  the  Greek  Church.  The  Syr- 
iac edition  of  Maruthas  is  no  longer  extant  (Asseman.  Biblioth.  Oriental,  torn.  i. 
p.  195  ;  torn.  iii.  p.  74),  and  the  Arabic  version  is  marked  with  many  recent  inter- 
polations. Yet  this  code  contains  many  curious  relics  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  ; 
and  since  it  is  equally  revered  by  all  the  Eastern  communions,  it  was  probably 
finished  before  the  schism  of  the  Nestorians  and  Jacobites  (Fabric.  Biblioth.  Graec. 
torn.  xi.  p.  363-367). 

1,4  Theodore  the  Reader  (1.  il.  c.  6,  49,  ad  calcem  Hist.  Eccles.)  has  noticed 
this  Persian  school  of  Edessa.  Its  ancient  splendor  and  the  two  eras  of  its  down- 
fall (a.d.  431  and  489)  are  clearly  discussed  by  Assemanni  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn. 
ii.  p.  402 ;  iii.  p.  376, 378 ;  iv.  p.  70, 924). 

IV.— 44 


690  THE  NESTORIANS  MASTERS  OF  PERSIA.    [Ch.XLVII. 

by  the  double  zeal  of  religion  and  revenge.  And  the  rigid 
unity  of  the  Monophysites,  who,  under  the  reigns  of  Zeno 
and  Anastasius,  had  invaded  the  thrones  of  the  East,  provoked 
their  antagonists  in  a  land  of  freedom  to  avow  a  moral,  rather 
than  a  physical,  union  of  the  two  persons  of  Christ.  Since 
the  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel  the  Sassanian  kings  beheld 
with  an  eye  of  suspicion  a  race  of  aliens  and  apostates  who 
had  embraced  the  religion,  and  who  might  favor  the  cause,  of 
the  hereditary  foes  of  their  country.  The  royal  edicts  had 
often  prohibited  their  dangerous  correspondence  with  the 
Syrian  clergy :  the  progress  of  the  schism  was  grateful  to  the 
jealous  pride  of  Perozes,  and  he  listened  to  the  eloquence  of 
an  artful  prelate,  who  painted  Nestorius  as  the  friend  of  Per- 
sia, and  urged  him  to  secure  the  fidelity  of  his  Christian  sub- 
jects by  granting  a  just  preference  to  the  victims  and  ene- 
mies of  the  Roman  tyrant.  The  Nestorians  composed  a  large 
majority  of  the  clergy  and  people :  they  were  encouraged  by 
the  smile,  and  armed  with  the  sword,  of  despotism  ;  yet  many 
of  their  weaker  brethren  were  startled  at  the  thought  of  break- 
ing loose  from  the  communion  of  the  Christian  world,  and 
the  blood  of  seven  thousand  seven  hundred  Monophysites  or 
Catholics  confirmed  the  uniformity  of  faith  and  discipline  in 
the  churches  of  Persia."5     Their  ecclesiastical  institutions  are 

distinguished  by  a  liberal  principle  of  reason,  or  at 
of  Persia.       least  of  policy :  the  austerity  of  the  cloister  was 

relaxed  and  gradually  forgotten :  houses  of  charity 
were  endowed  for  the  education  of  orphans  and  foundlings ; 
the  law  of  celibacy,  so  forcibly  recommended  to  the  Greeks 
and  Latins,  was  disregarded  by  the  Persian  clergy ;  and  the 
number  of  the  elect  was  multiplied  by  the  public  and  reit- 
erated nuptials  of  the  priests,  the  bishops,  and  even  the  pa- 
triarch himself.  To  this  standard  of  natural  and  religious 
freedom  myriads  of  fugitives  resorted  from  all  the  provinces 

m  A  dissertation  on  the  state  of  the  Nestorians  has  swelled  in  the  hands  of 
Assemanni  to  a  folio  volume  of  950  pages,  and  his  learned  researches  are  digested 
in  the  most  lucid  order.  Besides  this  fourth  volume  of  the  Bibliotheca  Orientalisy 
the  extracts  in  the  three  preceding  tomes  (torn.  i.  p.  203 ;  ii.  p.  321-463 ;  iii.  64- 
T0,  378-395,  etc.,  403-408,  580-589)  may  be  usefully  consulted. 


AJ>.  500-1200.]  THEIR  MISSIONS.  C91 

of  the  Eastern  empire ;  the  narrow  bigotry  of  Justinian  was 
punished  by  the  emigration  of  his  most  industrious  subjects; 
they  transported  into  Persia  the  arts  both  of  peace  and  war: 
and  those  who  deserved  the  favor  were  promoted  in  the  ser- 
vice of  a  discerning  monarch.  The  arms  of  Nnshirvan,  and 
his  fiercer  grandson,  were  assisted  with  advice,  and  money, 
and  troops  by  the  desperate  sectaries  who  still  lurked  in 
their  native  cities  of  the  East :  their  zeal  was  rewarded  with 
the  gift  of  the  Catholic  churches ;  but  when  those  cities  and 
churches  were  recovered  by  Heraclius,  their  open  profession 
of  treason  and  heresy  compelled  them  to  seek  a  refuge  in 
the  realm  of  their  foreign  ally.  But  the  seeming  tranquil- 
lity of  the  ISTestorians  was  often  endangered  and  sometimes 
overthrown.  They  were  involved  in  the  common  evils  of 
Oriental  despotism :  their  enmity  to  Home  could  not  always 
atone  for  their  attachment  to  the  Gospel:  and  a  colony  of 
three  hundred  thousand  Jacobites,  the  captives  of  Apamea 
and  Antioch,  was  permitted  to  erect  a  hostile  altar  in  the 
face  of  the  catholic  and  in  the  sunshine  of  the  court.  In 
his  last  treaty  Justinian  introduced  some  conditions  which 
tended  to  enlarge  and  fortify  the  toleration  of  Christian- 
ity in  Persia.  The  emperor,  ignorant  of  the  rights  of  con- 
science, was  incapable  of  pity  or  esteem  for  the  heretics  who 
denied  the  authority  of  the  holy  synods:  but  he  flattered 
himself  that  they  would  gradually  perceive  the  temporal  ben- 
efits of  union  with  the  empire  and  the  Church  of  Rome ;  and 
if  he  failed  in  exciting  their  gratitude,  he  might  hope  to 
provoke  the  jealousy  of  their  sovereign.  In  a  later  age  the 
Lutherans  have  been  burned  at  Paris  and  protected  in  Ger- 
many, by  the  superstition  and  policy  of  the  most  Christian 
king. 

The  desire  of  gaining  souls  for  God  and  subjects  for  the 

Church  has  excited  in  every  age  the  diligence  of  the  Chris- 

,    tian  priests.    From  the  conquest  of  Persia  they  car- 

eious  in  Tar-   ried  their  spiritual  arms  to  the  north,  the  east,  and 

tary,  India,  i-ii  t    •  eir-i  i 

china,  etc.      the  south ;  and  the  simplicity  ot  the  Gospel  was 

fashioned  and  painted  with  the  colors  of  the  Syriac 

theology.     In  the  sixth  century,  according  to  the  report  of 


C02  MISSIONS  OF  THE  NESTORIANS.  [Ch.  XLVII 

a  ISTestorian  traveller,116  Christianity  was  successfully  preached 
to  the  Bactrians,  the  Huns,  the  Persians,  the  Indians,  the  Per- 
sarmenians,  the  Medes,  and  the  Elamites :  the  barbaric  church- 
es, from  the  Gulf  of  Persia  to  the  Caspian  Sea,  were  almost 
infinite ;  and  their  recent  faith  was  conspicuous  in  the  num- 
ber and  sanctity  of  their  monks  and  martyrs.  The  pepper 
coast  of  Malabar  and  the  isles  of  the  ocean,  Socotora  and  Cey- 
lon, were  peopled  with  an  increasing  multitude  of  Christians ; 
and  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  those  sequestered  regions  de- 
rived their  ordination  from  the  Catholic  of  Babylon.  In  a 
subsequent  age  the  zeal  of  the  Nestorians  overleaped  the  lim- 
its which  had  confined  the  ambition  and  curiosity  both  of  the 
Greeks  and  Persians.  The  missionaries  of  Balch  and  Samar- 
cand  pursued  without  fear  the  footsteps  of  the  roving  Tartar, 
and  insinuated  themselves  into  the  camps  of  the  valleys  of 
Imaus  and  the  banks  of  the  Selinga.  They  exposed  a  meta- 
physical creed  to  those  illiterate  shepherds :  to  those  sangui- 
nary warriors  they  recommended  humanity  and  repose.  Yet 
a  khan,  whose  power  they  vainly  magnified,  is  said  to  have 
received  at  their  hands  the  rites  of  baptism  and  even  of  or- 
dination ;  and  the  fame  of  Prester  or  Presbyter  John1"  has 

1,6  See  the  Topographia  Christiana  of  Cosmas,  surnamed  Indicopleustes,  or  the 
Indian  navigator,  1.  iii.  p.  178,  179  ;  1.  xi.  p.  337.  The  entire  work,  of  which  some 
curious  extracts  may  be  found  in  Photius  (cod.  xxxvi.  p.  9,  10,  edit.  Hoeschel), 
Thevenot  (in  the  first  part  of  his  Relation  des  Voyages,  etc.),  and  Fabricius  (Bi- 
blioth  Grse<\  .  iii.  c.  25,  torn.  ii.  p.  603-617),  has  been  published  by  Father  Mont- 
faucon  at  Paris,  1707,  in  the  Nova  Collectio  Patrum  (torn.  ii.  p.  113-346).  It  was 
the  design  of  the  author  to  confute  the  impious  heresy  of  those  who  maintained 
that  the  earth  a  globe,  and  not  a  flat  oblong  table,  as  it  is  represented  in  the 
Scriptures  (1.  ii.  p.  138  [125  seq.]).  But  the  nonsense  of  the  monk  is  mingled 
with  the  practical  knowledge  of  the  traveller,  who  performed  his  voyage  a.d.  522, 
and  published  his  book  at  Alexandria,  a.d.  547  (1.  ii.  p.  140,  141 ;  Montfaucon, 
Prsefat.  c.  1).  The  Nestorianism  of  Cosmas,  unknown  to  his  learned  editor,  was 
detected  by  La  Croze  (Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  40-55),  and  is  confirmed 
by  Assemanni  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  iv.  p.  605,  606). 

117  In  its  long  progress  to  Mosul,  Jerusalem,  Rome,  etc.,  the  story  of  Prester 
John  evaporated  in  a  monstrous  fable,  of  which  some  features  have  been  borrow- 
ed from  the  Lama  of  Thibet  (Hist.  Ge'ne'alogique  des  Tatares,  pt.  ii.  p.  42 ;  Hist, 
de  Gengiscan,  p.  31,  etc.),  and  were  ignorantly  transferred  by  the  Portuguese  to 
the  Emperor  of  Abyssinia  (Ludolph.  Hist.  iEthiop.  Comment.  1.  ii.  c.  1).  Yet  it 
is  probable  that  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  Nestorian  Christianity  was 


a.d.  500-1200.]       MISSIONS  OF  THE  NESTORIANS.  693 

long  amused  the  credulity  of  Europe.  The  royal  convert  was 
indulged  in  the  use  of  a  portable  altar;  but  he  despatched 
an  embassy  to  the  patriarch  to  inquire  how,  in  the  season  of 
Lent,  he  should  abstain  from  animal  food,  and  how  he  might 
celebrate  the  Eucharist  in  a  desert  that  produced  neither 
corn  nor  wine.  In  their  progress  by  sea  and  land  the  Nes- 
torians  entered  China  by  the  port  of  Canton  and  the  northern 
residence  of  Sigan.  Unlike  the  senators  of  Rome,  who  as- 
sumed with  a  smile  the  characters  of  priests  and  augurs,  the 
mandarins,  who  affect  in  public  the  reason  of  philosophers, 
are  devoted  in  private  to  every  mode  of  popular  superstition. 
They  cherished  and  they  confounded  the  gods  of  Palestine 
and  of  India;  but  the  propagation  of  Christianity  awakened 
the  jealousy  of  the  State,  and,  after  a  short  vicissitude  of  fa- 
vor and  persecution,  the  foreign  sect  expired  in  ignorance  and 
oblivion.118     Under  the  reign  of  the  caliphs  the  Nestorian 

professed  in  the  horde  of  the  Keraites  (D'Herhelot,  p.  256,  915,  959 ;  Assemanni, 
torn.  iv.  p.  468-504).a 

118  The  Christianity  of  China,  between  the  seventh  and  the  thirteenth  century, 
is  invincibly  proved  by  the  consent  of  Chinese,  Arabian,  Syriac,  and  Latin  evi- 
dence (Assemanni,  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  iv.  p.  502-552 ;  Mem.  de  l'Academie 
des  Inscript.  torn.  xxx.  p.  802-819).  The  inscription  of  Siganfu,  which  describes 
the  fortunes  of  the  Nestorian  Church,  from  the  first  mission,  a.d.  636,  to  the  cur- 
rent year  781,  is  accused  of  forgery  by  La  Croze,  Voltaire,  etc.,  who  become  the 
dupes  of  their  own  cunning,  while  they  are  afraid  of  a  Jesuitical  fraud. b 


a  The  extent  to  which  Nestorian  Christianity  prevailed  among  the  Tartar  tribes 
is  one  of  the  most  curious  questions  in  Oriental  history.  M.  Schmidt  (Geschichte 
der  Ost  Mongolen,  notes,  p.  383)  appears  to  question  the  Christianity  of  Ong  Cha- 
ghan  and  his  Keraite  subjects. — M. 

b  This  famous  monument,  the  authenticity  of  which  many  have  attempted  to 
impeach,  rather  from  hatred  to  the  Jesuits,  by  whom  it  was  made  known,  than  by 
a  candid  examination  of  its  contents,  is  now  generally  considered  above  all  sus- 
picion. The  Chinese  text  and  the  facts  which  it  relates  are  equally  strong  proofs 
of  its  authenticity.  This  monument  was  raised  as  a  memorial  of  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  in  China.  It  is  dated  the  year  1092  of  the  era  of  the  Greeks, 
or  the  Seleucidai,  a.d.  781,  in  the  time  of  the  Nestorian  patriarch  Anan-jesu.  It 
was  raised  by  Iezdbouzid,  priest  and  chorepiscopus  of  Chumdan,  that  is,  of  the 
capital  of  the  Chinese  empire,  and  the  son  of  a  priest  who  came  from  Balkh,  in 
Tokharistan.  Among  the  various  arguments  which  may  be  urged  in  favor  of  the 
authenticity  of  this  monument,  and  which  have  not  yet  been  advanced,  may  be 
reckoned  the  name  of  the  priest  by  whom  it  was  raised.  The  name  is  Persian, 
and  at  the  time  the  monument  was  discovered  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
have  imagined  it :  for  there  was  no  work  extant  from  whence  the  knowledge  of  it 
could  be  derived.  I  do  not  believe  that,  even  since  this  period,  any  book  has  been 
published  in  which  it  can  be  found  a.  second  time.     It  is  very  celebrated  amongst 


694  MISSIONS  OF  THE  NESTOKIANS.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

Church  was  diffused  from  China  to  Jerusalem  and  Cyprus; 
and  their  numbers,  with  those  of  the  Jacobites,  were  com- 
puted to  surpass  the  Greek  and  Latin  communions.119  Twen- 
ty-five metropolitans  or  archbishops  composed  their  hierar- 
chy; but  several  of  these  were  dispensed,  by  the  distance  and 
danger  of  the  way,  from  the  duty  of  personal  attendance,  on 
the  easy  condition  that  every  six  years  they  should  testify 
their  faith  and  obedience  to  the  catholic  or  patriarch  of  Baby- 
lon, a  vague  appellation  which  has  been  successively  applied 
to  the  royal  seats  of  Seleucia,  Ctesiphon,  and  Bagdad.  These 
remote  branches  are  long  since  withered ;  and  the  old  patri- 
archal trunk120  is  now  divided  by  the  Elijahs  of  Mosul,  the 
representatives  almost  in  lineal  descent  of  the  genuine  and 
primitive  succession,*  the  Josephs  of  Amida, who  are  recon- 
ciled to  the  Church  of  Rome  ;iai  and  the  Simeons  of  Yan  or 
Ormia,  whose  revolt,  at  the  head  of  forty  thousand  families, 
was  promoted  in  the  sixteenth  century  by  the  Sophis  of  Per- 
sia. The  number  of  three  hundred  thousand  is  allowed  for 
the  whole  body  of  Nestorians,  who,  under  the  name  of  Chal- 
dasans  or  Assyrians,  are  confounded  with  the  most  learned  or 
the  most  powerful  nation  of  Eastern  antiquity. 

According  to  the  legend   of  antiquity,  the   Gospel  wa3 

119  Jacobitas  et  Nestoriana?  plures  quam  Graeci  et  Latini.  Jacob  a  Vitriaco, 
Hist.  Hierosol.  1.  ii.  c.  76,  p.  1093,  in  the  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos.  The  numbers 
are  given  by  Thomassin,  Discipline  de  l'Eglise,  torn.  i.  p.  172. 

120  The  division  of  the  patriarchate  may  be  traced  in  the  Bibliotheca  Orient,  of 
Assemanni,  torn.  i.  p.  523-549  ;  torn.  ii.  p.  457,  etc.  ;  torn.  iii.  p.  603,  p.  621-623; 
torn.  iv.  p.  164-169,  p.  423,  p.  622-629,  etc. 

121  The  pompous  language  of  Rome,  on  the  submission  of  a  Nestorian  patriarch, 
is  elegantly  represented  in  the  seventh  book  of  Fra-Paolo,  Babylon,  Nineveh,  Ar- 
bela,  and  the  trophies  of  Alexander,  Tauris  and  Ecbatana,  the  Tigris  and  Indus. 


the  Armenians,  and  is  derived  from  a  martyr,  a  Persian  by  birth,  of  the  royal 
race,  who  perished  towards  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  and  rendered  his 
name  celebrated  among  the  Christian  nations  of  the  East.  St.  Martin,  vol.  i. 
p.  G9.  M.  Remusat  has  also  strongly  expressed  his  conviction  of  the  authenticity 
of  this  monument.  Melanges  Asiatiques.  pt.  i.  p.  33.  D'Ohson,  in  his  History 
of  the  Moguls,  concurs  in  this  view.  Yet  M.  Schmidt  (Geschichte  der  Ost  Mon- 
golen,  p.  384)  denies  that  there  is  any  satisfactory  proof  that  such  a  monument 
was  ever  found  in  China,  or  that  it  was  not  manufactured  in  Europe.  But  if  the 
Jesuits  had  attempted  such  a  forgery,  would  it  not  have  been  more  adapted  ta 
further  their  peculiar  views  ? — M. 


A.D.  883.]  CHRISTIANS  OF  ST.  THOMAS  IN  INDIA.  695 

preached  in  India  by  St.  Thomas.1"     At  the  end  of  the  ninth 

century  his  shrine,  perhaps  in  the  neighborhood  of 

tiansof         Madras,  was  devoutly  visited  by  the  ambassadors 

St.  Thoinas  „     .  .  „  7   ,  -,,.  .,  ,. 

in  iudia.  of  Alfred ;  and  their  return  with  a  cargo  of  pearls 
and  spices  rewarded  the  zeal  of  the  English  mon- 
arch, who  entertained  the  largest  projects  of  trade  and  discov- 
ery.198 When  the  Portuguese  first  opened  the  navigation  of 
India,  the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas  had  been  seated  for  ages 
on  th©  coast  of  Malabar,  and  the  difference  of  their  character 
and  color  attested  the  mixture  of  a  foreign  race.  In  arms,  in 
arts,  and  possibly  in  virtue,  they  excelled  the  natives  of  Hin- 
dostan;  the  husbandmen  cultivated  the  palm-tree,  the  mer- 
chants were  enriched  by  the  pepper  trade,  the  soldiers  pre- 
ceded the  nairs  or  nobles  of  Malabar,  and  their  hereditary 
privileges  were  respected  by  the  gratitude  or  the  fear  of  the 
King  of  Cochin  and  the  Zamorin  himself.  They  acknowl- 
edged a  Gentoo  sovereign,  but  they  were  governed,  even  in 
temporal  concerns,  by  the  Bishop  of  Angamala.  He  still  as- 
serted his  ancient  title  of  Metropolitan  of  India,  but  his  real 
jurisdiction  was  exercised  in  fourteen  hundred  churches,  and 
he  was  intrusted  with  the  care  of  two  hundred 

A.i>.  1500,  etc.  mi      •  t     • 

thousand  souls,      iheir  religion  would  have  ren- 
dered them  the  firmest  and  most  cordial  allies  of  the  Portu- 

122  The  Indian  missionary,  St.  Thomas,  an  apostle,  a  Manichaean,  or  an  Arme- 
nian merchant  (La  Croze,  Christianisme  des  Indes,  torn.  i.  p.  57-70),  was  famous, 
however,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Jerom  (ad  Marcellam,  Epist.  148  [Ep.  59,  p.  328, 
edit.Vallars.]).  Marco-Polo  was  informed  on  the  spot  that  he  suffered  martyr- 
dom in  the  city  of  Maabar,  or  Meliapour,  a  league  only  from  Madras  (D'Anville, 
Eclaircissemens  sur  l'lnde,  p.  J  25 ;  where  the  Portuguese  founded  an  Episcopal 
church  under  the  name  of  St.  Thome',  and  where  the  saint  performed  an  annual 
miracle,  till  he  was  silenced  by  the  profane  neighborhood  of  the  English  (La  Croze, 
torn.  ii.  p.  7-16). 

123  Neither  the  author  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  (a.d.  883)  nor  William  of  Malmes- 
bury  (De  Gestis  Regum  Angliae,  1.  ii.  c.  4,  p.  44  were  capable,  in  the  twelfth  cent- 
ury, of  inventing  this  extraordinary  fact ;  they  are  incapable  of  explaining  the  mo- 
tives and  measures  of  Alfred,  and  their  hasty  notice  serves  only  to  provoke  our 
curiosity.  William  of  Malmesbury  feels  the  difficulties  of  the  enterprise,  "  Quod 
quivis  in  hoc  sseculo  miretur;"  and  I  almost  suspect  that  the  English  ambassa- 
dors collected  their  cargo  and  legend  in  Egypt.  The  royal  author  has  not  enrich- 
ed Ids  Orosins  (see  Barrington's  Miscellanies)  with  an  Indian  as  well  as  a  Scandt 
navian  voyage. 


GOO  CHRISTIANS  OF  ST.  THOMAS  IN  INDIA.     [Ch.  XLVIL 

guese ;  but  the  inquisitors  soon  discerned  in  the  Christiana 
of  St.  Thomas  the  unpardonable  guilt  of  heresy  and  schism. 
Instead  of  owning  themselves  the  subjects  of  the  Roman 
pontiff,  the  spiritual  and  temporal  monarch  of  the  globe,  they 
adhered,  like  their  ancestors,  to  the  communion  of  the  Nesto- 
rian  patriarch  ;  and  the  bishops  whom  he  ordained  at  Mosul 
traversed  the  dangers  of  the  sea  and  land  to  reach  their  dio- 
cese on  the  coast  of  Malabar.  In  their  Syriac  liturgy  the 
lames  of  Theodore  and  Nestorius  were  piously  commemo- 
rated :  they  united  their  adoration  of  the  two  persons  of 
Christ;  the  title  of  Mother  of  God  was  offensive  to  their 
ear;  and  they  measured  with  scrupulous  avarice  the  honors 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  whom  the  superstition  of  the  Latins  had 
almost  exalted  to  the  rank  of  a  goddess.  "When  her  image 
was  first  presented  to  the  disciples  of  St.  Thomas  they  indig- 
nantly exclaimed,  "  "We  are  Christians,  not  idolaters !"  and 
their  simple  devotion  was  content  with  the  veneration  of 
the  cross.  Their  separation  from  the  "Western  world  had 
left  them  in  ignorance  of  the  improvements  or  corruptions 
of  a  thousand  years ;  and  their  conformity  with  the  faith  and 
practice  of  the  fifth  century  would  equally  disappoint  the 
prejudices  of  a  Papist  or  a  Protestant.  It  was  the  first  care 
of  the  ministers  of  Rome  to  intercept  all  correspondence  with 
the  Nestorian  patriarch,  and  several  of  his  bishops  expired  in 
the  prisons  of  the  holy  office.  The  flock,  without  a  shepherd, 
was  assaulted  by  the  power  of  the  Portuguese,  the  arts  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  the  zeal  of  Alexis  de  Menezes,  Archbishop  of 
Goa,  in  his  personal  visitation  of  the  coast  of  Malabar.  The 
Synod  of  Diamper,  at  which  he  presided,  consummated  the 
pious  work  of  the  reunion,  and  rigorously  imposed  the  doc- 
trine and  discipline  of  the  Roman  Church,  without  forgetting 
auricular  confession,  the  strongest  engine  of  ecclesiastical  tort- 
ure. The  memory  of  Theodore  and  Nestorius  was  condemn- 
ed, and  Malabar  was  reduced  under  the  dominion  of  the  pope, 
A  D  of  the  primate,  and  of  the  Jesuits  who  invaded  the 
1599-1063.  gee  Qf  Angamala  or  Cranganor.  Sixty  years  of 
servitude  and  hypocrisy  were  patiently  endured ;  but  as  soon 
as  the  Portuguese  empire  was  shaken  by  the  courage  and  in* 


a.d.  1599-1663.]  THE  JACOBITES.  G97 

dustry  of  the  Dutch,  the  Nestorians  asserted  with  vigor  and 
effect  the  religion  of  their  fathers.  The  Jesuits  were  inca- 
pable of  defending  the  power  which  they  had  abused;  the 
arms  of  forty  thousand  Christians  were  pointed  against  their 
falling  tyrants  ;  and  the  Indian  archdeacon  assumed  the  char- 
acter of  bishop  till  a  fresh  supply  of  episcopal  gifts  and 
Syriac  missionaries  could  be  obtained  from  the  Patriarch  of 
Babylon.  Since  the  expulsion  of  the  Portuguese  the  Nesto- 
rian  creed  is  freely  professed  on  the  coast  of  Malabar.  The 
trading  companies  of  Holland  and  England  are  the  friends 
of  toleration ;  but  if  oppression  be  less  mortifying  than  con- 
tempt, the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas  have  reason  to  complain 
of  the  cold  and  silent  indifference  of  their  brethren  of  Eu- 
rope.124 

II.  The  history  of  the  Monophysites  is  less  copious  and  in- 
teresting than  that  of  the  Nestorians.  Under  the  reigns  of 
ilthe  Zeno  and  Anastasius  their  artful  leaders  surprised 

Jacobites.  ^  ear  0f  ^Q  princ6j  usurped  the  thrones  of  the 
East,  and  crushed  on  its  native  soil  the  school  of  the  Syrians. 
The  rule  of  the  Monophysite  faith  was  defined  with  exqui- 
site discretion  by  Severus,  Patriarch  of  Antioch ;  he  con. 
demned,  in  the  style  of  the  Henoticon,  the  adverse  heresies 
of  Nestorius  and  Eutyches ;  maintained  against  the  latter  the 
reality  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  and  constrained  the  Greeks  to 
allow  that  he  was  a  liar  who  spoke  truth.125     But  the  ap- 

124  Concerning  the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas,  see  Assemann.  Biblioth.  Orient. 
torn.  iv.  p.  391-407,  435-451 ;  Geddes's  Church  History  of  Malabar;  and,  above 
all,  La  Croze,  Histoire  du  Christianisme  des  Indes,  in  two  vols.  12mo,  La  Haye, 
1758 — a  learned  and  agreeable  work.  They  have  drawn  from  the  same  source 
the  Portuguese  and  Italian  narratives  ;  and  the  prejudices  of  the  Jesuits  are  suffi- 
ciently corrected  by  those  of  the  Protestants.3 

125  Olov  tiTTiiv  \l/evSa\ri9r]g,  is  the  expression  of  Theodore,  in  his  Treatise  of  the 
Incarnation,  p.  245,  247,  as  he  is  quoted  by  La  Croze  (Hist,  du  Christianisme 
d'Ethiopie  et  d'Armenie,  p.  35),  who  exclaims,  perhaps  too  hastily,  "  Quel  pitoya- 
ble  raisonnement!"    Renaudot  has  touched  (Hist.  Patriarch.  Alex.  p.  127-138) 


'  The  St.  Thome*  Christians  had  excited  great  interest  in  the  ardent  mind  of 
the  admirable  Bishop  Heber.  See  his  curious  and  to  his  friends  highly  charac- 
teristic letter  to  Mar  Athanasius,  Appendix  to  Journal.  The  arguments  of  his 
friend  and  coadjutor,  Mr.  Robinson  (Last  Days  of  Bishop  Heber),  have  not  con- 
vinced me  that  the  Christianity  of  India  is  older  than  the  Nestorian  dispersion. — M. 


698  THE  JACOBITES.  [Ch.  XLVII 

proximation  of  ideas  could  not  abate  the  vehemence  of  pas- 
sion ;  each  party  was  the  more  astonished  that  their  blind  an- 
tagonist could  dispute  on  so  trifling  a  difference ;  the  tyrant 
of  Syria  enforced  the  belief  of  his  creed,  and  his  reign  was 
polluted  with  the  blood  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  monks, 
who  were  slain,  not  perhaps  without  provocation  or  resist- 
ance, under  the  walls  of  Apamea.138    The  successor  of  Anas- 

tasius  replanted  the  orthodox  standard  in  the  East ; 

Severus  fled  into  Egypt ;  and  his  friend,  the  elo- 
quent Xenaias,1"  who  had  escaped  from  the  Nestorians  of 
Persia,  was  suffocated  in  his  exile  by  the  Melchites  of  Paph- 
lagonia.  Fifty-four  bishops  were  swept  from  their  thrones, 
eight  hundred  ecclesiastics  were  cast  into  prison,128  and,  not- 
withstanding the  ambiguous  favor  of  Theodora,  the  Orient- 
al flocks,  deprived  of  their  shepherds,  must  insensibly  have 
been  either  famished  or  poisoned.  In  this  spiritual  distress 
the  expiring  faction  was  revived,  and  united,  and  perpetu- 
ated by  the  labors  of  a  monk ;  and  the  name  of  James  Ba- 
radaeus189  has  been  preserved  in  the  appellation  of  Jacobites,  a 

the  Oriental  accounts  of  Severus ;  and  his  authentic  creed  may  be  found  in  the 
epistle  of  John  the  Jacobite  patriarch  of  Antioch,  in  the  tenth  century,  to  his 
brother  Mennas  of  Alexandria  (Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  132-141). 

126  Epist.  Archimandritarum  et  Monachorum  Syrise,  Secundas  ad  Papam  Hor- 
misdam,  Concil.  torn.  v.  p.  598-602.  The  courage  of  St.  Sabas,  "ut  leo  animo- 
sus,"  will  justify  the  suspicion  that  the  arms  of  these  monks  were  not  always  spir- 
itual or  defensive  (Baronius,  a.d.  513,  No.  7,  etc.). 

127  Assemanni  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  10-46)  and  La  Croze  (Christianisme 
d'Ethiopie,  p.  36-40)  will  supply  the  history  of  Xenaias,  or  Philoxenus,  Bishop  of 
Mabug,  or  Hierapolis,  in  Syria.  He  was  a  perfect  master  of  the  Syriac  language, 
and  the  author  or  editor  of  a  version  of  the  New  Testament. 

128  The  names  and  titles  of  fifty-four  bishops  who  were  exiled  by  Justin  are 
preserved  in  the  Chronicle  of  Dionysius  (apud  Asseman.  torn.  ii.  p.  54).  Severus 
was  personally  summoned  to  Constantinople — for  his  trial,  says  Liberatus  (Brev. 
c.  19) — that  his  tongue  might  be  cut  out,  says  Evagrius  (1.  iv.  c.  4).  The  prudent 
patriarch  did  not  stay  to  examine  the  difference.  This  ecclesiastical  revolution  is 
fixed  by  Pagi  to  the  month  of  September  of  the  year  518  (Critica,  torn.  ii.  p.  506). 

129  The  obscure  history  of  James,  or  Jacobus  Baradaeus,  or  Zanzalus,  may  be 
gathered  from  Eutychius  (Annal.  torn.  ii.  p.  144,  147),  Eenaudot  (Hist.  Patriarch. 
Alex.  p.  133),  and  Assemannus  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  i.  p.  424 ;  torn.  ii.  p.  62-69, 
324-332,414;  torn.  iii.  p.  385-388).  He  seems  to  be  unknown  to  the  Greeks. 
The  Jacobites  themselves  had  rather  deduce  their  name  and  pedigree  from  St. 
James  the  apostle. 


a.d.518.]  THE  JACOBITES.  699 

familiar  sound  which  may  startle  the  ear  of  an  English  read- 
er. From  the  holy  confessors  in  their  prison  of  Constanti- 
nople he  received  the  powers  of  Bishop  of  Edessa  and  apos- 
tle of  the  East,  and  the  ordination  of  fourscore  thousand  bish- 
ops, priests,  and  deacons  is  derived  from  the  same  inexhausti- 
ble source.  The  speed  of  the  zealous  missionary  was  pro- 
moted by  the  fleetest  dromedaries  of  a  devout  chief  of  the 
Arabs ;  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Jacobites  were  se- 
cretly established  in  the  dominions  of  Justinian ;  and  each 
Jacobite  was  compelled  to  violate  the  laws  and  to  hate  the 
Eoman  legislator.  The  successors  of  Severus,  while  they 
lurked  in  convents  or  villages,  while  they  sheltered  their  pro- 
scribed heads  in  the  caverns  of  hermits  or  the  tents  of  the 
Saracens,  still  asserted,  as  they  now  assert,  their  indefeasible 
right  to  the  title,  the  rank,  and  the  prerogatives  of  patriarch 
of  Antioch :  under  the  milder  yoke  of  the  infidels  they  reside 
about  a  league  from  Merdin,  in  the  pleasant  monastery  of  Za- 
pharan,  which  they  have  embellished  with  cells,  aqueducts, 
and  plantations.  The  secondary,  though  honorable,  place  is 
filled  by  the  maphrian,  who,  in  his  station  at  Mosul  itself,  de- 
lies  the  Nestorian  catholic  with  whom  he  contests  the  prima- 
cy of  the  East.  Under  the  patriarch  and  the  maphrian  one 
hundred  and  fifty  archbishops  and  bishops  have  been  counted 
in  the  different  ages  of  the  Jacobite  Church ;  but  the  order 
of  the  hierarchy  is  relaxed  or  dissolved,  and  the  greater  part 
of  their  dioceses  is  confined  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Eu- 
phrates and  the  Tigris.  The  cities  of  Aleppo  and  Amida, 
which  are  often  visited  by  the  patriarch,  contain  some  wealthy 
merchants  and  industrious  mechanics,  but  the  multitude  de- 
rive their  scanty  sustenance  from  their  daily  labor :  and  pov- 
erty, as  well  as  superstition,  may  impose  their  excessive  fasts 
— five  annual  lents,  during  which  both  the  clergy  and  laity 
abstain  not  only  from  flesh  or  eggs,  but  even  from  the  taste 
of  wine,  of  oil,  and  of  fish.  Their  present  numbers  are  es- 
teemed from  fifty  to  fourscore  thousand  souls,  the  remnant  of 
a  populous  church,  which  has  gradually  decreased  under  the 
oppression  of  twelve  centuries.  Yet  in  that  long  period  som« 
strangers  of  merit  have  been  converted  to  the  Monophysite 


700  THE  JACOBITES.  [Ch.  XLVII. 

faith,  and  a  Jew  was  the  father  of  Abulpharagius,"0  primate 
of  the  East,  so  truly  eminent  both  in  his  life  and  death.  In 
his  life  he  was  an  elegant  writer  of  the  Syriac  and  Arabic 
tongues,  a  poet,  physician,  and  historian,  a  subtle  philosopher, 
and  a  moderate  divine.  In  his  death  his  funeral  was  attend- 
ed by  his  rival  the  Nestorian  patriarch,  with  a  train  of  Greeks 
and  Armenians,  who  forgot  their  disputes,  and  mingled  their 
tears  over  the  grave  of  an  enemy.  The  sect  which  was  hon- 
ored by  the  virtues  of  Abulpharagius  appears,  however,  to 
sink  below  the  level  of  their  Eestorian  brethren.  The  su- 
perstition of  the  Jacobites  is  more  abject,  their  fasts  more 
rigid,131  their  intestine  divisions  are  more  numerous,  and  their 
doctors  (as  far  as  I  can  measure  the  degrees  of  nonsense)  are 
more  remote  from  the  precincts  of  reason.  Something  may 
possibly  be  allowed  for  the  rigor  of  the  Monophysite  theology, 
much  more  for  the  superior  influence  of  the  monastic  order. 
In  Syria,  in  Egypt,  in  ^Ethiopiaj  the  Jacobite  monks  have 
ever  been  distinguished  by  the  austerity  of  their  penance  and 
the  absurdity  of  their  legends.  Alive  or  dead,  they  are  wor- 
shipped as  the  favorites  of  the  Deity ;  the  crosier  of  bishop 
and  patriarch  is  reserved  for  their  venerable  hands ;  and  they 
assume  the  government  of  men  while  they  are  yet  reeking 
with  the  habits  and  prejudices  of  the  cloister."9 

III.  In  the  style  of  the  Oriental  Christians,  the  Monothe- 
lites  of  every  age  are  described  under  the  appellation  of  Mar- 
onites,133  a  name  which  has  been  insensibly  transferred  from 

130  The  account  of  his  person  and  writings  is  perhaps  the  most  curious  articlo 
in  the  Bibliotheca  of  Assemannus  (torn.  ii.  p.  244-321,  under  the  name  of  Grega. 
rius  Bar-Hebrcens).  La  Croze  (Christianisme  d'Ethiopie,  p.  53-63)  ridicules  the 
prejudice  of  the  Spaniards  against  the  Jewish  blood  which  secretly  defiles  their 
Church  and  State. 

131  This  excessive  abstinence  is  censured  by  La  Croze  (p.  352),  and  even  by  the 
Syrian  Assemannus  (torn.  i.  p.  226  ;  torn.  ii.  p.  304,  305). 

132  The  state  of  the  Monophysites  is  excellently  illustrated  in  a  dissertation  at 
the  beginning  of  the  second  volume  of  Assemannus,  which  contains  142  pages. 
The  Syriac  Chronicle  of  Gregory  Bar  -  Hebraeus,  or  Abulpharagius  (Biblioth. 
Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  321-463),  pursues  the  double  series  of  the  Nestorian  Catholici 
and  the  Maphrians  of  the  Jacobites. 

'33  The  synonymous  use  of  the  two  words  may  be  proved  from  Eutychius  { An- 
na!, torn.  ii.  p.  191,  267,  332),  and  many  similar  passages  which  may  be  found  in 


A.D.518.]  THE  MAE0NITE8.  701 

a  hermit  to  a  monastery,  from  a  monastery  to  a  nation.  Ma- 
in, tub  ronj a  saint  or  savage  of  the  fifth  century,  displayed 
Mabonites.  jjjg  reiigions  madness  in  Syria;  the  rival  cities  of 
Apamea  and  Emesa  disputed  his  relics,  a  stately  church 
was  erected  on  his  tomb,  and  six  hundred  of  his  disciples 
united  their  solitary  cells  on  the  banks  of  the  Orontes.  In 
the  controversies  of  the  incarnation  they  nicely  threaded  the 
orthodox  line  between  the  sects  of  Kestorius  and  Eutyches ; 
but  the  unfortunate  question  of  one  will  or  operation  in  the 
two  natures  of  Christ  was  generated  by  their  curious  leisure. 
Their  proselyte,  the  Emperor  Heraclius,  was  rejected  as  a 
Maronite  from  the  walls  of  Emesa ;  he  found  a  refuge  in  the 
monastery  of  his  brethren  ;  and  their  theological  lessons  were 
repaid  with  the  gift  of  a  spacious  and  wealthy  domain.  The 
name  and  doctrine  of  this  venerable  school  were  propagated 
among  the  Greeks  and  Syrians,  and  their  zeal  is  expressed  by 
Macarius,  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  who  declared  before  the  Syn- 
od of  Constantinople,  that,  sooner  than  subscribe  the  two  wills 
of  Christ,  he  would  submit  to  be  hewn  piecemeal  and  cast 
into  the  sea.134  A  similar  or  a  less  cruel  mode  of  persecution 
soon  converted  the  unresisting  subjects  of  the  plain,  while  the 
glorious  title  of  Mardaites™  or  rebels,  was  bravely  maintain- 
ed by  the  hardy  natives  of  Mount  Libanus.  John  Maron, 
one  of  the  most  learned  and  popular  of  the  monks,  assumed 
the  character  of  Patriarch  of  Antioch;  his  nephew,  Abraham, 

the  methodical  table  of  Pocock.  He  was  not  actuated  by  any  prejudice  against 
the  Marotiites  of  the  tenth  century  ;  and  we  may  believe  a  Melchite,  whose  testi- 
mony is  confirmed  by  the  Jacobites  and  Latins. 

134  Concil.  torn.  vii.  p.  780.  The  Monothelite  cause  was  supported  with  firm- 
ness and  subtlety  by  Constantine,  a  Syrian  priest  of  Apamea  (p.  1040,  etc.). 

135  Theophanes  (Chron.  p.  295,  296,  300,  302,  306  [torn.  i.  p.  512  seq.,  552,  555, 
561,  edit.  Bonn])  and  Cedrenus  (p.  437,  440  [edit.  Par. ;  torn.  i.  p.  765  seq.,  edit. 
Bonn])  relate  the  exploits  of  the  Mardaites :  the  name  (Mard,  in  Syriac  rebel- 
lavit)  is  explained  by  La  Eoque  (Voyage  de  la  Syrie,  torn.  ii.  p.  53) ;  the  dates 
are  fixed  by  Pagi  (a.d.  676,  No.  4-14 ;  A.r>.  685,  Nos.  3,  4)  ;  and  even  the  ob- 
scure story  of  the  patriarch  John  Maron  (Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  i.  p.  496- 
520)  illustrates,  from  the  year  686  to  707,  the  troubles  of  Mount  Libanus.* 


a  Compare,  on  the  Mardaites,  Anquetil  du  Perron,  in  the  fiftieth  vol.  of  the  Mem. 
de  l'Acad.  des  Inscriptions ;  and  Schlosser,  Bildersiuimeaden  Kaiser,  p.  100. — M. 


702  THE  MARONITES.  [Ch.  XLVH 

at  the  head  of  the  Maronites,  defended  their  civil  and  relig« 
ions  freedom  against  the  tyrants  of  the  East.  The  son  of  the 
orthodox  Constantine  pursued  with  pious  hatred  a  people  of 
soldiers,  who  might  have  stood  the  bulwark  of  his  empire 
against  the  common  foes  of  Christ  and  of  Rome.  An  army 
of  Greeks  invaded  Syria;  the  monastery  of  St.  Maron  was 
destroyed  with  fire  ;  the  bravest  chieftains  were  betrayed  and 
murdered,  and  twelve  thousand  of  their  followers  were  trans- 
planted to  the  distant  frontiers  of  Armenia  and  Thrace.  Yet 
the  humble  nation  of  the  Maronites  has  survived  the  empire 
of  Constantinople,  and  they  still  enjoy,  under  their  Turkish 
masters,  a  free  religion  and  a  mitigated  servitude.  Their  do- 
mestic governors  are  chosen  among  the  ancient  nobility :  the 
patriarch,  in  his  monastery  of  Canobin,  still  fancies  himself 
on  the  throne  of  Antioch ;  nine  bishops  compose  his  synod, 
and  one  hundred  and  fifty  priests,  who  retain  the  liberty  of 
marriage,  are  intrusted  with  the  care  of  one  hundred  thousand 
souls.  Their  country  extends  from  the  ridge  of  Mount  Liba- 
nus  to  the  shores  of  Tripoli ;  and  the  gradual  descent  affords, 
in  a  narrow  space,  each  variety  of  soil  and  climate,  from  the 
Holy  Cedars,  erect  under  the  weight  of  snow,136  to  the  vine, 
the  mulberry,  and  the  olive  trees  of  the  fruitful  valley.'  In 
the  twelfth  century  the  Maronites,  abjuring  the  Monothelite 
error,  were  reconciled  to  the  Latin  churches  of  Antioch  and 
Rome,137  and  the  same  alliance  has  been  frequently  renewed 

136  In  the  last  century  twenty  large  cedars  still  remained  (Voyage  deLaRoqne, 
torn.  i.  p.  68-76);  at  present  they  are  reduced  to  four  or  five  (Volney,  torn.  i.p.  264).* 
These  trees,  so  famous  in  Scripture,  were  guarded  by  excommunication  :  the  wood 
was  sparingly  borrowed  for  small  crosses,  etc.  ;  an  annual  mass  was  chanted  un- 
der their  shade  ,  and  they  were  endowed  by  the  Syrians  with  a  sensitive  power  of 
erecting  their  branches  to  repel  the  snow,  to  which  Mount  Libanus  is  less  faithful 
than  it  is  painted  by  Tacitus  :  "  Inter  ardores  opacum  fidumque  nivibus  " — a  dar- 
ing metaphor  (Hist.  v.  6). 

137  The  evidence  of  William  of  Tyre  (Hist,  in  Gestis  Dei  per  Francos,  1.  xxii.  c.  8, 
p.  1022  [fol.  Hanov.  1611])  is  copied  or  confirmed  by  Jacques  de  Vitra  (Hist. 
Hierosolym.  1.  ii.  c.  77,  p.  1093, 1091).     But  this  unnatural  league  expired  with 


a  Of  the  oldest  and  best-looking  trees  I  counted  eleven  or  twelve ;  twenty-five 
very  large  ones  ;  about  fifty  of  middling  size ;  and  more  than  three  hundred  small- 
er and  young  ones.     Burckhardt's  Travels  in  Syria,  p.  19. — M. 


*D.  518.]  THB  ARMENIANS.  703 

by  the  ambition  of  the  popes  and  the  distress  of  the  Syrians. 
But  it  may  reasonably  be  questioned  whether  their  union  haa 
ever  been  perfect  or  sincere ;  and  the  learned  Maronites  of 
the  College  of  Koine  have  vainly  labored  to  absolve  their  an- 
cestors from  the  guilt  of  heresy  and  schism.138 

IY.  Since  the  age  of  Constantine,  the  Armenians"9  had  sig- 
nalized their  attachment  to  the  religion  and  empire  of  the 
iv.  thh  Christians.11  The  disorders  of  their  country,  and 
abmbnians.  their  ignorance  of  the  Greek  tongue,  prevented 
their  clergy  from  assisting  at  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon,  and 
they  floated  eighty-four  years140  in  a  state  of  indifference  cr 
suspense,  till  their  vacant  faith  was  finally  occupied  by  the 
missionaries  of  Julian  of  Halicarnassus,141  who  in  Egypt,  their 
common  exile,  had  been  vanquished  by  the  arguments  or  the 
influence  of  his  rival  Severus,  the  Monophysite  patriarch  of 
Antioch.  The  Armenians  alone  are  the  pure  disciples  of  Eu- 
tyches,  an  unfortunate  parent,  who  has  been  renounced  by  the 

th3  power  of  the  Franks;  and  Abulpharagius  (who  died  in  1286)  considers  the 
Maronites  as  a  sect  of  Monothelites  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  292). 

138  I  find  a  description  and  history  of  the  Maronites  in  the  Voyage  de  la  Syria 
et  du  Mont  Liban  par  La  Koque  (2  vols,  in  12mo,  Amsterdam,  1723 ;  particu- 
larly torn.  i.  p.  42-47,  p.  174-184  ;  torn.  ii.  p.  10-120).  In  the  ancient  part  ha 
copies  the  prejudices  of  Nairon  and  the  other  Maronites  of  Rome,  which  Asseman- 
nus  is  afraid  to  renounce  and  ashamed  to  support.  Jablonski  (Institut.  Hist. 
Christ,  torn.  iii.  p.  186),  Niebuhr  (Voyage  de  TArabie,  etc.,  torn.  ii.  p.  346,  370- 
381),  and,  above  all,  the  judicious  Volney  (Voyage  en  Egypte  et  en  Syrie,  torn.  ii. 
p.  8-31,  Paris,  1787),  may  be  consulted. 

139  The  religion  of  the  Armenians  is  briefly  described  by  La  Croze  (Hist,  da 
Christ,  de  l'Ethiopie  et  de  TArmenie,  p.  269-402).  He  refers  to  the  great  Ar- 
menian History  of  Galanus  (3  vols,  in  fol.  Rome,  1650-1661),  and  commends  the 
state  of  Armenia  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Nouveaux  Me'moires  des  Missions  da 
Levant.  The  work  of  a  Jesuit  must  have  sterling  merit  when  it  is  praised  bjr 
La  Croze. 

140  The  schism  of  the  Armenians  is  placed  eighty-four  years  after  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon  (Pagi,  Critica,  ad  a.d.  535).  It  was  consummated  at  the  end  of 
seventeen  years ;  and  it  is  from  the  year  of  Christ  552  that  we  date  the  era  cf  the 
Armenians  (L'Art  de  Verifier  les  Dates,  p.  xxxv.). 

141  The  sentiments  and  success  of  Julian  of  Halicarnassus  may  be  seen  in  Lib* 
eratns  (Brev.  c.  19),  Renaudot  (Hist.  Patriarch.  Alex.  p.  132,  303),  and  Asseman« 
uus  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  Dissertat.  de  Monophysitis,  p.  viii.  p.  286). 


*  See  vol.  ii.  ch.  xx.  p.  456.— M. 


704  THE  ARMENIANS.  [Ch.  XLVII. 

greater  part  of  his  spiritual  progeny.  They  alone  persevere 
in  the  opinion  that  the  manhood  of  Christ  was  created,  or  ex- 
isted without  creation,  of  a  divine  and  incorruptible  substance. 
Their  adversaries  reproach  them  with  the  adoration  of  a  phan< 
torn ;  and  they  retort  the  accusation,  by  deriding  or  execrat- 
ing the  blasphemy  of  the  Jacobites,  who  impute  to  the  God- 
head the  vile  infirmities  of  the  flesh,  even  the  natural  effects 
of  nutrition  and  digestion.  The  religion  of  Armenia  could 
not  derive  much  glory  from  the  learning  or  the  power  of  its 
inhabitants.  The  royalty  expired  with  the  origin  of  their 
schism ;  and  their  Christian  kings,  who  arose  and  fell  in  the 
thirteenth  century  on  the  confines  of  Cilicia,  were  the  clients 
of  the  latins  and  the  vassals  of  the  Turkish  sultan  of  Iconi- 
um.  The  helpless  nation  has  seldom  been  permitted  to  en- 
joy the  tranquillity  of  servitude.  From  the  earliest  period  to 
the  present  hour  Armenia  has  been  the  theatre  of  perpetual 
war :  the  lands  between  Tauris  and  Erivan  were  dispeopled 
by  the  cruel  policy  of  the  Sophis ;  and  myriads  of  Christian 
families  were  transplanted,  to  perish  or  to  propagate  in  the 
distant  provinces  of  Persia.  Under  the  rod  of  oppression, 
the  zeal  of  the  Armenians  is  fervent  and  intrepid;  they  have 
often  preferred  the  crown  of  martyrdom  to  the  white  turban 
of  Mahomet ;  they  devoutly  hate  the  error  and  idolatry  of 
the  Greeks ;  and  their  transient  union  with  the  Latins  is  not 
less  devoid  of  truth  than  the  thousand  bishops  whom  their 
patriarch  offered  at  the  feet  of  the  Roman  pontiff.10  The 
catholic,  or  patriarch,  of  the  Armenians  resides  in  the  mon- 
astery of  Ekmiasin,  three  leagues  from  Erivan.  Forty-seven 
archbishops,  each  of  whom  may  claim  the  obedience  of  four 
or  five  suffragans,  are  consecrated  by  his  hand ;  but  the  far 
greater  part  are  only  titular  prelates,  who  dignify  with  their 
presence  and  service  the  simplicity  of  his  court.  As  soon  as 
they  have  performed  the  liturgy,  they  cultivate  the  garden ; 
and  our  bishops  will  hear  with  surprise  that  the  austerity  of 

*•  See  a  remarkable  fact  of  the  twelfth  century  in  the  History  of  Nicetas 
Choniates  (p.  258).  Yet  three  hundred  years  before,  Photius  (Epistol.  ii.  p.  49, 
edit.  Montacut.)  had  gloried  in  the  conversion  of  the  Armenians — \aroeuti  orijiv 
pov  6p9o$6Z<i)£  [rfiv  xpumavwe  XarpetavJ. 


a.d.  537-568.]  THE  COPTS.  705 

their  life  increases  in  just  proportion  to  the  elevation  of  their 
rank.  In  the  fourscore  thousand  towns  or  villages  of  his  spir- 
itual empire,  the  patriarch  receives  a  small  and  voluntary  tax 
from  each  person  above  the  age  of  fifteen;  but  the  annual 
amount  of  six  hundred  thousand  crowns  is  insufficient  to  sup- 
ply the  incessant  demands  of  charity  and  tribute.  Since  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  the  Armenians  have  obtained  a 
large  and  lucrative  share  of  the  commerce  of  the  East :  in 
their  return  from  Europe,  the  caravan  usually  halts  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Erivan,  the  altars  are  enriched  with  the  fruits 
of  their  patient  industry;  and  the  faith  of  Eutyches  is  preach- 
ed in  their  recent  congregations  of  Barbary  and  Poland. Ia 

V.  In  the  rest  of  the  Eoman  empire  the  despotism  of  the 
prince  might  eradicate  or  silence  the  sectaries  of  an  obnox- 
ious creed.     But  the  stubborn  temper  of  the  Egyp- 
copt™  r       tians  maintained  their  opposition  to  the  Synod  of 
Chalcedon,  and  the  policy  of  Justinian  condescend- 
ed to  expect  and  to  seize  the  opportunity  of  discord.     The 
Monophysite  Church  of  Alexandria1"  was  torn  by  the  dis- 
putes of  the  corriiptibles  and  incorrujptibles,  and  on  the  death 
of  the  patriarch  the  two  factions  upheld  their  respective  can- 
didates.1"    Gaian  was  the  disciple  of  Julian,  Theo- 
Theodoeius.    dosius  had  been  the  pupil  of  Severus:  the  claims 
'of  the  former  were  supported  by  the  consent  of 
the  monks  and  senators,  the  city  and  the  province ;  the  latter 
depended  on  the  priority  of  his  ordination,  the  favor  of  the 
Empress  Theodora,  and  the  arms  of  the  eunuch  Karses,  which 
might  have  been  used  in  more  honorable  warfare.     The  exile 
of  the  popular  candidate  to  Carthage  and  Sardinia  inflamed 

w*  The  travelling  Armenians  are  in  the  way  of  every  traveller,  and  their  mother- 
church  is  on  the  high-road  between  Constantinople  and  Ispahan ;  for  their  pres- 
ent state,  see  Fabricius  (Lux  Evangelii,  etc.,  c.  xxxviii.  p.  40-51),  Olearius  (1.  iv. 
c.  40),  Chardin  (vol.  ii.  p.  232),  Tournefort  (lettre  xx.),  and,  above  all,  Tavernier 
(torn.  i.  p.  28-37, 510-518),  that  rambling  jeweller,  who  had  read  nothing,  but  had 
wen  so  much  and  so  well. 

144  The  history  of  the  Alexandrian  patriarchs,  from  Dioscorus  to  Benjamin,  it 
taken  from  Renaudot  (p.  114-164),  and  the  second  tome  of  the  Annals  of  Eutychius. 

us  Liberat.  Brev.  c  20,  23;  Victor.  Chron.  p.  329,  880;  Procop.  Anecdofc 
«.  26,  27. 


706  THE  COPTS.  [Ch.XLVIL 

the  ferment  of  Alexandria;  and  after  a  schism  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  years,  the  Gaianites  still  revered  the  mem- 
ory and  doctrine  of  their  founder.  The  strength  of  numbers 
and  of  discipline  was  tried  in  a  desperate  and  bloody  conflict ; 
the  streets  were  filled  with  the  dead  bodies  of  citizens  and  sol- 
diers ;  the  pious  women,  ascending  the  roofs  of  their  houses, 
showered  down  every  sharp  or  ponderous  utensil  on  the  heads 
of  the  enemy ;  and  the  final  victory  of  Parses  was  owing  to 
the  flames  with  which  he  wasted  the  third  capital  of  the 
Roman  world.  But  the  lieutenant  of  Justinian  had  not  con- 
quered in  the  cause  of  a  heretic;  Theodosius  himself  was 
speedily,  though  gently,  removed  ;  and  Paul  of  Tan  is,  an  or- 
PauL  thodox  monk,  was  raised  to  the  throne  of  Athana- 

a.d.  53S.  gjug>  The  powers  of  government  were  strained  in 
his  support ;  he  might  appoint  or  displace  the  dukes  and  trib- 
unes of  Egypt ;  the  allowance  of  bread  which  Diocletian  had 
granted  was  suppressed,  the  churches  were  shut,  and  a  nation 
of  schismatics  was  deprived  at  once  of  their  spiritual  and  car- 
nal food.  In  his  turn,  the  tyrant  was  excommunicated  by  the 
zeal  and  revenge  of  the  people;  and  none  except  his  servile 
Melchites  would  salute  him  as  a  man,  a  Christian,  or  a  bishop. 
Yet  such  is  the  blindness  of  ambition,  that,  when  Paul  was 
expelled  on  a  charge  of  murder,  he  solicited,  with  a  bribe  of 
seven  hundred  pounds  of  gold,  his  restoration  to  the  same  sta« 
Apoiiinarfs.  tion  of  hatred  and  ignominy.  His  successor  Apol- 
A.D.B61.  Iinari8  entered  the  hostile  city  in  military  array, 
alike  qualified  for  prayer  or  for  battle.  His  troops,  under 
arms,  were  distributed  through  the  streets ;  the  gates  of  the 
cathedral  were  guarded,  and  a  chosen  band  was  stationed  in 
the  choir  to  defend  the  person  of  their  chief.  He  stood  erect 
on  his  throne,  and,  throwing  aside  the  upper  garment  of  a 
warrior,  suddenly  appeared  before  the  eyes  of  the  multitude 
in  the  robes  of  Patriarch  of  Alexandria.  Astonishment  held 
them  mute ;  but  no  sooner  had  Apollinaris  begun  to  read  the 
tome  of  St.  Leo,  than  a  volley  of  curses,  and  invectives,  and 
stones  assaulted  the  odious  minister  of  the  emperor  and  the 
synod.  A  charge  was  instantly  sounded  by  the  successor  of 
the  apostles ;  the  soldiers  waded  to  their  knees  in  blood ;  and 


a.d.  580, 609.]  THE  COPTS.  707 

two  hundred  thousand  Christians  are  said  to  have  fallen  by 
the  sword  :  an  incredible  account,  even  if  it  be  extended  from 
the  slaughter  of  a  day  to  the  eighteen  years  of  the  reign  of 
Euiogiui.  Apollinaris.  Two  succeeding  patriarchs,  Eulogius14* 
a.d.080.  an(j  j0hn,147  labored  in  the  conversion  of  heretics 
with  arms  and  arguments  more  worthy  of  their  evangelical 
profession.  The  theological  knowledge  of  Eulogius  was  dis- 
played in  many  a  volume,  which  magnified  the  errors  of  Eu- 
tyches  and  Severus,  and  attempted  to  reconcile  the  ambigu- 
John.  ous  language  of  St.  Cyril  with  the  orthodox  creed 

a.d.609.  of  pope  Leo  anc[  the  fathers  of  Chalcedon.  The 
bounteous  alms  of  John  the  Eleemosynary  were  dictated  by- 
superstition,  or  benevolence,  or  policy.  Seven  thousand  five 
hundred  poor  were  maintained  at  his  expense ;  on  his  acces- 
sion he  found  eight  thousand  pounds  of  gold  in  the  treasury 
of  the  Church ;  he  collected  ten  thousand  from  the  liberality 
of  the  faithful ;  yet  the  primate  could  boast  in  his  testament 
that  he  left  behind  him  no  more  than  the  third  part  of  the 
smallest  of  the  silver  coins.  The  churches  of  Alexandria  were 
delivered  to  the  Catholics,  the  religion  of  the  Monophysites 
was  proscribed  in  Egypt,  and  a  law  was  revived  which  ex- 
cluded the  natives  from  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  the 
State. 

A  more  important  conquest  still  remained  of  the  patriarch, 
the  oracle  and  leader  of  the  Egyptian  Church.  Theodosius 
had  resisted  the  threats  and  promises  of  Justinian  with  the 
spirit  of  an  apostle  or  an  enthusiast.     "Such,"  replied  the 


146  Eulogius,  who  had  been  a  monk  of  Antioch,  was  more  conspicuous  for  sub- 
tlety than  eloquence.  He  proves  that  the  enemies  of  the  faith,  the  Gaianites  and 
Theodosians,  ought  not  to  be  reconciled  ;  that  the  same  proposition  may  be  or- 
thodox in  the  mouth  of  St.  Cyril,  heretical  in  that  of  Severus ;  that  the  opposite 
assertions  of  St.  Leo  are  equally  true,  etc.  His  writings  are  no  longer  extant,  ex- 
cept in  the  Extracts  of  Photius,  who  had  perused  them  with  care  and  satisfaction, 
cod.  ccviii.,  ccxxv.,  ccxxvi.,  ccxxvii.,  ccxxx.,  cclxxx. 

147  See  the  Life  of  John  the  Eleemosynary  by  his  contemporary  Leontius,  Bish- 
op of  Neapolis,  in  Cyprus,  whose  Greek  text,  either  lost  or  hidden,  is  reflected  in 
the  Latin  version  of  Baronius  (a.d.  610,  No.  9  ;  a.d.  620,  No.  8).  Pagi  (Critica, 
torn.  ii.  p.  763)  and  Fabricius  (1.  v.  c.  11,  torn.  vii.  p.  454)  have  made  some  critical 
observations. 


708  SEPARATION  AND  DECAY  OF  THE  COPTS.    [Ch.XLTII. 

patriarch, "  were  the  offers  of  the  tempter  when  he  showed  the 

„,_  ,  kingdoms  of  the  earth.     But  my  soul  is  far  dearer 

Their  eep-  °  * 

aratiouand  to  me  than  life  or  dominion.  The  churches  are 
in  the  hands  of  a  prince  who  can  kill  the  body; 
but  my  conscience  is  my  own ;  and  in  exile,  poverty,  or  chains 
I  will  steadfastly  adhere  to  the  faith  of  my  holy  predecessors, 
Athanasius,  Cyril,  and  Dioscorus.  Anathema  to  the  tome  of 
Leo  and  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon  !  Anathema  to  all  who 
embrace  their  creed  !  Anathema  to  them  now  and  for  ever- 
more !  Naked  came  I  out  of  my  mother's  womb,  naked  shall 
I  descend  into  the  grave.  Let  those  who  love  God  follow  me 
and  seek  their  salvation."  After  comforting  his  brethren,  he 
embarked  for  Constantinople,  and  sustained,  in  six  successive 
interviews,  the  almost  irresistible  weight  of  the  royal  pres- 
ence. His  opinions  were  favorably  entertained  in  the  palace 
and  the  city ;  the  influence  of  Theodora  assured  him  a  safe- 
conduct  and  honorable  dismission ;  and  he  ended  his  days, 
though  not  on  the  throne,  yet  in  the  bosom  of  his  native 
country.  On  the  news  of  his  death,  Apollinaris  indecently 
feasted  the  nobles  and  the  clergy ;  but  his  joy  was  checked 
by  the  intelligence  of  a  new  election ;  and  while  he  enjoyed 
the  wealth  of  Alexandria,  his  rivals  reigned  in  the  monaste- 
ries of  Thebais,  and  were  maintained  by  the  voluntary  obla- 
tions of  the  people.  A  perpetual  succession  of  patriarchs 
arose  from  the  ashes  of  Theodosius;  and  the  Monophysite 
churches  of  Syria  and  Egypt  were  united  by  the  name  of 
Jacobites  and  the  communion  of  the  faith.  But  the  same 
faith,  which  has  been  confined  to  a  narrow  sect  of  the  Syri- 
ans, was  diffused  over  the  mass  of  the  Egyptian  or  Coptic  na- 
tion, who  almost  unanimously  rejected  the  decrees  of  the  Syn- 
od of  Chalcedon.  A  thousand  years  were  now  elapsed  since 
Egypt  had  ceased  to  be  a  kingdom,  since  the  conquerors  of 
Asia  and  Europe  had  trampled  on  the  ready  necks  of  a  peo- 
ple whose  ancient  wisdom  and  power  ascends  beyond  the  rec- 
ords of  history.  The  conflict  of  zeal  and  persecution  rekin- 
dled some  sparks  of  their  national  spirit.  They  abjured,  with 
a  foreign  heresy,  the  manners  and  language  of  the  Greeks : 
every  Melchite,  in  their  eyes,  was  a  stranger,  every  Jacobite 


A.D.  625-<561.]    BENJAMIN,  THE  JACOBITE  PATRIARCH-  709 

a  citizen ;  the  alliance  of  marriage,  the  offices  of  humanity, 
were  condemned  as  a  deadly  sin ;  the  natives  renounced  all 
allegiance  to  the  emperor ;  and  his  orders,  at  a  distance  from 
Alexandria,  were  obeyed  only  under  the  pressure  of  military 
force.  A  generous  effort  might  have  redeemed  the  religion 
and  liberty  of  Egypt,  and  her  six  hundred  monasteries  might 
have  poured  forth  their  myriads  of  holy  warriors,  for  whom 
death  should  have  no  terrors,  since  life  had  no  comfort  or  de- 
light. But  experience  has  proved  the  distinction  of  active 
and  passive  courage :  the  fanatic  who  endures  without  a  groan 
the  torture  of  the  rack  or  the  stake,  would  tremble  and  fly  be- 
fore the  face  of  an  armed  enemy.  The  pusillanimous  temper 
of  the  Egyptians  could  only  hope  for  a  change  of  masters; 
the  arms  of  Chosroes  depopulated  the  land,  yet  under  his 
reign  the  Jacobites  enjoyed  a  short  and  precarious  respite. 
The  victory  of  Heraclius  renewed  and  aggravated  the  perse- 
cution, and  the  patriarch  again  escaped  from  Alexandria  to 
the  desert.  In  his  flight,  Benjamin  was  encouraged  by  a 
Benjamin  voice  which  bade  him  expect,  at  the  end  of  ten 
jmtrfarchblte  years,  the  aid  of  a  foreign  nation,  marked,  like  the 
a.d.62£m>6i.  Egyptians  themselves,  with  the  ancient  rite  of  cir- 
cumcision. The  character  of  these  deliverers,  and  the  nature 
of  the  deliverance,  will  be  hereafter  explained ;  and  I  shall 
step  over  the  interval  of  eleven  centuries  to  observe  the  pres- 
ent misery  of  the  Jacobites  of  Egypt.  The  populous  city  of 
Cairo  affords  a  residence,  or  rather  a  shelter,  for  their  indi- 
gent patriarch  and  a  remnant  of  ten  bishops ;  forty  monaste- 
ries have  survived  the  inroads  of  the  Arabs ;  and  the  progress 
of  servitude  and  apostasy  has  reduced  the  Coptic  nation  to 
the  despicable  number  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  thousand  fam- 
ilies ;"8  a  race  of  illiterate  beggars,  whose  only  consolation  is 


148  This  number  is  taken  from  the  curious  Recherches  sur  les  Egyptiens  et  lea 
Cbinois  (torn.  ii.  p.  192, 193),  and  appears  more  probable  than  the  600,000  ancient 
or  15,000  modern  Copts  of  Gemelli  Carreri.  Cyril  Lucar,  the  Protestant  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  laments  that  those  heretics  were  ten  times  more  numerous 
than  bis  orthodox  Greeks,  ingeniously  applying  the  iroWai  ksv  Sacadte  SevoiaT» 
oivo\ooto  of  Homer  (Iliad  ii.  128),  the  most  perfect  expression  of  contempt  (Ear 
brie.  Lux  Evangelii,  740> 


710  THE  ABYSSINIANS  AND  NUBIANS.  [Ch.  XLVIL 

derived  from  the  superior  wretchedness  of  the  Greek  patri* 
arch  and  his  diminutive  congregation.149 

VI.  The  Coptic  patriarch,  a  rebel  to  the  Csesars,  or  a  slave 
to  the  Caliphs,  still  gloried  in  the  filial  obedience  of  the  kings 

of  Nubia  and  ^Ethiopia.  He  repaid  their  homage 
BimiNBAND    by  magnifying  their  greatness;  and  it  was  boldly 

asserted  that  they  could  bring  into  the  field  a  hun- 
dred thousand  horse,  with  an  equal  number  of  camels  ;16°  that 
their  hand  could  pour  or  restrain  the  waters  of  the  Nile  ;,u 
and  the  peace  and  plenty  of  Egypt  was  obtained,  even  in  this 
world,  by  the  intercession  of  the  patriarch.  In  exile  at  Con- 
stantinople, Theodosius  recommended  to  his  patroness  the 
conversion  of  the  black  nations  of  Nubia,  from  the  Tropic  of 
Cancer  to  the  confines  of  Abyssinia.1"  Her  design  was  sus- 
pected and  emulated  by  the  more  orthodox  emperor.  The 
rival  missionaries,  a  Melchite  and  a  Jacobite,  embarked  at  the 
same  time ;  but  the  empress,  from  a  motive  of  love  or  fear, 

149  The  history  of  the  Copts,  their  religion,  manners,  etc.,  may  he  found  in  the 
Abbe-  Eenaudot's  motley  work,  neither  a  translation  nor  an  original ;  the  Chroni- 
con  Orientale  of  Peter,  a  Jacobite  ;  in  the  two  versions  of  Abraham  Ecchellensis, 
Paris,  1651 ;  and  John  Simon  Asseman,  Venet.  1729.  These  annals  descend  no 
lower  than  the  thirteenth  century.  The  more  recent  accounts  must  be  searched 
for  in  the  travellers  into  Egypt,  and  the  Nouveaux  Me'moires  des  Missions  du  Le- 
vant. In  the  last  century  Joseph  Abudacnus,  a  native  of  Cairo,  published  at  Ox- 
ford, in  thirty  pages,  a  slight  Historia  Jacobitarum,  147,  post  150. 

160  About  the  year  737.  See  Kenaudot,  Hist.  Patriarch.  Alex.  p.  221,  222;  El- 
macin.  Hist.  Saracen,  p.  99. 

161  Ludolph.  Hist.  iEthiopic.  et  Comment.  1.  i.  c.  8 ;  Renaudot,  Hist.  Patriarch. 
Alex.  p.  480,  etc.  This  opinion,  introduced  into  Egypt  and  Europe  by  the  arti- 
fice of  the  Copts,  the  pride  of  the  Abyssinians,  the  fear  and  ignorance  of  the  Turks 
and  Arabs,  has  not  even  the  semblance  of  truth.  The  rains  of  ^Ethiopia  do  not, 
in  the  increase  of  the  Nile,  consult  the  will  of  the  monarch.  If  the  river  approach- 
es at  Napata  within  three  days' journey  of  the  Red  Sea  (see  D'Anville's  Maps),  a 
canal  that  should  divert  its  course  would  demand,  and  most  probably  surpass,  the 
power  of  the  Cagsars. 

152  The  Abyssinians,  who  still  preserve  the  features  and  olive  complexion  of  the 
Arabs,  afford  a  proof  that  two  thousand  years  are  not  sufficient  to  change  the  col- 
or of  the  human  race.  The  Nubians,  an  African  race,  are  pare  negroes,  as  black 
as  those  of  Senegal  or  Congo,  with  flat  noses,  thick  lips,  and  woolly  hair  (Buffon, 
Hist.  Naturelle,  torn.  v.  p.  117,  143,  144,  166,  219,  edit,  in  12mo,  Paris,  1769). 
The  ancients  beheld,  without  much  attention,  the  extraordinary  phenomenon  which 
has  exercised  the  philosophers  and  theologians  of  modern 


A.D.  530.]  CHURCH  OF  ABYSSINIA.  7ll 

was  more  effectually  obeyed ;  and  the  Catholic  priest  was  de- 
tained by  the  President  of  Thebais,  while  the  King  of  Nubia 
and  his  court  were  hastily  baptized  in  the  faith  of  Dioscorus. 
The  tardy  envoy  of  Justinian  was  received  and  dismissed 
with  honor;  but  when  he  accused  the  heresy  and  treason  of 
the  Egyptians,  the  negro  convert  was  instructed  to  reply  that 
he  would  never  abandon  his  brethren,  the  true  believers,  to 
the  persecuting  ministers  of  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon."*  Dur- 
ing several  ages  the  bishops  of  Nubia  were  named  and  conse- 
crated by  the  Jacobite  patriarch  of  Alexandria :  as  late  as  the 
twelfth  century  Christianity  prevailed ;  and  some  rites,  some 
ruins,  are  still  visible  in  the  savage  towns  of  Sennaar  and 
Dongola.,M  But  the  Nubians  at  length  executed  their  threats 
of  returning  to  the  worship  of  idols ;  the  climate  required  the 
indulgence  of  polygamy,  and  they  have  finally  preferred  the 
triumph  of  the  Koran  to  the  abasement  of  the  Cross.  A  met- 
aphysical religion  may  appear  too  refined  for  the  capacity  of 
the  negro  race :  yet  a  black  or  a  parrot  might  be  taught  to 
repeat  the  words  of  the  Chalcedonian  or  Monophysite  creed. 
Christianity  was  more  deeply  rooted  in  the  Abyssinian  em- 
pire ;  and,  although  the  correspondence  has  been  sometimes 
interrupted  above  seventy  or  a  hundred  years,  the 
Abyseinia.      mother-church  of  Alexandria  retains  her  colony  in 

a.».  530,  etc  .  ■* 

a  state  of  perpetual  pupilage.  Seven  bishops  once 
composed  the  ^Ethiopic  synod :  had  their  number  amounted 
to  ten,  they  might  have  elected  an  independent  primate ;  and 
one  of  their  kings  was  ambitious  of  promoting  his  brother 
to  the  ecclesiastical  throne.  But  the  event  was  foreseen,  the 
increase  was  denied ;  the  episcopal  office  has  been  gradually 
confined  to  the  aouna,"'*  the  head  and  author  of  the  Abyssin- 

168  Asseman.  Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  i.  p.  329. 

,M  The  Christianity  of  the  Nubians,  a.d.  1153,  is  attested  by  the  sheriff  Al 
Edrisi,  falsely  described  under  the  name  of  the  Nubian  geographer  (p.  18),  who 
represents  them  as  a  nation  of  Jacobites.  The  rays  of  historical  light  that  twinkle 
in  the  history  of  Renaudot  (p.  178,  220-224,  281-286,  405,  434,  451,  464)  are  all 
previous  to  this  era.  See  the  modern  state  in  the  Lettres  Edifiantes  (Recueil,  iv.) 
and  Busching  (torn.  ix.  p.  152-159,  par  Berenger). 

165  The  abuna  is  improperly  dignified  by  the  Latins  with  the  title  of  patriarch. 
The  Abyssinians  acknowledge  only  the  four  patriarchs,  and  their  chief  is  no  more 
than  a  m  +  opolitan  or  national  primate  (Ludolph.  Hist.  JEthiopic.  et  Comment. 


T12  THE  PORTUGUESE  IN  ABYSSINIA.         [Ch.  XL VII. 

ian  priesthood ;  the  patriarch  supplies  each  vacancy  with  an 
Egyptian  monk ;  and  the  character  of  a  stranger  appears  more 
venerable  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  less  dangerous  in  those 
of  the  monarch.  In  the  sixth  century,  when  the  schism  of 
Egypt  was  confirmed,  the  rival  chiefs,  with  their  patrons  Jus- 
tinian and  Theodora,  strove  to  outstrip  each  other  in  the  con- 
quest of  a  remote  and  independent  province.  The  industry 
of  the  empress  was  again  victorious,  and  the  pious  Theodora 
has  established  in  that  sequestered  church  the  faith  and  disci- 
pline of  the  Jacobites.169  Encompassed  on  all  sides  by  the  en- 
emies of  their  religion,  the  ^Ethiopians  slept  near  a  thousand 
years,  forgetful  of  the  world,  by  whom  they  were  forgotten. 
They  were  awakened  by  the  Portuguese,  who,  turn- 
gueseiu  ing;  the  southern  promontory  of  Africa,  appeared 
a.d.1525-       in  India  and  the  Red  Sea,  as  if  they  had  descended 

lS60,etc.  .     ,  '  J 

through  the  air  from  a  distant  planet.  In  the  first 
moments  of  their  interview,  the  subjects  of  Rome  and  Alex- 
andria observed  the  resemblance  rather  than  the  difference  of 
their  faith ;  and  each  nation  expected  the  most  important  ben- 
efits from  an  alliance  with  their  Christian  brethren.  In  their 
lonely  situation  the  ^Ethiopians  had  almost  relapsed  into  the 
savage  life.  Their  vessels,  which  had  traded  to  Ceylon,  scarce- 
ly presumed  to  navigate  the  rivers  of  Africa ;  the  ruins  of 
Axume  were  deserted,  the  nation  was  scattered  in  villages, 
and  the  emperor,  a  pompous  name,  was  content,  both  in  peace 
and  war,  with  the  immovable  residence  of  a  camp.  Con- 
scious of  their  own  indigence,  the  Abyssinians  had  formed  the 
rational  project  of  importing  the  arts  and  ingenuity  of  Eu- 
rope ;m  and  their  ambassadors  at  Rome  and  Lisbon  were  in- 
structed to  solicit  a  colony  of  smiths,  carpenters,  tilers,  masons, 

1.  iii.  c.  7).  The  seven  bishops  of  Renaudot  (p.  511),  who  existed  a.d.  1131,  are 
unknown  to  the  historian. 

m  I  know  not  why  Assemannus  (Biblioth.  Orient,  torn.  ii.  p.  384)  should  call 
in  question  these  probable  missions  of  Theodora  into  Nubia  and  ^Ethiopia.  The 
slight  notices  of  Abyssinia  till  the  year  1500  are  supplied  by  Renaudot  (p.  336- 
341,  381,  382,  405,  443,  etc.,  452,  456,  463,  475,  480,  511,  525,  559-564)  from  the 
Coptic  writers.     The  mind  of  Ludolphus  was  a  perfect  blank. 

151  Ludolph.  Hist.  iEthiop.  1.  iv.  c.  5.  The  most  necessary  arts  are  now  exercised 
by  the  Jews,  and  the  foreign  trade  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Armenians.  What  Greg- 
ory principally  admired  and  envied  was  the  industry  of  Europe — "artes  et  opificia.* 


A.D.1557.]  MISSION  OF  THE  JESUITS.  713 

printers,  surgeons,  and  physicians,  for  the  use  of  their  coun- 
try. But  the  public  danger  soon  called  for  the  instant  and 
effectual  aid  of  arms  and  soldiers  to  defend  an  unwarlike  peo- 
ple from  the  barbarians  who  ravaged  the  inland  country,  and 
the  Turks  and  Arabs  who  advanced  from  the  sea -coast  in 
more  formidable  array.  ^Ethiopia  was  saved  by  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Portuguese,  who  displayed  in  the  field  the  na- 
tive valor  of  Europeans,  and  the  artificial  powers  of  the  mus- 
ket and  cannon.  In  a  moment  of  terror  the  emperor  had 
promised  to  reconcile  himself  and  his  subjects  to  the  Catho- 
lic faith ;  a  Latin  patriarch  represented  the  supremacy  of  the 
pope  ;168  the  empire,  enlarged  in  a  tenfold  proportion,  was  sup- 
posed to  contain  more  gold  than  the  mines  of  America ;  and 
the  wildest  hopes  of  avarice  and  zeal  were  built  on  the  will- 
ing submission  of  the  Christians  of  Africa. 

But  the  vows  which  pain  had  extorted  were  forsworn  on 
the  return  of  health.  The  Abyssinians  still  adhered  with 
unshaken  constancy  to  the  Monophysite  faith ;  their 
the  Jesuits,  languid  belief  was  inflamed  by  the  exercise  of  dis- 
pute ;  they  branded  the  Latins  with  the  names  of 
Arians  and  Nestorians,  and  imputed  the  adoration  of  four 
gods  to  those  who  separated  the  two  natures  of  Christ.  Fre- 
mona,  a  place  of  worship,  or  rather  of  exile,  was  assigned  to 
the  Jesuit  missionaries.  Their  skill  in  the  liberal  and  me- 
chanic arts,  their  theological  learning,  and  the  decency  of  their 
manners,  inspired  a  barren  esteem ;  but  they  were  not  en- 
dowed with  the  gift  of  miracles,16*  and  they  vainly  solicited 
a  reinforcement  of  European  troops.  The  patience  and  dex- 
terity of  forty  years  at  length  obtained  a  more  favorable  au- 
dience, and  two  emperors  of  Abyssinia  were  persuaded  that 
Rome  could  insure  the  temporal  and  everlasting  happiness 

168  John  Bermudez,  whose  relation,  printed  at  Lisbon,  1569,  was  translated  into 
English  by  Pui-chas  (Pilgrims,  1.  vii.  c.  7,  p.  1149,  etc.),  and  from  thence  into  French 
by  La  Croze  (Christianisme  d'Ethiopie,  p.  92-265).  The  piece  is  curious ;  but  the 
author  may  be  suspected  of  deceiving  Abyssinia,  Rome,  and  Portugal.  His  title  to 
the  rank  of  patriarch  is  dark  and  doubtful  (Ludolph.  Comment.  No.  101,  p.  473). 

159  "Religio  Romana  *  *  *  nee  precibus  patrum  nee  miraculis  ab  ipsis  editia 
suffulciebatur,"  is  the  uncontradicted  assurance  of  the  devout  Emperor  Susneus  to 
his  patriarch  Mendez  (Ludolph.  Comment.  No.  126,  p.  529)  ;  and  such  assurances 
should  be  preciously  kept  as  an  antidote  against  any  marvellous  legends. . 


71  J:    CONVERSION  OF  THE  EMPEROR  OF  ABYSSINIA.  [Ch.XLVIL 

of  her  votaries.  The  first  of  these  royal  converts  lost  his 
crown  and  his  life ;  and  the  rebel  army  was  sanctified  by  the 
abuna,  who  hurled  an  anathema  at  the  apostate  and  absolved 
his  subjects  from  their  oath  of  fidelity.  The  fate  of  Zadenghel 
,vas  revenged  by  the  courage  and  fortune  of  Susneus,  who 
ascended  the  throne  under  the  name  of  Segued,  and  more  vig- 
orously prosecuted  the  pious  enterprise  of  his  kinsman.  Af- 
ter the  amusement  of  some  unequal  combats  between  the  Jes- 
uits and  his  illiterate  priests,  the  emperor  declared  himself  a 
proselyte  to  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon,  presuming  that  his  clergy 
and  people  would  embrace  without  delay  the  religion  of  their 
prince.  The  liberty  of  choice  was  succeeded  by  a  law  which 
imposed,  under  pain  of  death,  the  belief  of  the  two  natures  of 
Christ :  the  Abyssinians  were  enjoined  to  work  and  to  play 
on  the  Sabbath ;  and  Segued,  in  the  face  of  Europe  and  Af- 
rica, renounced  his  connection  with  the  Alexandrian  Church, 
conversion  A  Jesuit,  Alphonso  Mendez,  the  Catholic  patriarch 
pero' em'  of  ^Ethiopia,  accepted,  in  the  name  of  Urban  VIII., 
a.d.1626.  ^e  hoinage  and  abjuration  of  his  penitent.  "I 
confess,"  said  the  emperor  on  his  knees — "I  confess  that  the 
pope  is  the  vicar  of  Christ,  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  the 
sovereign  of  the  world.  To  him  I  swear  true  obedience,  and 
at  his  feet  I  offer  my  person  and  kingdom."  A  similar  oath 
was  repeated  by  his  son,  his  brother,  the  clergy,  the  nobles, 
and  even  the  ladies  of  the  court :  the  Latin  patriarch  was  in- 
vested with  honors  and  wealth ;  and  his  missionaries  erected 
their  churches  or  citadels  in  the  most  convenient  stations  of 
the  empire.  The  Jesuits  themselves  deplore  the  fatal  indis- 
cretion of  their  chief,  who  forgot  the  mildness  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  policy  of  his  order,  to  introduce  with  hasty  violence 
the  liturgy  of  Rome  and  the  inquisition  of  Portugal.  He 
condemned  the  ancient  practice  of  circumcision,  which  health 
rather  than  superstition  had  first  invented  in  the  climate  of 
Ethiopia.160    A  new  baptism,  a  new  ordination,  was  inflicted 

160  I  am  aware  how  tender  is  the  question  of  circumcision.  Yet  I  will  affirm, 
1.  That  the  ^Ethiopians  have  a  physical  reason  for  the  circumcision  of  males,  and 
even  of  females  (Recherches  Philosophiquts  sur  les  Americains,  torn.  ii.).  2. 
That  it  was  practised  in  ^Ethiopia  long  before  the  introduction  of  Judaism  OJ 
Christianity  (Herodot,  J,  ii.  c.  104 ;  Marsham,  Canon  Chron.  p.  72,  73).    "  Infantes 


AJ>.1632.]         FINAL  EXPULSION  OF  THE  JESUITS.  715 

on  the  natives ;  and  they  trembled  with  horror  when  the  most 
holy  of  the  dead  were  torn  from  their  graves,  when  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  living  were  excommunicated  by  a  foreign 
priest.  In  the  defence  of  their  religion  and  liberty  the  Abys- 
sinians  rose  in  arms,  with  desperate  but  unsuccessful  zeal. 
Five  rebellions  were  extinguished  in  the  blood  of  the  insur- 
gents :  two  abunas  were  slain  in  battle ;  whole  legions  were 
slaughtered  in  the  field  or  suffocated  in  their  caverns;  and 
neither  merit,  nor  rank,  nor  sex  could  save  from  an  ignomin- 
ious death  the  enemies  of  Rome.  But  the  victorious  mon- 
arch was  finally  subdued  by  the  constancy  of  the  nation,  of 
his  mother,  of  his  son,  and  of  his  most  faithful  friends.  Se- 
gued listened  to  the  voice  of  pity,  of  reason,  perhaps  of  fear: 
and  his  edict  of  liberty  of  conscience  instantly  revealed  the 
tyranny  and  weakness  of  the  Jesuits.  On  the  death  of  his 
father,  Basilides  expelled  the  Latin  patriarch,  and  restored  to 
Final  expui-  *ue  wishes  of  the  nation  the  faith  and  discipline 
jesnitithe  °f  Egypt.  The  Monophysite  churches  resounded 
a.b.  1632, etc.  witb  a  song  0f  triumph,  "that  the  sheep  of  ^Ethi- 
opia were  now  delivered  from  the  hyenas  of  the  West ;"  and 
the  gates  of  that  solitary  realm  were  forever  shut  against  the 
arts,  the  science,  and  the  fanaticism  of  Europe.1'1 

circumcidunt  ob  consuetudinem  non  ob  Judaismum,"  says  Gregory,  the  Abyssinian 
priest  (apud  Fabric.  Lux  Christiana,  p.  720).  Yet,  in  the  heat  of  dispute,  the 
Portuguese  were  sometimes  branded  with  the  name  of  uncircumcised  (La  Croze, 
p.  80 ;  Ludolph.  Hist,  and  Comment.  1.  iii.  c.  1). 

161  The  three  Protestant  historians,  Ludolphus  (Hist.  JSthiopica,  Francofurt, 
1681;  Commentarius,  1691 ;  Relatio  Nova,  etc.,  1693,  in  folio),  Geddes  (Church 
History  of  ^Ethiopia,  London,  1696,  in  8vo),  and  La  Croze  (Hist,  du  Christianisme 
d'Ethiopie  et  d'Armenie,  La  Haye,  1739,  in  12mo),have  drawn  their  principal  ma- 
terials from  the  Jesuits,  especially  from  the  General  History  of  Tellez,  published 
in  Portuguese  at  Coimbra,  1660.  We  might  be  surprised  at  their  frankness ;  but 
their  most  flagitious  vice,  the  spirit  of  persecution,  was  in  their  eyes  the  most  meri- 
torious virtue.  Ludolphus  possessed  some,  though  a  slight,  advantage  from  the 
iEthiopic  language,  and  the  personal  conversation  of  Gregory,  a  free-spirited 
Abyssinian  priest,  whom  he  invited  from  Rome  to  the  court  of  Saxe-Gotha.  Sea 
the  Theologia  iEthiopica  of  Gregory,  in  Fabricius,  Lux  Evangelii,  p.  71 6-734.  ■ 


*  The  travels  of  Bruce,  illustrated  by  those  of  Mr.  Salt,  and  the  narrative  of 
Nathaniel  Pearce,  have  brought  us  again  acquainted  with  this  remote  region. 
Whatever  may  be  their  speculative  opinions,  the  barbarous  manners  of  the  iEthi- 
opians  seem  to  be  gaining  more  and  more  the  ascendency  over  the  practice  of 
Christianity. — M. 

'  END  OP  VOL.  IV. 


University  of 
Connecticut 

Libraries 


